Re: [LAU] hardware: recording voice and acc. guitar

schoappied wrote: How cheap and how good ? At some point those two qualities will part ways, i.e. you can have cheap but not good, or good but not cheap. Go with the goodness whenever possible. As good as you can afford. I use a Shure SM58 for my vocals. I haven't done much straight acoustic guitar recording recently, but when I do I use a mixed mic setup. It won't hurt to have one. Again, the deciding factor is usually a combination of needs and available money. Smaller Mackie boards are often recommended because of their price, and you might be able to score an exceptional deal on eBay (and maybe not). I have experience with Mackie, Tascam, and Yamaha mixing boards, they were all good. Other folks here will surely recommend other brands. Possibly. I tell my students that that kind of question is a musical one, i.e. the music should determine what effects are needed. Practice mixing. If you're new to it, make up some lightweight projects for exploring the functions and possibilities of your gear. You'll want to know at least the basics of audio engineering, and you can count on having to learn a lot more as you progress. The real matter is the sound. I switched from using consumer-grade cards, spent some extra money on a decent low-end digital audio system (M-Audio Delta 66) and have never looked back. I can assure you that the difference is appreciable. Best, dp