Cheap (under $40/£30) audio recording

i am a teenager in my bedroom with a macbook pro early 2011. i have not much room or money so how can i get as good as possible audio recording for me and my band. i think i need audio a line in for my mac. where can i get one and some other recording stuff for under £30


thanks ;D

Free: Download Audacity for Mac - Audio recording, editing and mixing tool. MacUpdate.com
Don't know about hardware.

Yowza! £30 is going to be tough. How many members are in your band?

What I can suggest is download Audacity for free. It's not great but it'll get the job done for the most part and free up your entire budget on a microphone. Multi channel recording is out of the question due to budget constraints so what you will want to do is get the nicest used or new microphone you can find for £30 or less (try and go with a USB mic if you can find one), and record each track one by one.

It's not ideal by any means but on that kind of budget, it's probably the best (and perhaps only) option.

anyone know a way to plug my guitar into my laptop with MainStage 2. then use an existing mic that is really my mums for work to record drums using that input. then finally on to audacity or garageband. i don't have a line in on my mac

You can plug your guitar into your MBP but it will sound like crap.
For a semi-decent audio interface you are going to have to pay about $100 and that may not be able to record a live session with all your bands instruments. Check out M-Audio or Behringer for cheaper USB models.

Can you get a job? Not being sarcastic. I was 14 when I got my first job. I didn't really save any of the money I made because I was, well..... a kid with comics to buy and video games to buy, but hey.. I paid for all the stuff I wanted with the money I made.

Doug

Juke is correct. You really should be running the mics and guitars into a preamp of some sort (whether is be an audio interface, mixing console, or whatever) otherwise your recordings will be incredibly quiet and/or full of background noise. That is why I suggested a USB mic because they don't require the external pre amp.

Oh and your computer should have an audio line in. It's a mini jack and it's usually found right next to the headphone jack (they look identical).

anyone know if this is good Behringer Xenyx 302 USB Mixer & Audio Interface at Gear4Music.com
thanks tom

For something cheap, and is good, AND tube-powered, the ART Tube MP Preamp not only sounds good, but will bring your "line-in" to "line level," which is idea for recording.

I've seen them go for as little as $20 used (in Canada).

They're typically used for microphones as they provide phantom power for condenser mics, and the tube circuit gives a nice warm signal into your DAW.

You CAN plug a guitar straight into it as well, just be careful of the copious amounts of gain this little thing has. Great for acoustic/electrics even more so. In fact, I think I might pick one up for my new Washburn to see what the tracks sound like compared to straight into my mixer.

Behringer USB Mixers are reliable (in a Peavey kinda way), solid devices, and sound decent. If you can afford a tiny bit more, you could have that Xenyx 302 mixer. I've used Xenyx series USB mixers and they sound great. I'm planning on dumping my current 8-channel Yamaha USB mixer for the 12-channel Xenyx USB.

Are you just tracking one guitar (acoustic, electric?) and possibly one mic?

Have you got a 13" or 15/17"?

Guys, remember, if he's got a 13" hes only got one jack for input or output. So plugging straight in would mean he would have to output via internal speakers which sounds awful.

Id probably go for a behringer to get started tbh.

with usb mixe, the usb connection acts as the "main stereo" output. all he'd need to do is connect his speakers to the outs on the mixer or via the headphone jack.

it'd essentially run as a usb external sound card. this is how i run mine on my pc and all my sound is handled through the mixer. i set the volume on my spreakers and control the rest through the mixer and never touch my speaker control.