Recording mic help pls

[irish_admiral]

Paul

There are a couple of options for recording your amp.

1. Get a tiny sound desk and plug a mic into it. I'm sure Behringer do a desk for £25 with a couple of mic channels. Plug into the soundcard input, but be careful - if your desk outputs in stereo, and your soundcard only receives a mono signal, it'll phase. You'll need to convert to mono, or get another USB audio device which can record stereo.

2. Get an audio interface box or external sound card for your computer. Some will take XLRs. You'll get a decent enough signal to your PC, but will have to edit it on your computer unless the interface has an EQ. The Roland Edirol UA-25 will cost a little used.

Do either of these - option 1 is probably the cheapest - and then download Audacity for free.

Play.

Record.

Enjoy.

[Wolfe]

Paul

There are a couple of options for recording your amp.

1. Get a tiny sound desk and plug a mic into it. I'm sure Behringer do a desk for £25 with a couple of mic channels. Plug into the soundcard input, but be careful - if your desk outputs in stereo, and your soundcard only receives a mono signal, it'll phase. You'll need to convert to mono, or get another USB audio device which can record stereo.

2. Get an audio interface box or external sound card for your computer. Some will take XLRs. You'll get a decent enough signal to your PC, but will have to edit it on your computer unless the interface has an EQ. The Roland Edirol UA-25 will cost a little used.

Do either of these - option 1 is probably the cheapest - and then download Audacity for free.

Play.

Record.

Enjoy.

one question analogue or digital mixing desk?

[irish_admiral]

For Bargain Basement, you're not going to get anywhere near a digital desk.

[blacklight_uk]

Just to give a big +1 to all of the suggestions so far.

57s have a very distinct sound. Quite a characteristic high mid bump and (to my ears anyway) a little scooped in the lower midrange. On paper that's a good start for a guitar recording, and it's fair to say they've been the staple choice for guitar recordings for a long long time. As Joe said, any experienced engineer knows the characteristics of a 57 so it'd be useful for you to have one for live use.

It'd also be useful for you to experiment with monitoring what the mic is picking up while dialing your settings in. That way you've got a good starting point for whenever you're in the studio.

It's worth being picky even if it is just for messing about. You never know, you might get bit by the recording bug

[Ddjembe Mutombo]

I wasn't aware that SM57's were so stupid expensive in the UK. Go with a Sennheiser e609 or e906. I've used 609's before and they are pretty good amp mics.

I'd personally skip the sound board and go with a audio interface. These look pretty budget level.
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[irish_admiral]

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain. Most gear that comes from the USA to the UK they just change the dollar sign for a £.