Hi! I’m a budding 65 year old restarting/several/times over the years beginning guitar player. Now that I’ve retired and have restarted yet again some months ago, I think it’s actually going to stick!
I can now play the rhythm parts of my oldies and am wanting to add my licks in there.
What I’d like to do is record my own version of my favorite songs and mix then together into a whole.
I’m a wiz with computers, both PC and Mac, and have edited lots of video in Adobe Premier Pro.
BUT, I’m a TOTAL NEWBIE at doing what I’ve described. So far, what I’ve researched is that I can use the Scarlett 2i2, some backing tracks, Audacity, no microphone (I can’t sing), my audio setup and obviously, a computer.
I’ve tried doing my own research on this but I know so little, I am constantly lost down rabbit holes that are WAY over my head.
Would someone please help guide me what to buy to get started?
Thanks!
Joe
Welcome to the community.
You don’t say what you are trying to record. Do you use acoustic or electric guitars, and what (if any) amps or other gear do you have?
In general, you need an audio interface. This can be a standalone one like the Scarlet 2i2 you mentioned.
But, if you use a modern digital amplifier or multifx systems, you may already have an audio interface built into those.
Let us know what kit you have, and we can advise.
Then, for software, you need a Digital Audio Workstation. If you use Mac, there’s Garageband. There’s other options too, but Garageband is probably the easiest starting point.
For other platforms, there’s lots of options too, but Garageband isn’t one of them. Popular DAWs are Ableton, Cakewalk, Reaper, and Ardour.
Some of these are Windows only, others work on Mac or Linux too. Prices range from a few hundred dollars for the full version of tools like lAbleton to free for Garageband.
I use Ardour on Linux which is open source and available for free but I donate towards the project.
You can also use Audacity which isn’t really a DAW, but is an advanced audio recording and editing tool. It may be good enough for simple projects. But if you are a whiz on a computer, I would suggest a full DAW.
Learning to use a DAW is really beyond what can be captured in a post but, essentially, it’s a multi track recording studio application.
The best thing is to check some videos on YouTube, like this one for Ardour:
Or this one for Garageband:
Or Reaper:
Cheers,
Keith
You have just asked EXACTLY the same questions I was about to ask… 
As per my reply above…
Let us know and we can advise further. @joebelter mentioned he had a Scarlet 2i2 audio interface. Do you have an audio interface?
Cheers
Keith
Thanks for the reply! I have a pretty humble setup; just an Acoustic Yamaha FGX700SC (has a line out), a PRS SC Standard electric guitar, a Line 6 Spider-3 15 amp, MacBook Pro M2, and a very high end desktop Windows PC that I use fire for serious VR flight simulator flying. I also have two higher end Sony and Yamaha receivers with very nice monitors for my old ears.
Thanks again!
Joe
If you want to get started quickly, you could just install GarageBand on your MacBook and use the internal mic. You’d also need headphones (wired, not Bluetooth) to record multiple tracks.
I can’t speak for Macs, but I get surprisingly good recordings on my iPad Air this way.
You could do this.
Guitar → amp → 2i2 → Macbook pro using Garageband as your DAW.
e.g.
Hi Joe,
Welcome to the community. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying learning the guitar again. I think recording yourself is a great idea.
I would agree with the other posts. Garage Band would be a fairly easy way to get into recording. You would need an audio interface to connect your guitar to your Mac. The Scarlett 2i2 is a good choice. You could plug your electric guitar directly into the interface and use the built-in amp sims in Garage Band. There are loads of tutorial videos on YouTube that could teach you how to use the software.
I’m one of Justin’s new recommended teachers. Please feel free to send me a message if you need any specific help with anything.
one thing worth pointing out is depending on how your acoustic’s pickup sounds plugged in, you may or may not prefer the sound of it mic’d. that’s a decision you can make later, but worth keeping in mind.
my wife wanted to improve the quality of recording herself (above doing so with a cell phone) so we got a 2i2 and a condenser mic so she could record herself playing ukulele and singing (which she does all at once - no multitracking here).
I can’t get her to actually use it. she’s not a computer whiz and doesn’t want to mess with the software side of it. so apparently I’m going to be the one who actually uses the thing when I am comfortable enough with my playing to make any recordings (and I also will not be singing).
Moises.ai is a rrally cool website to make backing tracks. You can choose which instrument to remove like guitar so you can record your playing instead.
