Any tips on recording cleanly from a guitar or bass (both electric and acoustic) on to a computer? I have a couple different multitracking software programs and a sound card meant especially for music, but my playing sounds like crap, and not just because I'm not very good. I get way too much distortion, and am not sure whether a better/different microphone setup would help or whether it's caused by the mechanical whirring and vibrations of the computer, or by something else. An example of a setup that generates a clean recording would be much appreciated, so I can at least isolate where the problem might be with mine. Oh, and a good setup for vocals too, though I don't really have a problem with that (just sounds low grade because I have a cheap microphone). Thanks.
I've been able to get a decent sound (see
http://www.soundclick.com/garethnelson for examples) using a vocal mic and stand. The way to get best quality i've found is to turn the volume to a suitable level on your amp, then put your hand in front of it while playing so you can feel the air vibrating, move your hand further away until it's just on the "edge". You place the mic aimed at the amp a tiny bit closer to the amp then this edge. DO NOT put the mic directly touching the amp, this produces a lot of distortion and sounds nasty. And do not lead a cable directly from the headphone or line out of the amp into your soundcard (unless you want to produce lots of distortion). Some of my recordings done this way sound very good, others sound crap. I'll let you judge.
Strange. Most of the time Amp line out to soundcard line in should work fine. Don't plug the line out into a microphone jack though, that'll rip the sound right out...
And if you want to do it really snappy, get a cheap mixing desk with microphone input. Plug the line out of your desk into the line in of your soundcard. Plug the guitar into the mike jack and presto--- crisp clean sound. Do make sure the mike jack has a gain control and preferrably an equalizer.
Still works for me with a Behringer VMX-300 and an onboard NVidia sound card... I record all my streams and DJ sets that way.
I've been looking at a Shure microphone that's actually for recording and mik'ing up bass drums, but is supposed to work with bass amps too.
Buy yourself a second-hand POD or BOSS GT-6 or whatever - much less hassle than miking amps up and sounds as near as dammit (neighbours'll like you a lot better too :wink
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