Equipment

BugAxe

Hi

I havent been in a band now for some 20 years and awfully rusty however, the world and tech has thundered on in my absence!

I see lots of home studio videos where people are dubbing themselves, practicing and recording themselves digitally and using headphones and all sorts of clever tech.  So much so that it is quite bewildering to be honest and i dont know where to start and simply 'shut down' rather than try to crack on.

What do i need beyond my guitar?

I would like to practise with effects, practise with headphones, record myself and add to it (I have a copy of Reaper but not thrown myself at it) with guitar overlays, drums and anything else really.

A list of all the items would be great as it would enable me to start aquiring them and work towards this.

Thank you very much

Nat

spark240

Basically an Audio interface is your starter....any simple 2 channel job will do, Focusrite, Presonus, like this

https://www.thomann.de/gb/usb_audio_interfaces.html

Someone is always selling one here , just keep an eye out.

Most will come with software but you can stick with Reaper which seems good for beginners.

If you prefer a physical mixer, then these can also act your interface but you get the touchy feely faders etc....for more money though.

BugAxe

Hi Spark

There are 345 items on that link, is there one that you would recommend?

Thank you

Macca_25387

I’d recommend the Audient id4 as great beginner interface. Theres a id14 in the ads section on here which is the next one up, but at the same price as a new id4

spark240

BugAxe said:

Hi Spark

There are 345 items on that link, is there one that you would recommend?

Thank you

Depends what your aim is long term and what your budget is, Id suggest you get something slightly better than you think you need..if you get into it, its a continuous upgrade path !

Are you doing live drums?....Do you sing and play guitar at the same time?....How many instrument for mics do you need to plug in / record at the same time?

Lets start there.

BugAxe

Hi

I would use electronic drums, i dont play them myself.

This would all be for home use so i may play around and create things, it would just be me.

ta

spark240

Ok, so a basic 2 or 4 channel unit would be fine, there a couple in the Ads on here, or just Google it

 https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-best-audio-interfaces-2018-our-pick-of-the-best-soundcards-for-beginners-and-pros

BugAxe

Thank you

Chris_J

A 2-4 channel interface, a mic stand, an xlr cable and an sm57 would be a solid starting point.

After that, you're probably looking at drum plugins based on what you've said. I like ezdrummer, but, there are plenty of other options.

That should keep you going for ages!

BugAxe

Thanks also Chris, the XLR cable is certainly a new thing to me.

Looking into the Audient (Keeping it simple), they have a great website to be honest, lots of articles and videos.  This is a useful, simple link for anyone stumbling across this post one day;

https://audient.com/tutorial/budget-home-studio/

The Interfaces can be bonkers prices but i can see its about the number of channels, frequencies and bit rates but this has given me a useful start!

£724 for a Home Studio is not a lot these days and over a course of time

Yearofthegoat

I have a Zoom U44 which cost around £80 when I bought it.

It's fairly small so quite portable, it has good mic preamps (I'm told), HiZ for electric guitars and phantom power for mics. It has various outputs both digital and analogue and has direct monitoring. I have it at 64 samples/2ms latency in my DAW software so there's no noticeable lag (round trip is apparently 8ms or so).

It also has MIDI in/out if you need that.

Does everything I need. And it can run on batteries so I can stick it in the guitar bag with some headphones to use it as a headphone amp or standalone A-D/D-A converter.

I was lucky enough to be given an add-on mic capsule (EXH6), which adds 2 more analogue inputs.

Overall it works a treat and didn't cost anywhere near the prices of some interfaces in that Music Radar list.

Hope that helps a bit.