Sorry, Keith, I probably should be more specific…
I was just about to ask @joebelter the same questions as you did, in order to be able to give him some hints…
Anyway, thank you very much for your willingness to help 
I don’t blame her… Even the simplest DAWs like GarageBand can be a lot if you just want to do a simple recording.
On Apple gear, the Voice Memos app is very capable for this sort of thing. I assume there are similar apps for other platforms.
(I’m assuming that this would work with an external microphone and interface, but have never actually done it myself… I like the simplicity of using the internal mics)
she’s making videos to put on youtube for weekly song challenges.
she DEFINITELY doesn’t want to regularly use a DAW to record audio and then get into layering it within a video and all that entails.
I assembled a system that’s about as simple as it can get using OBS Studio (now that everything is set up, it looks more complicated than it is). I even got a bluetooth footpedal (an airturn) for playalongs with justinguitar and truefire and others and it will control OBS and most DAWs so you don’t have the “reach” or dead space in the recording you have to edit out.
in addition to the software looking intimidating, the lighting is a pain. the room where that gear is set up doesn’t have the best lighting. especially when it comes to dealing with the outside sunshine. and we got rid of a bunch of our standalone lamps when we moved into this house with its 3 dozen recessed light fixtures that otherwise provide good lighting, but this one room has lackluster lighting for recording video. and she doesn’t want to buy more gear to make this all work how she wants. lol.
I hear you. For Youtube and other online video, lighting is pretty important, and it can be really tricky to find a space which works well for lighting.
Most of the Youtubers I watch have probably spent more time and money trying to get their lighting setup, camera angles, etc. tweaked than they have on their audio, which is comparatively easy.
Cheers,
Keith
What audio interface do I need to go between my guitar and the other parts?
Not sure what exactly I need to go get…
Thanks
Again!
Really, all I’m trying to do so for example is to play say the Eagles “One of these Nights” and record me playing one track that has the rhythm piece, another the intro, another part of the lick, another the repeating of the low sliding bass note… You get the idea. Optimally, it would be cool record videos of myself just playing the part I want with the other parts I’ve recorded playing in the background. I guess I’d also need to use Moises or something to extract the drum or base parts and have them as a backing track.
Anyway, something like that. I don’t know if I described it so I make sense!
Joe
Sorry, I thought you already had a scarlett 2i2 audio interface. If not, you need to buy an audio interface. The two most common recommendations are the Scarlett 2i2 and the Behringer UMC204HD. I’d recommend using a DAW. You already have one in the form of Garageband on your mac. If you want to use your PC then you’ll need to use a different DAW such as Ardour, Reaper or Cakewalk by Bandlab.
You should decide whether or not you want to use your amp or the inbuilt amps in the DAW. I’d probably just use your own amp because you already know how to set it up for the sound you want and to simplify things at the start.
So basically you do this.
-
Connect your guitar to the amp.
-
Connect your amp to the audio-interface (AI) via the line out jack.(number 9)
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Connect the AI to the PC/MAC via USB.
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Open the DAW (Watch the video I linked in my first post)
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Setup the inputs and outputs. Inputs to the DAW will be the AI. Outputs could PC/MAC headphone socket or PC/MAC Speaker. Usually you set the output to the AI. Then you either plug your headphones into the AI or connect monitor speakers to the AI.
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Learn the basics of the DAW by watching videos.
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Start laying down your tracks. You can Import any MP3 backing tracks if you want. How to do it depends on the DAW.
8.Once you happy with the mix, export as an MP3.
I tried audacity and didn’t really like it. Some DAWs can seem a little overwhelming at first but basic track recording is generally not too difficult.
Are you going to use your PC or your MAC?
Edit: you don’t really need an amp. DAWs have in built amp sims. That means you can plug your guitar straight into the AI but you’ll have to learn how to use the DAW’s amp sim software as well.
i use Cakewalk btw. It’s fully functioned and free.
Any standard audio interface will do. A lot of people use the Focusrite audio interfaces, like the 2i2.
Personally, I tend to recommend the Behringer UMC204HD.
Cheers,
Keith
You could, although in my experience, backing tracks extracted this was are not particularly high quality.
The other option would be to purchase a backing track from karaokeversion or similar.
A further option would be to program a drum and bass track on the DAW using virtual instruments.
Cheers,
Keith