From the very beginning, I have always recorded myself playing guitar to see exactly what I sounded like, and to see if I had made any progress. This is one of the best ways to become a better guitar player. If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, how are you going to fix it?
Back when I started doing this, the tools were very primitive and sounded horrible. Today, you can get near studio quality results for about $120. If you are not already recording yourself playing, then I want to ask you why not? It will benefit you more than you think. You will only realize some things that you need to work on, only after you have recorded yourself and listened back to the track. This is very revealing!
In this tutorial I’m going to show you a fairly inexpensive way to record over backing tracks to see what your playing really sounds like. I have chosen the equipment below based on price, ease of use, and reliability. There are many other ways to record yourself which don’t involve a mic or a guitar amp, but some of those solutions can be more complicated, and frankly using an amp is so much more fun!
This is the equipment you will need assuming you have a guitar, a guitar amp, guitar cable, and a computer.
Microphone – $30
On the example track I used a Shure 57 which many people just have one laying around. If you don’t have a mic, then you can find a cheap dynamic mic like this one for about $30 with a mic cable.
Shure Dynamic mic – Link to Product. You could use a USB mic as well, but I find them a little harder to setup and to control the volume with. Again, this solution was created for ease and stability in mind for about $120.
Mixer – $59.99
Many people are probably going to tell you that you don’t need a mixer, and you should just get a USB soundcard with mic inputs. While these work good, they can be very confusing and unstable. With a mixer that has no USB or Firewire, you are pretty much guaranteed the thing will work for a long time and won’t be replaced by another technology. Plus, you will find tons of uses for a small mixer.
The mixer I recommend is the Behringer Xenyx 802. It has 2 XLR ins and enough connections to do many different things. I’ve used this for live video sound, Skype Guitar Lessons, and as a talkback mixer for recording bands.
You can even use this as a mic input for your video camera if you have one. If not, then you’ll already have this if you decide to get one. Don’t ever use the mic that’s inside the video camera. The quality is horrible! I have a pretty expensive video camera and the mic on that one is bad too.
Behringer Xenyx 802 – Link to Product. $59.99 at this time of writing.
Soundcard – $30
Now that you have a microphone, and a mixer, you will need to connect the mixer to a soundcard. The cheapest, easiest, and most stable device I have used is the Behringer (yes I like Behringer!)
UCA 202U USB Control Audio Interface. – Link to Product.
This little thing works awesome! There is nothing to install and works immediatley when you just plug it in tho your computer by USB. You will need to connect using rca to 1/4″ cable. Just like this one here.
Warning! When you connect to your computer, your computer may use the USB device as your default listening driver. You just need to change your Sounds playback device in windows to change this. Easy!
So now we have a total of about $130 depending on what brands and model cables you get. If you already have a microphone then it’s about $100. If you don’t have a mic stand, just drape the mic over the amp. It’s done all the time in some live situations.
Software
So now that you have all the gear set up, you will need some software to mix and record your audio. Guess what? It’s FREE!
Audacity is a fantastic program that is both easy to use and easy to install. It does not take much computer power and can export mp3s if you download the special file needed.
Download Audacity for FREE right here.
In the video below, I go through the process of recording over one of my backing tracks. The quality I get is really good, and I’m using everything listed above except for the mic I’m using a Shure 57.
Check out the video Below
Listen to what I recorded and exported to mp3 below.
If you have any questions, please add a comment below. Remember if you’re not recording yourself and hearing what you should be practicing, you not going to understand if you’re getting any better.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello John,
Thanks for the post on recording. I have been doing the same thing with Audacity with the solo on Slide Guitar Method 4. Audacity is a great program and you can’t beat the price.
Tim.
Thanks! I saw your video and it sounds great. You can apply the same thing to get a better sound on your videos as well. I’ll be doing a video soon on how to add video that is HD with High Quality audio played over a backing track for minimal cost.
Hi John,
I remember asking you this but can’t recall your answer. Hope you don’t mind me asking again
Is it possible to just plug the guitar into the computer, play the backing track on audacity and record straight away?
Next question…
Have you tried this?
http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/fourtrack/
You can connect direct to your computer with a 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter, but it will not sound too good and will be very low volume. If you want to connect without an amp, you’ll need something like the pod, but I’ve never used them. I haven’t tried the iphone app. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks John.
I still haven’t got the time to experiment the recording.
Btw, nice backing track. Will it be on the next lesson?
Hello John,
Thanks so much for posting this. It is exactly what I needed.
The video does not work for me here. Do you have it somewhere
else I could try? Take care, Mike
Have you downloaded adobe flash player? http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Yes, I have Adobe Flash Player 10.1 installed on my computer.
I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it to make sure I had the latest version.
I’ll have to look into it further then. Sorry.
John,
I can’t see the video either. I’ve also downloaded and installed flashplayer.
Thanks.
I’ve put it in another format so hopefully it will work.
It’s working now. Thanks!
This is great stuff! Thank you so much. I would like to video myself playing acoustic and overlay myself singing harmonies, splice it with other videos while my original audio continues, etc. What software would you recommend? I don’t want to record audio separately and lip synch. I’d like to capture it all together. Ideas?
Thanks! You need video edting software. I used Premiere elements when I first started. You can try it free fro 30 days. Record yourself playing acoustic. Mic on the guitar and mic on the voice. Replace the audio from the camera with the audio from the mics. You will now have a video with great audio. Record anything else and add it to the audio with the mics. It just takes some planning and trying. Hope that helps.
Thanks! It will be part of the next slow blues lessons.