So, you want to record vocals and guitar? This brings us to Mics and Mixers and the possibility of going Mixerless
First the mixer approach
Most consumer soundcards either have no microphone preamps on the card or really bad ones designed for speech. If you want to get sound from a microphone into your computer you need a way to amplify the mic signal cleanly. This can be done with a mixer, or a mic preamp which plugs into the line in jack on your soundcard. Ok! I know you already have your keyboard plugged in. Duh! So you get a mixer and you plug the keyboard, guitar and the microphone into it. A good mixer for recording will have a switch on each channel that lets your route that channel to the soundcard for recording.
Now the Mixer-less approach
Going Mixerless? Then the Soundcard will not do. You need an audio interface! These have MORE inputs, Some even have Mic preamps. The best way to record electric guitar is either to Mic your amp or connect a guitar processor to a line input (FX pedal, direct box, V-amp, Pod, etc.)
Which to get, a soundcard or audio interface? The costs are about the same as audio interfaces and pre-amps do cost. Here, I made some handy charts comparing all the different audio interfaces and soundcards commonly available. Over the past few years, thanks mainly to firewire's ease of use, many people are opting to get an audio interface over a soundcard, and not getting a mixer at all. When you are starting out you can probably connect everything you have to an audio interface, but that will change as your gear multiplies. You can always add a mixer later. And yep, you will plug that right into the audio interface to give you more inputs. So it's not an either/or thing. You can use both. I do!
Dude? You be Confused? Don't be!
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can ask a whole bunch of people and get a real answer I urge you to join my forum at studio-central.com.
"Ahh so that is the catch!"
Nope, dude, there is no catch. It's FREE!
Here's a taste...
(These questions are coming from Noobs like you in REAL TIME, by the by)
Go to the Newbie Forums
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