Simple Acoustic Recording

[Hector Wolff]

I would like to be able to record simple bass solo, bass duet and solo piano (all totally acostic intruments) at home, then burn the recordings to a CD or load them onto a iPod.

The recordings are really for personal reference, as I am not likely to be doing them for auditions. I will occasionally want to record a electric guitar, acoustic bass and singer, again informally at home.

I have a resonably good Windows PC - Dell Dimension E510 with 2 Pentium 4, 3 GHz processors, and 2 GB of RAM, running Windows XP 2002. My audio processor? is a Creative SB Audigy22S (whatever that is).

Other wise I have no recording equipment or mics and no experience doing this. I am not looking to mix tracks, overdub, or do anything fancy, just the digital equivalent of setting up a mic and a tape recorder.

Can anyone tell me what I would need to buy to make this work?

I live on Long Island, so Sam Ash, the Guitar Center, Circuit City and Best Buy are all easy to find. Beyond that I don't know where to go or what to ask for.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

If you're not looking to overdub at all, I'd go with This. You don't need any mics, preamps, cables, or anything else, and the best part is that you can upload the files digitally straight intro your computer.

If you need to overdub or multitrack, it gets more complicated.

[JeffKissell]

I have the Endirol R1 for the same purposes. If you get a 1 or 2 GB flash card, you can record a LOT of music. Almost 18 hours on a 2 GB card @ 256K MP3 format. I use it to record rehearsals, gigs, song-writing ideas, bowing practice (I think my arco might be in violation of the Geneva Conventions), bird calls, etc. It's a little pricey, but it works great. The sound is very accurate.
-J