Audio Interface vs Handheld Recorder vs Mic into PC

Hi gang,

After starting to check into this forum many months ago, I am so slow to start recording. I am getting closer to beginning though and wonder if you might help me with the pros and cons of which type of equipment to get. I can then do research into brands and pricing separately.

I have nice guitars and amps so know that I want to record via mic rather than direct. I want to record myself (electric guitar) playing solo, with one other elec guitar or with my six piece band (recording practices). FYI, I also have a very current Windows 64 bit laptop. Any way I record, I expect to eventually use the lap or desktop PC to edit and burn.

One one hand, it looks like an Audio Interface and a couple of mics (e.g., an Edirol UA-25 and pair of Sure AM57s) might be a good way to go.

On the other, I might do fine with a portable like a Zoom H2 or H4 or Olympus 10/11. Some of them even give me the ability to plug in an external mic (SM57s perhaps).

Either of the above solutions seems similar in price. The handhelds win for portability and maybe ease of use of course. I assume the Audio Interface would give me near-pro results if I set it up well, especially for recording only one guitar.

Are there other considerations? And how would the laptop alone do for recording (perhaps the band) if I plugged in a decent mic with no interface? Would it then record something like the handhelds?

Many thanks for thinking about this and especially so if you answer.

Hey Joe K,

Love recording and have found a few pretty useful solutions for specific situations...

In order to record a rehearsal, sure you could do the laptop thing but in the name of simplicity might not be the best idea since these recordings would not likely be final take that you are going to compile for a commercial CD. That said, you could pick up something like a Tascam DR-07 (http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-DR-07-Portable-Digital-Recorder-105186159-i1435340.gc). This allows you to record and then transfer to the PC later on.

For laying additional tracks or recording for a CD, I would definitely pick up some kind of interface. I use the Line6 TonePort UX1, which has a few pretty usable features:

- its USB-powered so you can bring it with you and record wherever you are
- has an instrument input as well as an XLR input so in reality you can record two tracks at once (depending upon your software)
- it comes with Cubase LE4 to record and also comes with Gearbox or POD Farm which allows you to either record clean or with an assorted number of models and VERY useful preamps. (I think the preamps are one of their best assets)
- it's pretty inexpensive. I think like $150

I recorded my GTR tracks on the Toneport and brought them to the studio where we did all the other tracks. We were very pleased.

Hope this all helps. God bless.

Joe

once you get the recording bug, sooner or later it will drive you to want a full-featured computer-based rig, so i would go ahead and start assembling the components now rather than investing time, money and brain cells into the portable route.

as many here will tell you, the more you record, the broader your vision gets: "wow, i could do this ... and this" ... so why not start from a place where you can expand indefinitely as your skills and budget allow?