Total Newbie at Computer Recording

Greetings,

I'm a professional software developer (usually business applications) and hobbyist guitar player. I have a friend who's a luthier - bass guitars. We've been building his web site, and I've got two things I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

1 - He wants to add some audio to his site. That is, him playing the bass. I know I can record this via my microphone, but we're worried about the good sound. I think we'd like a direct line in. Can I just buy an adapter that goes from the 1/4" guitar cable and then sticks in to the computer's microphone jack? This dude would prefer the total clean sound, so I don't need to be messing with the clean tone.

2 - He's going to have a booth at the NAMM show this January and asked if I would go along. What he wants me to do is set up a deal where we can record audio and video of guitarists playing his stuff and then put up on his web site later. I think we could buy or rent a camcorder, but I'm not sure how to make sure the audio is real clean quality. He would prefer better audio over the video, if that makes a difference.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
Buoy

1 - You can use an adapter ( 1/4" to 1/8" ) in the line-in. That's what I do and it works great. Personally, my sound goes Guitar - effect pad - computer.

2 - When I do lessons I record audio on the computer and the video on ... well ... a video camera lol. The I sync up the audio later on. I've never tried to capture both the audio and video at the same time.

Cool, thanks for the info. #1 makes sense, not sure if this guy will want to do any effects, but that's up to him. We'll probably check it out and see how it sounds.

Then I sync up the audio later on

Can I ask how you do this? I have no idea.

Thanks man,
Buoy

I use Ulead Videostudio (it came with my camera).

When editing the video, they give you the option to add an additional audio track. That's when I use the track I've recorded.

You can actually split the audio of the video and replace it by another track.

So you add the video track, split the audio, replace the audio with the track you've recorded directly on the computer.


The one thing you need for a good audio track on the computer is to run your sound through a pre-amp before going into the direct-in jack on the computer. So use either an amp, a powered mixer or a simple effect pad with a built-in preamp (most new ones have them).

If he is serious about getting a good tone to promote his own basses then I would recommend either:

a) get one hour of studio time somewhere and mics the bass up to a bass cab with a professional engineer to capture the best sound.

OR

b) if he doesnt have the budget or abillity to get to a studio, invest in a Sansamp Bass Driver D.I. unit - they are quite cheap and they are known for capturing the best quality DI from a bass.

OR

c) the other alternative is either a Bass PODxt or a regular PODxt with the Bass expansion pack.

The PODxt goes DI in via USB connection whereas the Sansamp runs off XLR or 1/4" cable (XLR if you want to avail of the phantom powerered overdrive circuit) - so you would need a good soundcard with 1/4" or XLR in.

To be honest if it's for something like the NAMM show then he should be thinking how to capture the best signal possible. I would look to hire an engineer with a portable/mobile studio to come along for the couple of days. It's a lot cheaper than you would think and he would have a far better chance of capturing the best quality.

I've no experience in hooking up with video software but if you want the best sound the above methods should do it.

Thanks Benoit and Superhuman, I appreciate the info. Got a lot of stuff to look into.

Regards,
Buoy