Audio Interface

Hey man. You couldn't have better timing posting this. I just recently got a Dell 9300 notebook (it rocks by the way). I recently just bought a cheapy mic and use Audacity to record just to get things down. Just so we can remember it later. Vocals and acoustic guitar here too. My buddy has a Mac and an Mbox. I think we're getting together tonight to record some stuff. I'm going to bring the 9300 and he'll bring the Mbox so I'll be able to test it tonight. I think there are some conflicts with WinXP and SP2 AND some chipsets do not work with the Mbox at all.

Here are some links regarding the Mbox.
This first link is regarding compatibility with WinXP systems.
Read the whole thing about chipset requirements. They also have recommended laptops too.

I'll come back and post after I get to test out the Mbox system.

As for other options I don't really know.
http://digidesign.com/compato/xp/mbox/
Mbox with Pro Tools LE 6.7 for Windows XP


http://www.transom.org/tools/editing...box.towne.html
Transom Tools: Unlocking the M-Box

http://www.transom.org/tools/editing...ree.towne.html
Transom Tools: Switching between PTLE and PTFree on a Mac

http://www.audiomidi.com/aboutus/rev...raham_mbox.cfm
audioMIDI.com : Digidesign Mbox Review by Mikail Graham

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...11036?v=glance
Amazon.com: Musical Instruments: Digidesign Mbox USB Interface, Hybrid CD Win/Mac

Check back a couple of posts

There is some free software out there that can do mixdown depending on how cheap you wanna go, or how well you know linux will depend on how good software you can get.

In as far as Mics and interfaces, MAudio is a good company to look at, and a Shure SM-57 for guitar will start you off well most likely, you could also get away with using a pop screen and it for vocals with the bass rolled off if you needed to. All depends on how much money you want to spend as to what the best solution would be though, there are a number of threads from the past month or two that cover stuff like this a lot.

Seablade

The Beta 58 is a good vocal mic, could probably double fairly well as a Guitar Mic, mostly used on stage, wont be used completly in a studio setting though, in fact rarely will be. That being said though, both the 58a and 57 CAN be used in a studio, and are good cheap starter mics. If you are trying to take sound from an acoustic at the same time as vocals are they both from the same person, as in are you playing the guitar and singing at the same time, or is someone else playing and a different person singing? Really are you recording one or two performers? The reason I ask is even with directional mics from the same performer you will probably get some bleedthrough, and it would be better to track that, but with different performers and a couple of cardioid you can limit it rather well and get useable stuff at the same time. But that is mics and you were asking about hardware and software. But keep in mind obviously if you want to pull audio from two sources at the same time, you will need two mics and since you know what your sources will be you can customize your mic selection to fit it better.

Software Cubase supports plugins, VST most specificly which there are a lot of them out there, so you wouldnt have problems with expanding plugins later on by any stretch of the imagination. In fact most decent audio programs support some form of plugin, if they dont, I owuldnt waste my money Even the Open Source software has the LADSPA plugs they support to give you some flexibility. Just be careful as to what type of plugin you get and make sure it is supported by your sequencing software, there are many different types, VST, AU, LADSPA etc. Most support VST, But several also have a proprietary format they support as well so not all play well.

Cheap software by the way does not equal bad. I have used CuBase,Nuendo,ProTools, and many other programs, but what I use the most and like the most for straight audio work is a free program for linux(Which is my OS) called ardour. Admitedly though in the case of audio finding good quality programs can be tough for not much money.

And here are a few of the threads on various topics that may or may not interest you.

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=72824
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=69136
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=70020
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=69195
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67625

Have fun, post back with questions and comments.

Seablade

Which issue were you not aware of? The bleedthrough or the needing more than one mic?

The bleedthrough can be somewhat lessened by using the polar pattern of the mics as much to your advantage as you can, aim the vocal mic so that it is pointing upwards away from your guitar, but keep it close to your mouth, as close as possible. That is the mic that will probably have the most bleedthrough, the other one you can keep nice and tight near the soundhole and you wont have as much problems as long as you set up the gain well just because your guitar will drown out your voice much easier than the other way around.

Now needing two mics, well that is something that cant be gotten around so well if you want to record both at the same time, but if you track things it can be gotten around, record one track at a time, while singing or playing as well if you need to, just do it as quietly as you can and make sure you use the polar patterns of the mics to your advantage.

But yes it should be possible to do it, you are probably gonna have better luck tracking things than recording them both simultaneously, but try both ways and see which works better for you, there is definitly something to be said about the energy you can get from playing everything at once.

Seablade

Heh depends on how cheap you want

Personally the SM57 and 58 are about as cheap as I would get, there are some LDC mics that are around that price range now(AT2020 or 4040 I cant remember which) but keep in mind Condensers require phantom power.

Past that nope not really, as I said the 57 and 58 are as cheap as I would go for recording myself. Sorry. If you want suggestions for mics in that range or a little above then that I can try to help you with a bit better

Seablade

I'd check your local shops. In my area, I could pick up a moderate 4-channel mixer and two basic(cheap) mic's for around $130 used. They wouldn't be great, but it'd be enough to start with. I used to use some old EV mic's and a Shure 520 for vocals(that was a rough one). Depending on how advanced you want to get, I'd start low tech. Running a mixer into the mic port for now will leave a lot of noise in the recording, but you can always grab a decent sound card/external solution later on.

For the price of a cheap mixer you may as well pick up an interface, in all honesty it is a better solution all around, not only will you get a better quality recording, but it also takes out a layer of complexity that may or may not confuse people, but at the least it will prevent you from accidently putting in a bad EQ or similar to the recording.

It is almost always better to record flat and add the EQ in afterwards so you always have the original, there are exceptions I am sure, but I have never run across them yet myself

Not to mention the ground loops that a seperate mixer can add into things, and yes that can confuse even decent engineers sometimes

Seablade

I'd agree...but having a physical mixer allows you to more easily do gain/volume adjustments on the fly. I hardly ever use them for anything more than that. It's just easier to have a physical pot than to use the software to adjust.

I think an interface is nice, too...but to get one that supports various mic interfaces and such is a little pricey. With a cheap mixer, he can buy a cheap mic, no matter what interace it uses(for the most part). I know it's not the best solution, but I have a feeling some of what's being suggested here is way above what he needs.

You just want to output the file to either a WAV or MP3 format? Or any other compressed audio code?

I don't use Cubase, but I imagine there's an option to at least output the tracks to WAV, if not another format. If you want a compressed version, you can get a variety of free tools on the web to convert the wav file for you.

Sciphish, it's called a mixdown in Cubase. Search for this topic in the help. Generally in many multitrackers/sequencers you set all the sound levels, panning, effects the way you want them, then tell cubase to 'mixdown' -- it then creates a new WAV with all the effects and stuff calculated into it. Mixdown, that's the magic word.