I Want to Record and Play Back

[RLHofer]

I posted this elsewhere and only got a couple of views; so, maybe here is a better place(?).

 

I'm a 61-year old noob. I forget things. I want to be able to record riffs so I don't have those moments... "Now, what was that I played yesterday?"; I want to be able to record them and pull them back up for review. I'd also like to be able to play some of my favorite old bands/songs at half-speed yet retain the original pitch, so I can learn to pick out the leads. Is there software I can load on my laptop to be able to accomplish all this? Will Jamvox do this? Or would a hardware unit/recorder be better, one with a USB port that I can plug in my favorite music on a thumbdrive? Thanks in advance.

[desertbluesman]

I would suggest a decent USB audio interface (see links below), and a good recording application for your laptop. I think Reaper is a well thought of and relatively inexpensive recording application. Others may well have better advice.

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/m-audio-m-track-plus-with-pro-tools-express

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/presonus-audiobox-44vsl-usb-2.0-recording-system

 

As for forgetting things, welcome to old age amigo, I am 71 and wrestle with the "I can't remember s**t disease" like all the other oldies in my neighborhood. You can mitigate that with diet and exercise so it does not progress.

 

Welcome to the forum.

[Larryz]

+1 on forgetting a little bit of everything due to my senior moments (63 years of age) but I just keep on playing anyway. I use my Digitec Looper to help me out from time to time and can record 99 songs, chord patterns, riffs, originals, etc. I can off load to my computer and record 99 more if needed. And, play along with the play backs. I'm going to start writing my own stuff and hope I can at least remember my own tunes LOL!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Devices like these can help:

 

Boss Micro-BR 4 track

http://www.guitarcenter.com/-i1169092.gc

 

Boss Micro-BR 80

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BR80/

 

Pocket POD

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-Pocket-POD-Guitar-Multi-Effects-Processor-104391875-i1173933.gc

 

Tascam GT-R1

http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-GT-R1-Portable-Guitar-Bass-Recorder-105125306-i1401677.gc

http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-DR-1-GT-R1-Accessory-Kit-105020473-i1402140.gc

 

Korg Pandora Mini

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Korg-Pandora-Mini-PXMINI-Guitar-Multi-Effects-Processor-H70754-i1746466.gc

 

Korg Px4

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Korg-Pandora-PX4D-Guitar-Multi-Effects-Processor-103381554-i1124641.gc

 

Korg Pandora Stomp

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PandoraSTOr/

 

Korg Px5

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Korg-Pandora-PX5D-Guitar-Multi-Effects-Processor-104821715-i1387080.gc

 

Here is a visual comparison of (left to right) Tascam, my PX-5 and one of my Px4s to my old Aiwa cassette player:

 

http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s593/AJA1967/image_zps81e80cc0.jpg

 

Only the Tascam has decent acoustic recording capacity. All DO have features like tuners, metronomes, drum synthesizers, and digital amp & pedal modeling.

 

So with decent headphones, you can rock out like you were playing Texas Stadium. And yes, they are all about the size of an old Walkman.

 

The ones I own: the Tascam has the external mics, a phrase trainer (loop & slow down stuff for practicing), and takes SD cards. Both it and the PX5 can connect directly to your computer via a USB port. The PX4 is discontinued, but it can still be easily found. It is less powerful than the PX5, but, oddly, the PX5 does not have a belt/strap hook.

 

The ones I don't own: The Line6 PocketPOD is, I believe, the most popular device like this; the Boss might be the most powerful (and priciest); the Pandora Mini is the smallest (its about the size of a stack of business cards), cheapest, and least powerful.

[RLHofer]

Thanks for the replies; lots to investigate.

[Winston Psmith]

My one suggestion would be to look for something with a USB interface, rather than a small unit that uses, or depends on SD memory cards. I have a handful of old synths & samplers that use now-extinct memory cards, or floppy discs, and I finally gave up on buying anything that used external storage. Fortunately, I have back-ups for all this ancient gear, but it's not the sort of thing I can buy at Office Mega-Mart anymore, if one goes bad.

[russclan]

You didn't mention a budget, but I'll take a stab here.

 

First, +1 on the Reaper suggestion. A DAW that can compete with the big boys (ProTools and others). Hard to believe it's so cheap. It'll do everything you need it to, and then probably stuff you didn't even know could be done at all. A great value, and yes, you'll have to spend a few hours learning the basics, but it's time well spent, IMHO. $60 gets you two full versions worth of updates. Here's the link .

 

Here's a simple interface, assuming you don't already have one. This is just an example, I do not own this, but just to give you an idea. The preamp on this might very well suck eggs, but will likely sound good enough for your purposes. Behringer UCG102 @ Musician's Friend .

 

So, for ~$100 you're up and running, and with a first-class DAW to boot. Personally, I'd advise opening up the wallet a bit wider for a better quality interface. I don't own any entry-level units, so I won't make suggestions there.

 

Those little hand held units are pretty cool, I suppose, and great for portability, but I tend to find them a bit on the gimmicky side. But I'd still suggest trying some of them out if you're leaning that way.

 

Good luck.