Best starting setup for laptop <$300

[Cachecropp]

I would like to begin recording my guitar playing for my own education, listening purposes. So I have a laptop and an IPad. I need a microphone, recording software and any accessories to make this work.

What is the best low priced setup to give me the most real and accurate acoustic guitar sound while recording in my home office?

[Doug Young]

Your options are fairly limited within that budget, but it depends on your expectations. Have you tried just recording with the ipad and built in mics and garage band? That should be good enough for practice. A step up would be an external mic like the Shure MV88 or Apogee MiC. Those are $150 or so, so that's half your budget right there. You have a way to listen? Good headphones is probably the best option so you could spend your other $150 on that.

Another approach is a portable recorder like a Zoom H2N, H4, or H5. They are easy to use - fairly foolproof, and sound excellent. You could get an H2N and a good set of headphones for your $300.

The computer-based approach is more flexible, but costs add up, and there's a learning curve. There's free software, so that part's easy. A low end audio interface runs in the $100-200 range. Then you need at least 1 mic, preferably 2, minimum $100 each. Mic stands, cables, and you still need decent monitors or headphones. There are ways to get this stuff for less, like look at Sweetwater's Home Recording bundles:

Here's one for $299, mic, monitors, interface, everything you need, but I have to be suspicious of the quality at that price

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...-recording-kit

This one seems more realistic, tho still pretty low-end, and uses headphones instead of monitors:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ording-package

[Daniel Grenier]

For your stated purpose, I’d have to agree with Doug with a simple Zoom H2n for a low cost, easy to use option with very decent results. I use mine a fair bit with my guitars but it’s also mobile for other types of recording.

[Cachecropp]

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll research all the above mentioned options. I want to be able to study and review my own playing, share it with others, compare guitar sounds when trying different strings, and use it to help in song writing. I have Bose headphones, so assuming they should fit the bill, I’m really looking for the best way to capture the audio onto laptop or IPad. I have more storage on the laptop so would prefer that route if possible.

[Doug Young]

I'd vote for the zoom recorder as your best option. They record to an SD card, which you can transfer to your computer if you want. They can also connect to your computer and act as an interface. With a USB adaptor, it would probably work with your ipad, tho I haven't tried that. There are so many things that can go wrong when you first start recording, having a simple all-in-one device should "just work". They sound quite good, many of the people who post here are posting recordings done with them. All my You Tube videos use a Zoom H6, tho I use external mics and mix using good studio monitors, which raises the quality somewhat. A self-contained portable recorder bypasses a pretty steep learning curve, so you can focus on what you want to accomplish.

Bose headphones aren't known for "accuracy" - what you hear thru them may not be quite what it really there, but if that's what you have, I'd start with that.

The biggest challenge most people have is room acoustics. You'll record, and it will sound distant, or boomy, or like you're in a well. That's not the recorder, or the mics, or your guitar - its your room acoustics. Treating a room to sound good would run more than your budget. With a portable recorder, at least it's easy to try different rooms, different places in a room, even different places like a friend's house, where you might just be able to find decent room acoustics. With close micing, a furnished living room often isn't too bad.

If you're just trying to listen back to practice sessions, this won't matter, but if you're trying to evaluate guitar sounds, things get very tricky quickly.

[Cachecropp]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I'd vote for the zoom recorder as your best option. They record to an SD card, which you can transfer to your computer if you want. They can also connect to your computer and act as an interface. With a USB adaptor, it would probably work with your ipad, tho I haven't tried that. There are so many things that can go wrong when you first start recording, having a simple all-in-one device should "just work". They sound quite good, many of the people who post here are posting recordings done with them. All my You Tube videos use a Zoom H6, tho I use external mics and mix using good studio monitors, which raises the quality somewhat. A self-contained portable recorder bypasses a pretty steep learning curve, so you can focus on what you want to accomplish.

Bose headphones aren't known for "accuracy" - what you hear thru them may not be quite what it really there, but if that's what you have, I'd start with that.

The biggest challenge most people have is room acoustics. You'll record, and it will sound distant, or boomy, or like you're in a well. That's not the recorder, or the mics, or your guitar - its your room acoustics. Treating a room to sound good would run more than your budget. With a portable recorder, at least it's easy to try different rooms, different places in a room, even different places like a friend's house, where you might just be able to find decent room acoustics. With close micing, a furnished living room often isn't too bad.

