New to recording, what do i need.

you can search GNs forums for many specific topics or phrases.
check out the list of threads and see if quite a few of them do not address your question, believe me this has been asked many times before.
then focus your next thread on specific questions about the gear or programs you are considering.
it will save us all a lot of time and answer your question much more quickly :wink:

start with audacity or Kristal as a free recording program, look into mixers, usb or alternative hardware for recording, mics,
etc. it's really not that expensive to get started.
good luck!

We really need to make a 'how to start recording' sticky/FAQ.

Anyway: how much is 'a couple of hundred' exactly and what are your needs? Do you want to record all instruments in one time or each instrument seperately, one at a time? What quality are you shooting for, what do you plan to do with the recordings? There's so much stuff, we really need to know what you want exactly.

I dont want to spend much over 200. And I would rather record all the instruments at once
Is there a cheap way to do this? but i wouldnt mind doing them one at a time if its easier that way. That actually might even be better.

And im sorry that i didnt search more, i really didnt know where to start.

I'll take a shot at this, since I've been reading a lot about this recently (and I posted a thread about it :)

The most basic way to record (into a computer) would be:

microphone -> xlr to xlr cable -> xlr to 1/4 transformer -> microphone input on sound card in computer -> audacity

cost:
*microphone ($100 for a Shure SM57, $30 for the Behringer copy)
*cable ($20)
*transformer because microphones are often low-impedance/Z and the input to your sound card is high-impendance/Z($15 at Radio Shack or Guitar Center)
*sound card (presumably on computer)
*audacity (free) - this allows you to record different tracks and mix them together.
*mic stand with boom ($30 at guitar center or online). Microphones often need to be a certain distance and pointing in a certain direction towards your instrument.

So, you could probably pay $95 at minimum and you can record 1 track at a time.

The quality of this setup might not be great. In particular, the weak link in the chain is probably the sound card, because the analog-to-digital conversion on your standard sound card might not be too good. However, you might try this and see that it's not too bad.

You can always pay more to upgrade the different parts of your chain. The simplest upgrade is to swap out the sound card for something with better a-to-d conversion. There are many units that allow you to do this. You can buy a new sound card (the Audigy 2 Value) that goes in a PCI slot in your computer. This would give you 24bits at 96 khz. Or you can buy a usb or firewire device that allows you to plug your microphone cable directly into it (without a transformer) like the M-Audio FastTrack USB for $100 or the pro version for $200. The Edirol UA4FX for about $200 is also fine. (I don't have any of these, but people sound happy with them).

If you wanted to record all your friends at once, you could even buy microphones for everyone, plug that into a mixer, which would then go to your sound device (sound card, usb device, or firewire device). That would cost more, though.

Thanks that helps a lot.

couple more questions though.

Would I have to be in the room w/ the computer? This could create some difficulties, but if thats the way it has to be, thats the way it has to be.
Also, when i plug my bass into my computer (I just kindof plugged it into a mic jack i think), when i record with audacity, i get some fuzzy noises like im going off the chart, is there a way to fix this?

If you have a long enough mic cable, I don't think you need to be in the same room as the computer. You'd also need a way to hit the 'record' button on your computer remotely, or, you could hit the button, and run to the room with your instruments :)

All the stuff I wrote before assumes you are mic-ing your instruments, so you'd point the mic at the output of the bass amp.

I'm not sure what you need to do if you plug your guitar or bass directly in. I think I did that once with my strat when I didn't have a guitar amp. I don't think the impedences match (or something) so it won't sound very good.

Maybe someone else knows?

Also, there's a lot of stuff about the acoustics of the room (one artist I know, Vienna Teng, used pillows from ikea to muffle the room) that we haven't really gone into (that I don't know about) but you might care about eventually.

Okay so ive decided its probably better to mic everything than to jack straight into my computer. And... GUITAR CENTER IS HAVING A MASSIVE SUMMER SALE! I can get 3 condenser mics for 100 dollars so im thinking about doing this. If i get mics, what else would i need. Heres what i know that i want to get.

The 3 condenser mics
a couple mic stands
1 shure sm58 (might get this from a trade)
I have audacity

Okay, now for setting this up, what else would i need. What do you buy so that you can plug all the mics into the computer? I am so confused. :?

All the info I gave you is for one-track-at-a-time. If you do want to record everyone at once, you can get a mixer.

I've heard the Yamaha MG10/2 for $100 http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/mixers/mg10_2/ is nice. The Yamaha doesn't have any digital effects, but below $100 the effects you are getting are not that great anyways. I think Behringer makes a very cheap, good mixer for less (I think around $50).

Condenser mics need phantom power, which the mixer will give you (and I think 4 mic inputs at a time). This means that it'll combine all the audio for you, and you'll get it as one signal going into the computer (with left and right channels). I think this might make it easier if you aren't used to doing one track at a time, but it makes it harder to go back and just redo the drums, or the guitar, or the vocals.

For $200, Yamaha makes a mixer that goes into USB, the MW10 http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/03/yamaha-mw10-mw12-usb-mixing-studio/ which has usb out. This has the effect of giving you a better analog-to-digital conversion by skipping the input on your sound card and sending the signal over USB.

Let me add that I don't do this: I have a simple mic to my laptop :) You might want other people's opinions.

Thanks, this helped a lot.

but is there any way to set it up with audacity or something so it recognizes each input as a seperate signal so that i can edit certain things ie. re-doing drums etc.?

Heres what i have planned so far

3 condenser mic package - $100
Ultimate MC-40 mic stand w/ boom- $35
Behringer Eurorack UB1002 mixer - $50
Assorted cables -$60(?)

would that work?

You can buy devices that let you do this, but I think they usually work with specialized software, like ProTools, or Cubase.

I think if you get a device that just exposes to Windows or Mac more microphone and line inputs (through USB or firewire) then *maybe* something like Audacity could handle it.

I'm not really familiar with them. Someone else should jump in who does this thing for real!

Well that can be done at a later time, for now how does my set up look?

As long as your sound card has a line in you should be good to go, I think.

You can't get multiple tracks unless you have multiple line ins. If you're going to single-track everything you don't need a mixer.

so get a preamp thing instead?

the setup you have would work, yes, but its all about getting equiptment thats right for you, and does what you need it to do.

The first thing your giong to have to decide is if your going to lay all the parts down at once, or one at a time.

If you want to do it all at once then you need as many mics and inputs on your mixer as instruments you want to 'mic', vocals included. Your UB1002 only has 2 mic inputs so you can only use 2 mics at a time, but you can plug your guitar into the other inputs.
As redpoint says, even if your using 2 mics at once and say, 2 guitars plugged straight into the mixer, it will all come out as one track in audacity, so you cant add individual effects to each part if thats what you want to do.

If you want to lay it all down at once, then id probably recommend a cheap 3 set of behringer dynamic mics, a behringer mixer with 2 or 4 mic inputs (depending on how many mics you want at once) and then the neccessary cable, then you just plug it in to the line in in your soundcard and bobs your mothers brother. Dyanmic mics are less sensitive and more durable (generally) the sound quality isnt as good, but they pick up less noise. If your just jamming and not actually trying to get recording quality then it would probably be a better bet. But the cheap condensors may do the job just fine, im not sure. I think its easier to get decent sound quality with less effort from dyanmic mics.

Do yourself a favour and read http://tweakheadz.com/guide.htm before you buy anything. That site is really good. As ive said before, it doesnt have all the answers but it gives you enough knowledge to ask the right questions.

and good luck!