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Newest of the Newbie Questions

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Topic Newest of the Newbie Questions
Hi folks,

I've been singing in bands for a few years, and went along to an audition recently, and was amazed by how good Cubase is, and how easy the guys in the band managed to mix my voice in with their existing tracks, etc, so I decided to try setting something up at home. I've got a pretty decent spec PC, and picked up Cubase for a great price, so thought I was ready to go.

However, being the newest of newbies and knowing nothing about music recording, I came upon a couple of problems! Firstly, I started off by just plugging my guitar into the usual amp, then putting the output of that amp into the mic socket of my PC's soundcard, as it doesn't have a line in. The sound left a lot to be desired! So, here's my first set of questions - what is the way that this "should" be done, and should I be playing my guitar clean, or using distortion on my original amp? If I use distortion it sounds pretty rubbish on the PC!

Next, and far worse, I naively plugged my decent microphone into the mic port of the soundcard, and got absolutely nothing from the recording in Cubase! Oops! Realised that I needed some kind of amp before the PC, so tried running the microphone through the guitar amp first. Predictably, at least I can hear something, but the sound is pretty poor!

So, next set of questions - do I need some sort of mixer amp before the soundcard?

Lastly, guitar and voice is fine, but it's nice to have something to keep the beat - what is the best thing to create a simple drum beat and bass combination, which could then be imported into Cubase?

Obviously from my ignorance displayed above, I'm not looking for professional record label quality recordings, just something to play with, and possibly create a few demos to show off my voice to potential metal bands.

Anyway, any help on the above mess would be MUCH appreciated!!!

Cheers!

Simon
2
PS. Just wanted to clarify that I'm happy to record the voice and guitar separately, just switching the lead that goes into the soundcard, so presumably this means that I don't need a mixing desk, just some kind of pre-amp for the microphone? :?:
3
PPS. Just thought I'd also mention that I have a SB Live 5.1 card, which has a line in, however I'm using my PC's on-board soundcard, which is also 5.1 but doesn't have a line in. So, if necessary, I could use the SB card. Would this improve anything, do you think?
4
Spectre-

The reason it sounds bad is because the mic in on the sound card is designed for one of those crummy little PC mics. And it will probablu even sound crummy with one of those!!!

Try this-

Use your Blaster card that has the line in. Disable the on board sound so things don't get confused. Get, as a minimum, one of those little Behringer Mixers, like this:



Hook your guitar and mic to the mixer, and hook the L/R outputs from the mixer to the line in of the soundcard using a cord like this:



This should work pretty well for starters. Use the meters in Cubase to watch your recording levels- digital distortion cause by recording too hot a signal sounds REALLY bad.

Also- for drums and accompaniment, I use a program called Jammer Pro. you can find out more about it at www.soundtrek.com

Hope this helps!!
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
5
also axeman he could use a edirol ua-1a to connect from the output of the mixer-preamp into the computer with some better quality as opposed to analog into the soundcard....



it has stereo rca ins and outs
6
Wow revrb-

I wasn't even aware of that product. VERY cool. Looks like it's about $40 on the street. Thanks for sharing!!
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
7
ya man! definetly worth it, itsthe most basic digital convertor but it does the job, they started makign it about 3 years ago, about when i got mine, and ive been using it ever since, to mixdown tracks from my tascam 4 track, its just perfect for the people like me that are too lazy to get a fancy computer audio interface, and prefer to record analog, BUT need to mixdown digitally for editing/mastering... or recording directly from an analog mixer/preamp like you suggested
8
Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated!!!

I'll now spend my boring late shift at work buying copious products on-line! :D