[FretfulDave]

I did some very rudimentary tests w/ Audacity. You will want to plug your microphone in the microphone input on your sound card. Connect headphones to the headphone or speaker jack. If you just click the record button, it will start recording a track. after you have recorded that track, you can click record again and another track will appear and the previous track will play along. The control box that appears on the left of each track allows you to mute any of the already recorded tracks if you do not wish to hear them at a particular time. You can vary the individual level of each track and the stereo balance in the control box. It is a bit rudmentary as far as user interfaces and the documentation is not very detailed. You will have to play around with it, but it is certainly easy enough to record three tracks, assign them to left, right or across both channels. It should get you started.

Have fun.

Dave

[ded1hed]

thanks bro

what kind of cash would you expect to spend on a medium to high quality recording software?

[ded1hed]

ok i just re read these posts and noticed the one by quinui saying the computer wont power a real mic, so i cant just plug my mic in and go?

[owmmusic]

If you have a mic that requires phantom power (most proper studio vocal mics do), then your computer won't be able to power it. Standard dynamic mics don't need any power, so they should work find as long as you have a cord or adapter to fit into the 1/8 inch input jack on the computer. If you're just getting started in home recording, a regular dynamic mic should be fine. They work great on mic'ing guitar amps and parts of a drum kit. It's just that a lot of studios use larger condensor mics for vocals, but a dynamic mic will work just as well unless you're really really picky.