# Audacity/Basic Home Guitar Recording?!



## canadiangeordie (Jan 10, 2009)

Hey

Im looking out for something basic to nail some guitar tracks down, then pass to our drummer & vocalist to invent some tasty fills and vocal lines. Im a complete recording novice and not too handy with the tech aspect of computers but ive heard Audacity is a nice easy program to use. 

Any recommendations? What else would i need aside from my guitar to get recording using this or a similar program?

Thanks


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

I use Garage Band ....but that's a MAC thing


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

I have been using Reaper. 

This an amazing nuts and bolts thread. Get a beer... it's really long but basic.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=29283


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

lbrown1 said:


> I use Garage Band ....but that's a MAC thing


How do you interface your guitar to the Mac. I have a Macbook and wanted to give that a try.


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

Stratin2traynor said:


> How do you interface your guitar to the Mac. I have a Macbook and wanted to give that a try.


2 ways.....

I use a MAC mini but the MACbook should have the same "line in" jack on it. (i's a mini jack so you'll need an adapter to shrink it down from 1/4 inch)

so - plug your guitar straight into the MAC into the Line In jack,,,,,and use the various "real instrument" effects or whatever available when setting up the garage band tracks or....

plug a mic into the line in jack and mic your amp.


Garage band lets you also use a whole pile of included loops or - drag an entire MP3 into your Garage band project from Itunes - i.e. a backing track or whatever.

..it's 1 track at a time....but seriously - it 's dead easy


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

I tried Audacity but couldn't get it working with Vista. I don't know what operating system you have, but Reaper works quite well for me.


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

i have portableapps audacity but i can't get some of the distortion vst effects to load...

this reaper...where can i find it?


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

ezcomes said:


> i have portableapps audacity but i can't get some of the distortion vst effects to load...
> 
> this reaper...where can i find it?


http://reaper.fm/download.php

http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaperQuickstart


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Yep, Reaper's a great little DAW but another thing you may need is an interface for your guitar to make sure everything's being recorded at the right level and with no latency (timing) issues. I personally use the Edirol UA-25 as it comes with 2 XLR type inputs as well as two 1/4" jack inputs and the latency is practically nil. It also has two MIDI jacks (in and out) on the back of the unit. You can read more about it here: http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-25/index.html They've also got a new version called the UA-25EX which is supposed to be an improved version but I'm pretty happy with the UA-25 myself.


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