Setting up your hardware to record audio

Let’s begin by connecting your source to your audio device. We will cover two common scenarios:

• Recording vocals or instruments with a microphone
• Recording instruments connected to your audio device with a cable

If you want to do both (e.g., sing into your microphone while simultaneously playing an electric guitar hooked up via a cable), simply implement both methods simultaneously.

Setting up a microphone

We can use microphones to both capture vocal performances and record instruments acoustically. There is a huge amount of technical literature based on microphones, and for good reason – picking the right microphone and using it correctly (or not) can make or break a recording. A microphone is by far the most important element in your recording signal chain.

While we cannot cover all the details pertaining to microphones, we want to make sure that you choose the right microphone and use it correctly...