Recording bass onto a PC or Mac

[Musicman20]

Hey

I’ve never recorded on my own to a computer like this, but I’d like to start in the near future.

I’ve managed to buy some nice equipment over the years, and it’s about time I started to understand a little more about basic recording.

To cut a long story short, the band I am due to join have asked me to jam along to their tracks and record ‘over’ their recordings. They don’t mind it literally just being over the top of their basslines; it’s just to see if I can play how they want me to. Its also for my own benefit as well.

Right, the equipment I have is:

Basses
Amps (LM3 has the more featured outputs)
Cabs
Correct leads for connecting to amps/cabs/basses
Sansamp BDDI
Aguilar Tonehammer
PC – Not amazing, but still runs well and plenty of GB left
Girlfriends iMac and Notebook – I can use these if they are better

My question is this.

What else do I need to plug into the Mac/PC? Is it best to go directly in, or into the Sansamp/Tonehammer first, then into the computer? Or via the LM3? Whats the best way to connect? Is it best to get a ¼ inch to USB? I’ve heard of the Lightsnake USB cable but does it work well?

I was going to get a good mic, but Im not sure that’s cost effective or the best way of doing it.

The iMac has Garage Band on it; I don’t have anything on my PC so I might have to get something that’s free. What’s a decent free recording program?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Gareth

[tischbein]

Audacity is freeware and pretty good for starters... I have a about 400 Cubase LE´s flying around... I could send you one...

[oddjob]

Garageband is great for what you want to do.
Audacity is also a great free program that'll work on your PC.
The cheapest way to do it would be to take a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch jack from your sansamp (to give you some tone control and increase the level if you need to). into the mic input jack of your computer or imac. You just need to watch the levels, and it might not sound the best, but might be ok just to give an idea about playing style.

I'm sure there are simple audio interfaces jack input to usb which may provide better matched levels for an instrument input.

[P-T-P]

Ideally you need some kind of audio interface rather than using the onboard mic input.

You can get simple jack to USB type ones for around £30 or so. More sophisticated ones for £70-£100 moving on to multi-track (2+ inputs, usually with a mic pre-amp(s) of some kind) from £100 and up. Depends whether you plan to record more than one track at a time and what you have to spend.

Some reasonable headphones and/or monitor speakers are probably a must as well because the onboard speakers of a laptop or PC monitor won't do your music any justice.

[beerdragon]

Talking to a sound engineer about recording to my laptop he said never try plugging 1/4 and 1/8 into the mic channel in that you could do some serious damage to it. he sent me some links and this was the cheapest. still a little expensive but i might get one over xmas.

[url="http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/41746-cakewalk-ua-1g.html"]http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/4174...walk-ua-1g.html[/url]

a little out of my price range for what i want to do.

[url="http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42301-cakewalk-ua-25ex.html"]http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/4230...lk-ua-25ex.html[/url]

Edited November 12, 2009 by beerdragon

[Musicman20]

Whats the best 1/4 to USB cable to get?

[crez5150]

Whats your budget...... ?

I would steer clear of the USB > Guitar jack type cables.... They're pants in my experience.... I'd say spend around £300 on a used Motu 828 MK2 and that will see all your needs through

[Musicman20]

Hmm....maybe I should do some saving first instead of buying and then having to upgrade.

Basically, whats the best way to record to a Mac, under £500, with everything included?

[project_c]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='653173' date='Nov 12 2009, 10:44 PM']Hmm....maybe I should do some saving first instead of buying and then having to upgrade.

Basically, whats the best way to record to a Mac, under £500, with everything included?[/quote]

Any half decent Firewire audio interface will do, look on a pro audio store website for prices (digital village etc), it's also useful to have something like the Markbass Mark Studio 1 (great stand-alone application / plug-in), then you might want to look at running the whole thing from Logic Express, not sure of the total cost but I'm sure it's within £500.

[P-T-P]

[quote name='crez5150' post='653125' date='Nov 12 2009, 10:00 PM']Whats your budget...... ?

I'd say spend around £300 on a used Motu 828 MK2 and that will see all your needs through[/quote]

+1

[quote name='Musicman20' post='653173' date='Nov 12 2009, 10:44 PM']Hmm....maybe I should do some saving first instead of buying and then having to upgrade.

Basically, whats the best way to record to a Mac, under £500, with everything included?[/quote]

As above. I have one of these. under £300 on eBay, works a treat and plenty of inputs to allow you to record rest of band all in one hit.

Alternatively, could look at one of the later POD Live and x3 models as they come with USB audio interface which can easily get you going. The POD Toneport and POD Studio interfaces are okay too, but they are limiting in that you can only hear what you're putting into them through the built in output (i.e. can't redirect through another interface or onboard speakers).

[chardbass]

If you are starting out I think an 828 may be more than you would need.
Google somewhere like Digital Village and have a look at their Firewire audio interfaces. For now you can get by on a 4 input, 10 output interface- there are plenty to choose from. They will have 2 mic/line in, usually 2 digital inputs, headphone outputs and several other outs for you to assign to monitors etc.
I used an M Audio 410 for about 3 years and was fine for recording 1 or 2 tracks simultaneously.
Once you become familiar with what's available and you want to save more have a look on eBay or Basschat. You should be able to pick something up new for around £200 and even less s/h.

[xgsjx]

Mics? Do you want the sound that your cabs make?
If so then instead of getting something like MB studio1 or Ampeg plugin thing you might want to consider micing your cab up. I don't mic mine up tho & just line straight from the pedal board & record with either Garageband or Reaper (which was recommended here & I'd recommend it to anyone & is free to use).
+1 on getting a decent interface such as the 828 or the 410 mentioned above.

[TRadford]

I have a Edirol UA-25. Cost me £70. USB straight into the mac, standard guitar jack lead from bass into the unit, and thats it. Does the job.

Need to play around with the levels to get a good strong sound, but once you've figured that, its simples. Can also plug mics, another guitar and Midi in with it too.

I think the new Korg Pandora PXD5 also does USB to computer recording, plus you get all the effects and the pre amp and everything else it does too.