Recording my dad playing guitar....your help would be nice!!

[handsareme]

Alright, I finally convinced my dad to let me record him playing guitar but my question is what should I use?

Option #1: I have a 12" Apple iBook with Garage band and Sound Studio. No external mic, just the built-in one on the screen.

Option #2: I have access to a CD recorder at my church. He would be able to plug directly in to the soundboard or through effects and I would be able to record him directly to CD. The good thing about this is that I'd be able to play the CD in case he wanted to play bass or sing while I record onto another CD.

Option #3: If any of you have any ideas....let me know!

He's more open to me taking my laptop and going to an empty stairwell for him to record. And I'll post a few of his songs on here once it happens.

Thanks for the help!

[alphatabs]

Well, you'd be suprised how well a built-in mic jack on a laptop sounds. It's not the best, but it get's the job done. And if that's the case, a simple wave editor like audacity would do just fine. I have the Audigy ZS 2 shabangabang with FL Studio. But for your needs, I don't see what's wrong with the laptop. In fact, I use a laptop to record bands live becuase it's convienant.

[handsareme]

hmm...I'm going to a Wynton Marsalis concert tomorrow....how easy would it be to smuggle that in? it's in a smaller venue where the balcony is about 20 yds from the stage. we have 4th row seats in the balcony.

I've used the laptop before recording some drummers and noticed that it was high-hat heavy, as in it picked up the higher frequencies a lot more. I've only used the laptop once to record him and was quite amazed at the quality. As for reverb and other mixing things, I'm not a professional in those regards.

thanks for your input!

[conrad123]

If you have an iBook and access to a soundboard...why not bring the iBook to the chuch and connect the outs of the soundboard to the line in of your iBook?

That's the best of both worlds, I would think

[handsareme]

There is no line in on the iBook. I thought that was weird as well.

[alphatabs]

There is no line in on the iBook. I thought that was weird as well.
well, on some audio cards, the ports are configurable. on my xp tower, i have a built in three port sound card. (line-in, line-out, mic) but i can also configure it in the settings to support surround sound (ft. speakers, re. speakers, subwoofer). The configurations are almost endless. Maybe you can adjust this in your audio settings. (i know nothing about mac)

[conrad123]

no line in eh?.....hmmmmmm

I think you'd be better off using the soundboard still. Worst case scenario, meaning slowest method, you could record a track and then transfer it over to your iBook. Although, mistakes(punch in's) could be time-consuming if you're recording directly to CD.

You could prolly even monitor it thru your iBook as well..

[handsareme]

how would i set that up to monitor thru the iBook?

By the way, I forgot I had this. This is what I got a few months ago with the iBook.


http://s36.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0IFSOU0XL1WVF07DXX6CYBWDD6

[conrad123]

oops..I guess you wouldn't be able to monitor thru the iBook..unless its just playing the existing tracks without the current signal being recorded.

So I guess it'd just be a playback.

[reverend miles]

when i record on my ibook, i open up sound studio and sit about three feet away. great sound quality

[handsareme]

Has anybody checked out that song? I used my iBook to get that one a few months ago. He was just doodling around.

[conrad123]

Sounds cool...

Its suprisingly clean for a built-in mic....I think if you normalized the track(s) before mixing, maybe EQ a bit....you'd be fine. The recording is Mids-heavy...but that's cause its tuned for the human voice.

That's how I used to do it when I had a cheap PC mic...

[handsareme]

Anybody else take a listen?

[handsareme]

so a recent shoulder injury has stopped him from recording for the time being....grr...