Which microphones to buy?

The quality of your sound waves will depend on the kind of mics you have. If you want to record vocals you should buy a nice condenser mic, condenser mics are expensive but you can find a cheap one with great quality, i'll name some examples with their prices:

MXL 990: $50.00 - $79.99 USD

BEHRINGER B-1: $84.14 - $98.99 USD

RHODE NT1-A: $229.00 - $369.00 USD

For recording acoustic instruments you should buy a small diafragm condenser mic, i recomend that if you are going to buy a mic for vocals and a mic for recording acoustic instruments you buy this kit:

MXL 990/MXL 991 Recording Microphone Package: $99.95 USD

For recording electric instruments like electric guitars you should buy a dynamic mic, the best one is the shure sm-57 

SHURE SM57: $99.00 - $170.00 USD

For recording bass, try to buy a nice DI (Direct box) or buy a mic specially desgin for recording low frequencies.

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How to hook up your mixer to your computer

Calp how do i hook up the mixer to my computer if i dont have a soundcard? Well, many people start this way, its not recommendable because the audio gets to the computer completely analog and it will be very high. If you dont have a soundcard you'll need a 3.5mm to RCA cable like this one: 

What you are going to do is connect the 3.5mm to your line in in your computer (Blue input)

And the other end of the cable (RCA) connect 'em in your REC Output of your mixer, and that's all. just hook your audio to your mixer and start recording, of course you'll need to configure your audio setup in your computer to recognize the line in and not the mic input.

If you DON'T have a mixer, you just have your computer and your guitar or bass, all you need to do is BUY A SOUNDCARD! or buy a 1/4 to 3.5mm adapter like this one;

The audio quality of this way to hook up your audio to your computer is the lowest you can get, but for people who don't have enough money to buy a mixer or a soundcard, this is how you'll start recording your music.

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César

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Home Recording Basics

You feel like you have a lot of talent on writing music and lyrics? you have tons of songs of your own authorship and you dont know how to materialize em? well, I will try to help you by writing some tips in this blog. 

First of all, you need a nice computer, you can choose from a PC or a Mac, (I work with a Mac) with at least 1gb of ram will be ok. This will be your workstation, where all your audio/midi mix will happen.

Of course you need a Recording Software or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I work with Cubase, but there are a lot of softwares on the web you can get for free like Cool edit pro, Adobe audition, Vegas, Cubase, Protools, Garageband, Digital Performer, Audacity.

There is no "best" DAW, i think the best one is the one you know how to work with, so get used to one daw only, study it, practice, watch tutorials, etc.

Ok now, how do i get my audio to the computer? This is the most basic gear in your home recording studio, you need an audio interface. There are a lot of kinds of audio interfaces in the market nowadays, you can find 'em as box style, extern card, rack style or mixer style. This will get the audio from your source (Guitar, Mic) and switch it from analog to digital so your computer can recognize it.

(Mbox mini)

(Presonus firepod)

Behringer UCA200

(Yamaha MG166cx-USB)*I work with this

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