So I want to know what I need to get set up to be able to record myself singing and playing acoustic guitar (mainly playing right now). For the time being, I'm looking at cheap...just something to use as a practice tool to help hear my mistakes and such until I get better.

I would think I would want to go digital, although that jumps the price up a bit. The lowest thing I've seen is the little Fostex MR8 setup that runs around $250, $300 if you get a kit that includes crappy mic and headphones from Musician's Friend. Is this a way to go, or should I not discount tape as an option?

One more question...what is the best type of mic I should be looking at: condenser, vocal, etc.? I have no clue where to begin with this stuff.

This is the Fostex kit I mentioned above...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=240340

you can get these two mic's together for $99 and they sound pretty damn good to my ears. One mic for the guitar and one mic for your vocals.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=273166

i'll let others debate HOW to record the music, since my system is out of your price range.

i just re-read your thread.
if you REALLY just want something to hear what you are doing and hear the mistakes and such - and not record for actual recording reasons

i use this for demo'ing and recording my live shows (for the same reasons, to hear my mistakes and such)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008E ... 1?n=172282

i can post an mp3 of one of my demo's if you want an idea of the sound quality.

hmmm, I'm probably looking for something I can "grow into" so to speak. I'm not sure the digital voice recorder thing would cut it...

the sound quality is shockingly good, but you can't multi-track or like you said "grow into" it

Cool. I actually have one of those laying around the house I never use, so at least it can get me started while I look for something else. Thanks for the suggestion.

That fostex looks alright, but I gots two gripes: The "modeling and guitar distortion" stand no chance of being any good, and are not a selling point. But the bigger concern is the memory. Is that a removeable compact flash card? How long does the stock 128meg card let you record for? Why don't they tell you? If it is removeable, then cool, you can get 1 gig or more for not too much $. Sounds like it'd do what you want.

if you've got a decent computer, i think that the protools m-box just went on sale at guitar center, it's comprobable to the other system you were looking at, and being that they are trying to upgrade the line, you can probably find it for a decent price.

It is removable, from what I read in reviews. Apparently that was everyone else's gripe as well...the stock card only allows about 3 minutes of recording time. I heard ill of the modeling and distortion as well, but figured that could be overcome by whatever boxes I wanted to use in line. Since this is all acoustic for now anyway, I wasn't too worried about it. Still looking.

Cool, I'll look into it. Does it come with software, or is it just a means of "plugging in" to your computer?

Here's what I currently do:

Guitar and/or Vocal Mic (SM 58)

into

BR-8

into

PC w/ Audacity

(Audacity is free)

The sound quality is iffy and the editing features are hilarious, but I've found this to be a much more reliable way of doing things (and converting to mp3/wav is a click away).

The only catch for you would be getting a mic and some kind of analog-digital converter, a la my BR-8. I'm certain you can find something for this at Radioshack...I used to use the BR-8 the way you propose employing the MR8, but why bother? I say just go straight into the PC. Sure, it's not "pro" and whatnot, but neither are most options under $3-10K (when you factor in everything, preamps, compressors, Digi002, etc).

http://www.samsontech.com/products/prod ... &brandID=4


http://www.zzounds.com/item--ZOMPS04

Korg PXR-4

digital four track with a decent built in condenser, you can plug in direct, you can plug in another mic if you want, USB, fits in the palm of your hand.

I'd just get an mbox or sonar if i were you though.

So why do you say this out of curiosity? I like the looks of the Korg you reccomended, but is it not as user friendly or something?

Learning curve is pretty easy, the manual is laid out intelligently.

But it's a couple hundred bucks, and for 1 or 2 hundred more you've got a way easier time of doing edits or punches because you've got a GUI to work with on your computer monitor, and sonar let's you use soft synths pretty easily.

but if you want to be portable, it's hard to beat that Korg. Plus you can make wicked concert bootlegs way easy, but it bounces to MP2. Although they might have upgraded that in the four years since i got mine.