Guitar Gear Forum

I am "older" an fairly new to Acoustic guitar (2 years self taught). I currently record on my galaxy 3 an put on my pc .What is the best novice way to get a better sound?? I dont mind spending a few bucks but i dont want a recording studio in my house...Please give me some ideas...Thanks !!!

Well I'm assuming you have a computer already.

You could buy a little USB audio interface of some sort and a mic. Most interfaces will come with some kind of "lite" version recording software (Cubase, Pro Tools, etc.) packaged in with it. A basic 2 I/O interface with built in mic preamps will do it. The only difficult part of it is figuring out which one to get, coz there are a whole bunch to choose from. Focusrite, M-Audio, Lexicon, Presonus, etc... pretty much everyone does one.

Or if adding a USB interface and a mic and stand already sounds a bit too "recording studio" to you, you could look at something like:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/H1

Depends what you want to do with recording really. If you just want something to be able to record single guitar but in better quality than with your phone, probably the Zoom or something like that will do fine. If you want to be able to build a song, adding layers and different instruments 'n' whatnot... then yeah, you probably want to look down the audio interface path. You could buy a standalone multitrack recorder but really... unless your computer is a disgracefully old pile of junk, it'll be more cost effective to get a basic interface and use your computer.

Just get Reaper as software. After you get a hang of that, take a look here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/low-end-theory/733514-post-5-your-most-used-free-plugins.html

As stated above, there's a ton of small usb interfaces available. Here's some that are supposedly not too bad: Native Komplete 6, Steinberg UR28M, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, Roland Quad-Capture.

Thing with acoustic guitar is that you need a good sounding room to record it in. As for mic, the more expensive the better. But something like the Audio-Technica AT4040 should work well.

Then, you'll obviously need something to listen the music through. Take a look here: http://www.attackmagazine.com/features/ten-best-nearfield-studio-monitors/

Or you could just go with headphones, AKG K240 has been a staple for decades.

I'm finding Garage Band very easy to use with great results. I record onto my iPad and then send the file to my Mac and mix from there.