Digital Home Recording

Tell me your computer set up with RAM and harddisc space available. There are a number of ways you can go for a desk top computer.

If you want great quality stay away from SoundBlaster. If your goal is to do MP3 files that would be fine. If you are looking at CD redbook wav files then you must move up.

At the least try an MAudio 2496 ($99) sound card that will give you I/O. Decent recording software is Sony Sound Forge for about $80. If you are just archiving "owned" music from cassette or LPs this is very good.

Remember in wav format (cd redbook) each minute of stereo audio is slightly more than 1 meg of memory. You may need to get a larger HD depending upon how much music you want to store.

If you really want to step up then the Digital AudioLabs Card Delux ($399) is the ticket and I believe it comes bundles with some usable software. This would produce quality wav files that can rival any commercial CD.

There are other firewire and USB I/O options as well. Try www.musiciansfriend.com or www.samash.com or www.sweetwater.com . You can call Sweetwater and get great phone advise.

If you want to record with some mics and need only 4 mic inputs you can try the small $99 Yamaha mic mixer 10/2. Much better quality is the Mackie 1202 at $399. Behringer also makes some affordable mixers, but they and the Yamaha are below the mic preamps in the Mackie.

 

Inexpensive and 4-8 tracks do not go together.

You might try an inexpensive TASCAM 4 or 8 track cassette based machine for recording and add the great but cheap Alesis drum machine for $150. I think Yamaha makes one in this price range as well. Check EBay for used ones to start with.

These recorders have built in mixers that will take the 4 or 8 tracks you record and mix them to 2 for computer input. There are some digital ones as well but are more money. Many have external CD burners available. Tascam has these as well. Check out their web site. Some of the 8 track machines only let you record 4 tracks at a time, so be careful.

The M-Audio Delta 44 card will give you 4 channels of computer input. You will still need a mixer and mics if your goal is to record live music and the need for the drum machine is obvious.

If you are talking about getting 8 tracks of audio into your computer it cannot be done for $200 and a free drum machine.

To begin with you could try the $99 yamaha mixer 10/2 that has 4 balanced mic preamps and 3 stereo line input channels. 2 could be used for a stereo drum machine, 2 for a keyboard, and you have 2 left for something else.

If you have a older cassette recorder player you can take the output of the Yamaha and do analogue recording for practice sessions. I think this Yamaha mixer, or something like it is where you need to start. Even a Soundblaster sound card can take the analogue output of the Yamaha for streaming into your computer.

I hope I didn't burst your bubble.