If you're just trying to listen back to practice sessions, this won't matter, but if you're trying to evaluate guitar sounds, things get very tricky quickly.

Wow, thanks. It all makes sense. Also, this solution fits what I’m trying to do because I’m not sure if will ever go down the rabbit hole of more professional recording.

[Cachecropp]

I’m looking at a bundle for the Zoom H4N which includes a Zoom ZDM-1 mic and Zoom ZHP-1 headphones. If anyone has knowledge of the mic and headphones let me know. Maybe it’s better to start with the plain H4N and then add a mic later if and when I decide to plunge further into the abyss.

[jpmist]

Originally Posted by Cachecropp

I would like to begin recording my guitar playing for my own education, listening purposes. So I have a laptop and an IPad. I need a microphone, recording software and any accessories to make this work.

What is the best low priced setup to give me the most real and accurate acoustic guitar sound while recording in my home office?

If you have a Mac you'll definitely use GarageBand. You have GarageBand on your iPad but I can't help you there as I've stuck with GB on my Mac. The issue with tablet's will be getting Microphone input to it with an adapter - something like this - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...mm_to_usb.html

If you have a PC, first step is getting a Digital Audio Workstation program (DAW). There are free one's https://midination.com/daw/free-daw/best-free-daw/

Next you need a USB interface. Be sure you get one that offers phantom power so you'll have a wider variety of mics to use - https://consordini.com/best-budget-a...ces-under-100/. Some of the interfaces come with a free starter DAW program

Starting out, headphones will work to play along with your tracks and add additional vocal or guitar tracks. Better to use headphones that completely cover your ears as opposed to open air types to reduce potential feedback. Maybe down the road you might want to use external speakers to help finalize how your tracks will sound.

Possibly controversial but any $100 starter microphone will do. I say that because I have 4 mics I've collected on favorable reviews and for my purposes I can barely tell them apart. Just as it takes a while for guitar players to educate their ears for guitar tone, I imagine there's a similar process for microphones.

Home recording is a fun hobby and a great way to improve your playing and singing. I'd imagine the Master List here will be worth scanning. Best of luck with it!

[Rudy4]

Doug's recommendations are spot on.

I have several different "home recording" setups from handheld recorder (Tascam DR-05) to dedicated multi-track recorder (Zoom Livetrak L-8) to PC setup with audio interface, Reaper DAW, and Presonus powered monitors.

I'll add to the previous suggestions that a small handheld recorder has a lot of advantages for you. My Tascam DR-05 handheld works really well.

The quickest, easiest way to get quality recordings is to pair a handheld recorder like the Zoom or Tascam with a boom microphone stand to easily position the recorder for the best microphone positioning. You can use a camera tripod if you already have one, but the boom stand offers easier recorder positioning.

Those two items and a good set of headphones is all you really need, but it's easy to port your recordings over to a computer if you want to do any editing or transfer them to cloud storage or website posts.

[Cachecropp]

Originally Posted by jpmist

If you have a Mac you'll definitely use GarageBand. You have GarageBand on your iPad but I can't help you there as I've stuck with GB on my Mac. The issue with tablet's will be getting Microphone input to it with an adapter - something like this - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...mm_to_usb.html

If you have a PC, first step is getting a Digital Audio Workstation program (DAW). There are free one's https://midination.com/daw/free-daw/best-free-daw/

Next you need a USB interface. Be sure you get one that offers phantom power so you'll have a wider variety of mics to use - https://consordini.com/best-budget-a...ces-under-100/. Some of the interfaces come with a free starter DAW program

Starting out, headphones will work to play along with your tracks and add additional vocal or guitar tracks. Better to use headphones that completely cover your ears as opposed to open air types to reduce potential feedback. Maybe down the road you might want to use external speakers to help finalize how your tracks will sound.

Possibly controversial but any $100 starter microphone will do. I say that because I have 4 mics I've collected on favorable reviews and for my purposes I can barely tell them apart. Just as it takes a while for guitar players to educate their ears for guitar tone, I imagine there's a similar process for microphones.

Home recording is a fun hobby and a great way to improve your playing and singing. I'd imagine the Master List here will be worth scanning. Best of luck with it!

