If you are planning on recording yourself (purely for educational or with your band) there are a few methods available that you want to consider.
I'll try to give a brief review on various audio recording methods.
The first thing you want to know is if you want to record with or without the use of your computer.
- If you don't want to use a computer, there are devices such as the TASCAM DP-004 that allow multi-track recording and mix-down.
The advantage of these devices is that they are fairly small (unless when you go for a full studio setup, but that's out of the scope of this review) and portable (the DP-004 for example works with batteries and/or a DC transformer (I think these are sold seperatly)).
Depending on the brand and type of device they might also have one or more recording options like line-in, build-in microphone(s), 1/4" instrument jack, ...
The only time you'll need to connect the DP-004 that I use in this example is when you want to copy the music from the SD-card inside the DP-004 to your computer (or you use a card-reader but then you'll need to remove the batteries from the DP-004 to be able to takeout the SD-card).
So, if you want to take this route be sure to compare the different brands and products to find something that fits your needs.
- Now if you are planning on using your computer there are 2 ways you can do this.
-- You can simply use a standard audio-recording program and a microphone connected to your PC (quality might not be as desired).
-- Or, you can use an audio interface (both Line-6 and M-Audio have a whole range of these products, going from simple with just one 1/4" connector for Guitar/Bass to high-end professional products). For simple Bass recording the simple TonePort GX from Line-6 is good enough.
An Audio interface has the advantage of a lower latency (the time between the moment you pluck the string till the moment it's heard through your PC speakers) than most "normal" sound-cards. Most interfaces also have a feature to directly monitor the sound before it goes to your PC so there is virtually no latency).
To fully use an audio-interface you'll need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to record/edit. Some daw's are : Adobe Audition (if you have an older version like 1.5 or 3.0 you'll see that the new version (CS5.5 by the time of this article) has changed a lot. This is because Adobe also had a program called "Soundbooth" but they rebuild Audition from scratch and added some functionality from Soundbooth (soundbooth is no longer being developed)., Cubase (Cubase or Cubase Elements), N-Tracker, Ableton Live, Mixcraft (you might notice that when installing Mixcraft your anti-virus software warns you about a virus in Mixcraft but that's probably just a false positive and not all A/V's report this)., ...
From the programs I've tried it personally prefer Cubase Elements (version 6 at this moment), the price is fair and compared with Cubase 6, Cubase Elements goes around €100 (100 Euro) and Cubase 6 goes above €600 (600 Euro).
If you want to export to MP3 however you will need to get an additional MP3 license (around €15) but you can also export to WAVE or another format and later convert it to MP3 (with LAME for example).
But you are free to choose what program you use (I think Mixcraft is the cheapest one I could find).
An added advantage is that you can use various VST-plugins (like amp. modeling so you can use wide range of virtual amp's like Marshall (although the name Marshall is not used) and Fender. (Line-6 and IK-Multimedia have various packages).
If you experience problems with recording there are a few things you can do :
1. Increase the SWAP memory (and make sure the min/max values are the same).
2. Disable ALL "eye candy", on systems like Windows Vista/7 this will make windows look like it did in Windows 98 but it lowers the CPU load.
3. Do NOT use a wallpaper (these also give more CPU load).
4. And the most important one, close ALL non-essential software (basically this is everything except you Anti-Virus and the DAW Software.)
If this doesn't work it's possible that your computer is too old for quality recording
Now a brief one of Video Recording :
To make simple recordings (for example to post on YouTube) all you really need is a webcam (like the Logitech C210), the Logitec cams come with some software to record and they also come with a license for "MAGIX Video easy se" so you can also edit your recordings and upload to YouTube.
If you want a better recording you can for example opt for the C910 which is a Full HD camera (note that this requires a LOT more from your computer so HD recording might be a problem on older computers).
And as with the Audio recording, closing all unessential software and look-and-feel of windows might increase performance.
Hope this helps anyone
Oh, and as a Disclaimer : All brands and products mentioned above are just examples so before you buy anything get yourself informed about the products you want and make a decision based on what you want and probably what it will cost.
Also I do not work for any of the companies of the products mentioned and I'm not affiliated with one of them.
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