Getting songs on the internet

Okay, I'm almost positive that somewhere along the line, probably several times, this question has been answered. But if so I don't know where, so I have to ask. I want suggestions on getting songs, whole band songs, onto a computer to upload onto the internet. I know that Audacity will work for, say, a guitar, or a microphone, but obviously we can't plug every instrument and mic into the computer at once and if we could I don't see it sounding not like crap. Do we have to buy some kind of all-new recording setup to do this, or what? All we really have is the tape recorder, and our computers. Any suggestions on recording band tracks? Again, I apologize if this has already been answered.

Learn to record one track at a time. (See Not All about you on my www.soundclick.com/magicninja page.) First drums, which won't sound right unless you have the drums individually mic'd anyway. Then bass, rythm guitar, vocals, lead guitar. All on thier own track. Recording all at once to a pc is gonna murder your computers memory and if the force isn't strong with it.....meltdown. One track at a time.

What about recording us playing all at once on my tape recorder, then playing the tape back and recording it to my computer on the "Line in" setting?

The quality won't be near as good. If you want it to be a "recording" like a cd, multitrack it. Luke can get his part perfect boom. next Michael comes in and nails his part boom, Brenden does his thing boom. The thing being you guys won't have to stop and rerecord everything because one guy messes up. Everyone can get a perfect take recorded. It'll sound a whole hell of alot better. If you wanna do it live to tape and then to pc because it's "easier" go ahead but it'll sound like crap compared to a multitracking.

But crap is our sound. :)

Then why ask how to sound better? I hope the asbestos wiener spreads to your testicles.

Okay, so it's agreed that we should record the parts seperately. So what should we use to do that and get it on the computer?

See that depends on the quality you want and how much you're willing to spend. My setup works wonders for me (In my head anyway, everyone else can piss off) and it costed besides the pc around 500-600$USD. That's pretty cheap by most standards. Plus for what I got it's even that much better. I go Guitar->Line 6 Spider II($150)->Roland VS880($300 on Ebay)->M Audio audiophile 2496 soundcard($100) You could go Instruments/mics->Line 6 toneport $150-$200(USB)->PC With the toneport you could probably do the bass, 1 guitar, and vocals at the same time but I still wouldn't recommend it. You can with the toneport also plug in three mics at the same time to better capture the drums. The possibilities to make good low cost recordings are out there guys don't sell yourselves short.

So basically we need a good computer, and some kind of interface between the instruments/mics and that computer. That seems fairly simple. Then we just record the drums, record the bass over that, record the guitar over that, record the vocals over that. Great, thanks for all the help! This could take some money, but least we know what we're looking at.

You got it man. Good luck! I can't wait to see what you guys brew up. :)

Hey ninja, would a laptop work, or would we need a full-out PC? I'm just concerned about where we're going to be doing this. Our new practice space is a garage, and we can't really leave anything of value in there, as it could easily be stolen. It might be sort of a hassle to bring a full-size PC in everytime, you know?

There are laptops that can get it done. My thinkpad here could probably do it. The thing would be you would need to get a "interface" that is USB connectable because a soundcard really wouldn't work for a laptop. Yeah a laptop would work just be sure it's got all the requirements for whatever USB device you get.

I see. Thanks again, ninji.

That's why I'm here, good luck again guys.