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Cachecropp

I’m looking at a bundle for the Zoom H4N which includes a Zoom ZDM-1 mic and Zoom ZHP-1 headphones. If anyone has knowledge of the mic and headphones let me know. Maybe it’s better to start with the plain H4N and then add a mic later if and when I decide to plunge further into the abyss.

No idea about the zoom mic or headphones. Unless it's a screaming deal, I'd start with the H4N and see how that works for your needs first. The built-in mics will record in stereo, which may be helpful, depending on what you are recording (solo guitar? guitar and vocals?). For, me the biggest benefit of having external mics is that I can do different stereo mic placements instead of being limited to the built-in XY stereo mics. If you're recording guitar and voice, then separate mics for each might be useful. External mics can also be better quality, but I'm not sure a $79 podcast mic will be a noticeable upgrade over the built-in mics, and with only 1, you'd be getting mono instead of stereo, which might be a "downgrade". Of course, you can use them together, so stereo on the guitar, external mic for voice would be useful, too, if thats what you're doing.

[Cachecropp]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

No idea about the zoom mic or headphones. Unless it's a screaming deal, I'd start with the H4N and see how that works for your needs first. The built-in mics will record in stereo, which may be helpful, depending on what you are recording (solo guitar? guitar and vocals?). For, me the biggest benefit of having external mics is that I can do different stereo mic placements instead of being limited to the built-in XY stereo mics. If you're recording guitar and voice, then separate mics for each might be useful. External mics can also be better quality, but I'm not sure a $79 podcast mic will be a noticeable upgrade over the built-in mics, and with only 1, you'd be getting mono instead of stereo, which might be a "downgrade". Of course, you can use them together, so stereo on the guitar, external mic for voice would be useful, too, if thats what you're doing.

No singing at this time. The world just isn’t ready for that yet. 😂 Just looking to record my guitar playing, to record my progress and do the same for my kids as they learn music.

[ChuckS]

I agree that a handheld recorder is a really good option. I'm only familiar with a couple of the Zoom models. Being able to plug in an external mic, or two, allows some future growth of this 'hobby' if you decide to go deeper. I wouldn't get a bundled deal; instead I'd wait until I knew better what I wanted to do and what gear would be a very good choice.

However, I think the biggest factor in deciding on an entry level handheld recorder vs an interface/laptop based system is how much of a benefit portability would provide. If portability is a big deal, and you don't want to put in much time / effort in learning recording then the handheld route could be best. If portability is not a big deal, and if you think you want to 'tinker' around and put in time / effort learning and experimenting with many aspects of recording then an audio interface / laptop system may be the better choice.

Whatever you decide won't be a hinderance to your starting out. And, if you keep at recording there is a strong possibility you'll upgrade over time no matter which route you start with.

[kurth]

well...you mention songwriting....so I'll go against the grain and say an interface will be vastly more utilitarian if you intend to refine or add tracks. As well, ipad garageband music capability is pretty advanced and then you can add cheap apps like nembrini acoustic to refine your tone. Or usually you get a free basic pc/mac daw with any new interface. And for cheap mics, I'd recommend the mxl990, if you might want to add voice tracks, or a shure sm57 for just guitar. So a cheap interface, like a presonus or focusrite, and a cheap mic should get you in under 200bucks. And with an interface with 2 in, if your guitar has electronics, you can record multitracks of the same performance and blend them inside the daw, for even more variation. Nembrini also has a pc version for their acoustic preamp which isn't expensive. In a daw, you can go from untouched recording to the sky's the limit. And you'll need a cheap mic stand, obviously, and watch some youtube videos about how to best place the mic for recording acoustic guitar.

[Rudy4]

As a songwriting tool I find a PC or laptop to be buzz kill to the creative process.

The best possible aid for the songwriting process is a voice recording app if you have a smartphone or a small handheld recorder to keep close by to where you are playing. Sometimes a great song idea is as simple as humming a melody that pops into your head.

A DAW and all it's constituent support hardware is great for multi-tracking or editing, but something QUICK that only needs a couple of button pushes to capture song ideas is ideal.

With a handheld recorder I can capture an entire song idea while I'd still be waiting for a laptop to boot up.

The best of both worlds might be a dedicated recorder like a Zoom R8 or the new Zoom Livetrak series of mixer/ recorders. You can QUICKLY record a song then add more tracks to flush out something into a more finished form.

Often these types of machines are better for great sounding very low noise recordings rather than working with a machine that does your word processing, photo editing, etc.