i have looked through the stickies and havent found any real answers. so first, i am wondering if i have some decent elements to maybe start a little recording studio at home. nothing big but just enough to maybe do a 5 piece band. so far i have a HP laptop (not sure of specs) and a korg d4 recorder, also 2 mics that arent that great. should i look into a desk top? i dont have that much cash so it would be nice if i could use the computer i have now. i have downloaded audacity as well.
Im not too familiar with my korg because the manual sucks IMO. so im not so good with the punching in and out stuff. i pretty much have to get it right in one take.
i was thinking about buying a small mixer as well. i have been told not to plug directly into my recorder because my amp output it blow it, and i hate micing the amps. if i had a mixer would that problem be solved?
sorry for being all over the place with questions. and i apologize if i said anything dumb.
thanks
To answer you better, there needs to be more details provided. First when you say you want to be able to record a 5 piece band, are you wanting to record them all at the same time or separately? Do you want to record drums? What is your budget? etc...
However I can give you a decent generic answer that will hopefully help you get started.
I will start off by saying that I would ditch the D4 all together.
To get a set up with a computer here are some guidelines -
1st off, most likely you can get something that will work with you laptop, the downside of using a laptop is that it is not that powerful in terms of processing power and memory (which becomes really necessary during mixing what you have recorded), however there are quite a few workarounds to get over that.
2nd you are going to need an interface, that converts the analog sound into digital information that will most likely in your case plug into your usb port. There are many interfaces out there and they range in price from under $100 to over $5k. This is where you are going to have to decided how many sources you want to record at once because that will be the main price decider for you, many of the cheaper units only have 2 inputs (like your korg) so if you wanted to track drums you are going to need something IMO at least 4 inputs (Kick,Snare, 2 Overheads)
The other thing to consider with the interface is if it has built in pre-amps, if it doesn't then you will need some pre-amps (same number as how many sources you want to record at once)
Many of the lower end interface have built in pre's which is probably a good place to start since your budget is low.
3rd You are going to need mics
4th Hook it all up to the computer and hit record
The other way that you could work around the multi-input issue is buy a mixer, hook everything up to that you want to record, and go out of the mixer stereo outs into a 2 channel interface. However I would really discourage you from doing this because you will essentially be mixing before you track your source and be locked into how it sounds, and will be very very very limited in what you can edit.
I am not sure what your question was about micing guitar amps/ and using a mixer...but maybe this will help.
As far as recording a guitar/bass there is a couple of ways to successfully doing it. Running through a DI box into your pre-amp/interface, micing the cab going into your pre/interface, or a combination of the two.
Hope that helps
