Presonus for recording ?

[pf400]

Help a newbie and computer non-savant please ?

I want to record my own playing, add effects, basic editing, solo acoustic-electric fingerstyle.

Best Buy offers Presonus recording gear, see link below.

"PreSonus Audiobox iTwo USB/iPad Recording System"

I don't have an ipad, don't want one. Just bought an HP Pavilion laptop, and plan to hire the Bestbuy "Geek Squad" to come in and set things up. Will ask the person to set up my recording equipment...Zoom H1N and the Presonus.

Do I have to have an ipad?

Will I need the Zoom mic at all?

Thanks in advance.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...-itwo/10432195

[Rudy4]

Take this one step at a time!

It sounds like you now have purchased the HP laptop. If that's the case then get it up and running first; you don't need an Ipad if you now have the HP laptop.

Once you have the laptop up and running... are you using it for internet access?

If yes, then download and install Audacity. This is a freeware open source digital audio workstation that will serve as a way to record, edit, and play back your audio.

If your laptop has a built-in mic then you can record into audacity using the mic and listen to what you have recorded with a set of headphones plugged into your laptop.

Once you get to that point then you can advance by using a USB microphone (which the H1 can be utilized as...) or incorporating and audio interface (like the Presonus...) with an external microphone. The H1 can be used to record directly into Audacity, no "interface" like the Presonus is necessary.

My point is you need to do a little research and understand what you need rather than just buying stuff and trying to throw it all together.

There are tons of Youtube videos to guide you through the basic process, but you need to jump in at a basic level and progress through steps to get you to the point where you want to be.

A helter skelter approach won't lead you to understand what you are doing. Crawl before trying to walk and learn to walk before attempting to run!

[pf400]

Sounds like the perfect plan, thanks so much.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by pf400

"PreSonus Audiobox iTwo USB/iPad Recording System"..... Will I need the Zoom mic at all?

I don't think that Presonus is a particularly good deal. You can get pretty much the same thing for $160 -- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen.

And though that Zoom H1N has two mics, it's really a recorder, not a mic. Yes, you want a separate mic that you plug into the Scarlett, which then plugs into your computer via USB. Then you want software on your computer that recognizes that input and records it onto a track. The great thing about recording these days is, you can then listen to the track you recorded and play along with it, recording a second track. You're multi-tracking!

But it sounds like you want to keep doing some research about all this.....

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

I don't think that Presonus is a particularly good deal. You can get pretty much the same thing for $160 -- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen.

And though that Zoom H1N has two mics, it's really a recorder, not a mic. Yes, you want a separate mic that you plug into the Scarlett, which then plugs into your computer via USB. Then you want software on your computer that recognizes that input and records it onto a track. The great thing about recording these days is, you can then listen to the track you recorded and play along with it, recording a second track. You're multi-tracking!

But it sounds like you want to keep doing some research about all this.....

The Zoom H1 can be used as a USB microphone. The selection screen comes up when it's attached to the computer .

The earliest H1 recorders did not have that capability, but the firmware update has been avaialable on the Zoom website for several years to give the first generation H1 recorders that feature.