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.
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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?
Thanks! It will be part of the next slow blues lessons.
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 for the helpful article! I’ve forwarded a link to my students.
Very cool article. Very cool wesbite as well. Glad that I stumbles across it. Lots of useful infromation. Rock on! I’m using Garage Band at the moment.
Hi there,
Great blog you have going there. Looks like a great resource for people looking to learn the guitar.
I also wrote a blog recently on guitar lessons.
Thanks.
Hi John,
Hope you don’t mind a sax player enquiring. I have been trying to figure out how to record myself over backing tracks and your site is the most informative I have found.
As I don’t use an amp, can I use a mic to record myself straight into the Audacity software (guess I would have to use headphones for hearing the backing track whilst playing and avoid the track being picked up by the mic) would I need the mixer? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks for the comment. Yes you would need headphones and a mic to put on the saxophone. I love horns. When you give it a shot send me the file. I’d like to hear it. If you have a usb interface then you wouldn’t need a mixer. Something like this would work great. http://www.audiomidi.com/Fast-Track-II-P12662C329.aspx Then you would just need a mic, cable, and mic stand. That audio interface comes with Pro Tools as well.
thank you from France John for all your lessons (Ive got the all blues lessons and some of slide) and i got very good progression since 1 year
everething becomes simple with your very clear explanations
why don’t you make more lessons on the recording ? how to do a good backing tracks like you do ? how to uses effects….? how you mix it …l
thanks
Jean-Christophe
Thanks a lot. I will look into making some tutorials on how to make backing tracks. I use Beta Monkey to piece together the drums with Pro Tools and sometimes use the elastic audio plugin to get the tempo right.
http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/
Thanks for the comment.
John
Hi John Tuggle
Thanks for this post, it’s a lot of advantage.
Let’s me ask you some thing before i’ll buy Behringer Xenyx 802
I saw the specification of enyx 802 , that show output from main outputs connect to 1/4 TRS jack but the Hosa CPR 203 that you recommend is type of TS jack.
So, i wonder that can also use TS and TRS jack?
Regards from Thailand
Sakarn S
Hi. Look nice. I will send this link to a friend of my. I think he will like it. Good site 2.
Hey, great post–lovin’ the pictures. I’m going to show this to my students!
Great post. I’m new to Audacity and the video tutorial was just what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks for another excellent post. Where else could anybody get that type of information in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.
Hi, Just one question if i may
When i record from my amp and i have the background music playing at the same time, why can’t i hear the background music when i record?
ahh =/ when will the slow blues lesson come up then? because i got everything set, only that when i want to record i can’t hear the background music, there for i dont know what to play. I play from my amp (mustang by fendeR) Thanks man
You need to have speakers set up to your DAW. It’s different depending on how your computer is set up.
Hi john,
I’m new to the recording world. I mainly play nylon strings.
I’m looking for something that I can record two guitars and voices (4 mics?) and/or also add other virtual instruments to my playing ( like a virtual flute or piano, etc).
How can I do this??. I really like your parameters about something simple, realiable and easy to use. Can you please guide on what to get (if windows system better, I don’t have an apple comp and they r expensive).
Thank you very much!!
Hi John!
I’ve always had trouble with recording, this time I would like to record me playing a cover to Slash by listening to the music myself on an mp3 player and have that down. After, i wanted to put in that mp3 file after and sync them together. How do I do this? I have windows so no apple products will help I dont think.
I must be a complete idiot because I bought exactly what you have & cannot get any sound on playback, so I have no idea if my lead is being recorded. What am I doing wrong? I’m sure the list is very long, but please be patient with be because I’m an idiot!!!
In audacity go to Edit – Preferences- then select whatever device is connected for Playback.
What if I own roland quad capture audio interface. That doesn’t have line inputs. How can i make it communicate with mixer? thanks!!
Sorry I’m not familiar with that piece of equipment.
Hi would there be a prob if i connected it into a behringer 502?
Should be fine. Just less preamps.
Hi. I bought a Behringer X1204, it has a USB connection and I was wondering how I can play a song on my computer while playing my guitar with the song. I am so new to recording and right now I am using my camcorder’s mic and I have my stereo speaker close to it and the guitar amp next to it and it’s bad. I downloaded Audacity today and watched some videos on “How To” but I am trying to figure out how to use my mixer to record to my PC (not MAC). I like playing along with a song (MP3) in my youtube videos. One guy did a great job with Jesse’s Girl and even had the Tablature up (I’ll try to figure that out later!). Or there is a guy who did a nice job on “The Cars’ You might think” and I am not sure how he got the “compression” down on his gear but it looks like he used a MAC.
So, I would like to learn if you have any links or suggestions I would appreciate it. Again, I am so new to recording anything and just have the camera skills down! LOL But not the usage of plugging a guitar for my ‘cover (by ear)” lead and rhythm and the other is to get the song to sync with the guitar together (sorry, tough to explain as a newbie!). Thanks
Nice post. How would be recording a video of my guitar playing over a backingtrack, having the audio direct to my laptop.
was not precisely what i expected but nevertheless i’ll take it