I echoe what Midland Tiger suggests, Unless you laptop is a very high spec it may not be suitable for recording espeicially when you start racking the audio tracks up, on top of that using plugins sure does eat proccesor power/memory. you also need a decent audio interface. I use Sonar 8 Producer edition pricey 400 quidish when i bought mine but come down a bit since then. Also any vocals, acoustic work and a nice pre amp is nice, although depending on the audio interface you choose the preamps may suffice in the short time. oh and one or two nice mics would be nice. Oh and monitors are good to have...
What's the easiest/best way to utilise my laptop to record myself playing the harmonica ? Any ideas ?
You could try this free software Dean. I havent used but its free. And then simply plug a mic into the laptops sound card/mic in etc. It wont be a brilliant recording but it will still be a lot of fun. Is it a blues harmonica you play , or a chromatic? http://http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Yep decent mic's are essential, but for doing it on the cheap a Shure SM58 dynamic mic will do wonders. Good all round quality and can use for pretty much anything. If your recording electric guitar this will be perfect, as IMO you get a better sound recording from the amp rather than DI and using virtual amps, it just sounds way too clean and fake. Studio monitors are essential for doing your mix-downs, but until you get advanced or if your doing it seriously and producing full on tracks you shouldn't really need these. You're jumping into a huge crater OLM, there's a hell of a lot to learn..
Diatonic, I play a lot of Irish stuff mostly but just getting there with some blues riffs. ( been at it for 8 years )
Cheers GT I've downloaded it, Figuring out how to use it though is another matter, Just need a mic now.
word of cauton with this one - it can be set to record any sound your speakers make and if the arrival of an email in outlook is set to make a sound it'll get recorded as well so close down outlook while your recording.
Wow. Things gave changed since I took my test. Can you really play guitar and learn to drive at the same time? I guess they don't call them the "Playstation" generation for nothing.
it makes waiting at traffic lights less dull but be sure to aplly handbrake and disengage gear in case of over attentive police.
Good point X, I suppose another option would be to unplug your computer speakers and maybe use your headphones to monitor yourself.
really easy software to use, basically select the input mic and then record, laptop probably has a basic mic, not the best but can still record from it anyway.
i think its any sound actually sent to your speakers rather than made (which i did say) by them. recording a harmonica via mic while playing along to a recorded backing would need headphones as you said so as not to get the backing on the harmonica track. but the recording of sounds in audacity like that is a simple way to record the sound off streamed audio and if there were any gaps due to slow internet you can easily see the missing bits and edit them out.
Well then as you say he will have to turn off any programmes that may cause audio to end up on his recorded track. Its some thing I,ve ever thought about as I use an Audio interface that allows me to track up to 8 different tracks at the same time, and at the same time as tracking 8 tracks, it will output 8 channels of audio so I have never had any issue.
Unless she can drive but doesn't have a car to drive. If she has to get to Hessle for the guitar lesson and can't drive maybe she could have her driving lesson first and get it to end in Hessle. Then she's only got to worry about getting home after the guitar.
yeah i have something simlar and the outlook noise is normally directed to the laptop speakers. i suppose it depends what he wants to spend. many audio interfaces come with lite versions of daws anyway. a few years back there was a rare old track on a radio show and i streamed it and recorded it with audacity as i didnt have another way at the time so had to be careful of other noises. its so easy to be absent mindedly doing something else.
Im selling a 4 track recorder if anyones interested got a project mix i/o now, well ive had it a while. Ild say Pro Tools or Ableton Live are your best bets but i meay be biased coz i use them the most but, ive used them all and i found those the best programs over the years.
If Carlsberg did forum threads. I have not the slightest interest in guitar lessons etc, but found this to be one of the best threads on here. No bitching,back biting,no name calling. This is the way it should be(imo) Now **** off the lot of yer.
Not the slightest interest but read it anyway Just a little thing for my fellow Hull City fan / Guitar players, I've just bought this off ebay this morning, Just to keep this thread from straying too far away from the tigers I think the first song I play on it will be - Cant help falling in love please log in to view this image
