I have a guitar; and a bass guitar. I also have a reasonable bass amp, but no guitar amp, I've just been using the bass amp with the tone controls suitably tweaked and if I want a bit of distortion, I have a Boss MD-2 and OS-2 pedals, though to be honest I hardly ever use them. Its just home use at the moment, and I'm just learning guitar (although played bass for ages).
Now what I'd like to do is record 1 track of guitar, then play it back while playing/recording another track. For example track 1 might be a simple rhythm track with some chords, where track 2 is a little bit of noodling/improvisation over the top. Later on I might want to get a bit more adventurous and also add a bass track and possibly (electronic) drums.
I have a laptop, so I was thinking I could buy an audio interface, for example:
http://www.dawsons.co.uk/presonus-audiobox-ione-usb-audio-interfaceIt seems that most/all of these come with a basic DAW already, I'd probably be happy with this for my modest needs. I'm reasonably confident that the interface would happily accept the instrument input from the guitar and bass and record it fine, however the laptop speakers aren't going to do any justice, so ideally I'd also like to use the "monitor output" to connect to the amplifier I have, to give a fuller sound. I'm not bothered about exact tonal reproduction, just something that sounds reasonably alike the guitar etc. How do I convert the "balanced monitor output" from one of these interfaces to the instrument input on the amplifier?
I know (well think, 99% sure) that a looper pedal would allow me to do similar but seems more sensible to dip my toes into digital recording on the computer to offer more flexibility later (ie adding some drums).
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I use a Presonus interface (Audiobox 22VSL) and one of the reasons for going with it was for the free copy of Studio One 3 Artist which I really liked having used the free version (Prime). Artist doesn't include support for VSTs and export of MP3 so you have to buy the addons separately. If you don't have a guitar amp and plan to use a software amp/cab modeller (Scuffham S-gear is excellent), then you'll need to buy the VST/AU/Rewire support addon for Studio One which is about £70. I was already aware of this and factored in the cost but I thought I'd mention it in case you hadn't.
There are other DAWs available and the fully featured Reaper is used and recommended by many on here.
If you have a home stereo a better solution is to use that for monitoring, or headphones.
I haven't tried the interface you linked to but I imagine it will do what you want. Software wise Reaper seems to be the best bang/buck out there although it doesn't come with any drum plugins, I think there is a thread on here that mentions free drum software - there are also free guitar amp sims available.
A MIDI keyboard that connects via USB is useful for programming drums and er keyboards.
By the way, I use a Presonus AudioBox USB at home, which I picked up for £45 second hand.
http://www.dawsons.co.uk/m-audio-m-track-audio-interface
I've also done a quick eBay search and Dawson's price seems pretty keen. I know its 48kHz where others are 96kHz but I honestly can't see that making a difference for me, and I'd never need 96k. They're all 24bit, I understand that 24 bit is handy compared to 16bit in that it allows you to later adjust levels quite a bit, and preserve quality. I also note that the one linked to has a mixer knob for the direct/USB output, which could be handy for me.
Is there anything disasterously wrong with the one I've linked to, given that I don't have much money to spend on anything much more expensive?
Regarding software, Reaper keeps coming up again and again so I think I'll eventually buy this, but for now I'll just get going with the basic free stuff.
Reaper is available for free for the first month (I believe), and the only consequence of not paying for it is that you get a nag screen (no loss of functionality). However, I'd advise buying it given that it's probably the most functional £35 you'll ever spend.
https://www.tracktion.com/products/t5-daw
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How do others use an audio interface to do the monitoring (its going to need to be from the audio interface ideally, since it does no-lag monitoring)? I am using a laptop and obviously its built in speakers aren't brilliant, I am thinking of buying a decent set of speakers for the laptop but I feel its obviously more money and would only part-solve the problem anyway. I don't have a stereo/hi-fi either anymore.
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