Hi fellow Chiff&Fipplers
I have scoured the forum for advice and discussion on home recording setups involving laptops / pcs, but many of the posts are over 5 years old now, which is eons in the world of technology, so I thought I would raise a fresh post on the topic.
The mission:
- I am looking to record whiste tracks, with guitar and potentially later, vocals too.
- Recording will occur in a quiet room in my home (maybe bathroom or hallway for acoustics)
- My budget is $500 Australian dollars. (could be stretched a little, but not broken)
- I want to burn tracks to cd and get the best quality for my equipment price range
What do I have now?
- New Acer laptop, intel 2.2 GHz dual core processor, 64 bit operating system, 3 gig ram
- Willingness to learn
Current Planned purchases (based on the sharings on this forum)
- M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB Audio Interface (incl editing software & pre-amps) $AUD269
- Shure SM57 / or SM58 (not shure which one - pardon the pun) $AUD160
- Excuse my inexperience on these matters, but I don’t know what else is required beyond this.
Any constructive comments on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
I used a similar setup until I got a Mac, except
I had Windows XP at the time. I ended up having
to turn off WiFi when I was recording or I would
get clicks in the audio track. I think the OS was
prioritizing network traffic over USB traffic. I
probably could have played with the MAudio’s
buffer size, but I never got around to it. The Mac
works perfectly. I bet Windows 7 probably does
a better job. I should give it a try on my new
Win7 laptop soon.
The MAudio FastTrack Pro did not have enough
gain for me on the mic interface. I would turn
the gain all the way up on the MAudio, and the
recording in Cakewalk would still be pretty quiet.
I eventually added an ART Tube MP preamp before
the MAudio and it gave me enough amplification
to get some really good mic recordings for vocal,
whistle, and guitar.
ART also makes a Tube MP with USB interface.
I’m wondering if it would do a better job of
preamping before sending to USB. Might save
me some knob-turning. It’s 1/2 the cost of the
M-Audio (but only has one input).
Take a look at the Zoom H4n.
It makes exceptional quality recordings and functions as a multi-track recorder and mixer as well. It even has models for guitar amps built in, though I haven’t tried them.
The H4n can also function as a USB microphone for occasions where you want to record onto the PC. At some point you might want to get a phantom powered condensor (especially for the guitar). The H4n has XLR connectors and can supply 48v phantom power – nifty trick considering the AA power source.
Anyway, it’s currently selling for us$300, which is about au$336.
There are more options for PC based recording than you can imagine. The PC you describe will do fine. You need a mic, a pre-amp to bring the mic output up to an acceptable level, an interface to go between the preamp and the PC as well as multi-track recording software. The M-Audio Fastrack Pro comes with everything you need but a mic. Since I do not own that piece of hardware I would defer to fearfaoin’s experience with the Fastrack gear. On paper it looks as though it should work though. I’ve used M-Audio gear, like the Audio Buddy, etc., in the past and it was decent gear for the price. I have used the Shure 57/58’s for 40 years or more - no complaints. I prefer the 57 overall - you can add a windscreen if you need one. It’s all personal preference in the end. You’ll need software. If you go the Fastrack route, you’ll get Ableton Live Lite. That should get you started.
You might consider another set-up which should stay within your budget. Something like a Studio Projects C1 or similar mic (~$200US), a Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer (~$70US)with a UCA222 interface (~$35US) and a decent software package. I like Cakewalk’s products. I use Sonar PE 8.5 presently but that’s beyond your budget. Sonar Home Studio XL should do the trick(~$99US). I’ve used Cubase, Cool Edit, Pro Tools, nTracks, Traction and other packages to good effect as well. Another inexpensive package with a decent starter feature set is PowerTracks Pro Audio from PGMusic ($50US). I could go deep into my reasoning but I’ll skip that for now. Others will have opinions I am sure.
Have fun.
Feadoggie
Thanks for all for your input to my question.
You’re right in saying there are a huge range of options available for recording to laptop / computer. I’m coming in green, so the mic & audio interface (with pre-amp) option seemed like a simple set-up from the info I’ve read so far.
For now, I think I need to learn more about this gear and the recording process before I jump into the equipment market (not to mention polish up my whistle playing).
I can probably get started with my cheap usb mic and Audacity and start understanding the process and listen to my playing for self analysis. It may only last a month, but that might be a valuable period to find the right gear and save some extra cash.
In the meantime, I’m looking into the gear suggested.
Many thanks