Stereo line in recording?

[tgc225]

Ok, me and my brother are trying to figure out the cheapest way to record some songs we're playing on the guitar in stereo. I have two computer microphones lying around, so I bought a 2 mono minijack->stereo minijack converter, plugged the two mics into one end, and plugged the converter into the line-in/microphone slot on my laptop, but I don't get any sound. One microphone in the line-in works fine, but using the converter seems to stop all sound.

Anyway, is recording this way possible at all? I have a Dell laptop so it could be just a limitation of my sound card. Are there any other cheap way of doing it? I have Adobe Audition on my computer already so I was just hoping we could record two tracks at once that I could drop into Audition... thanks!

[MikeyH]

It depends on the sound card (you probably have no separate sound card). but most mic inputs are only mono. So, you need a stereo microphone mixer and preamp so you can use all the mics you have and send the stereo into the line input, which almost certainly is stereo.

A pro type multi-channel sound card will also work for you.

[tgc225]

Would it just be easier to get some kind of cheap standalone digital recorder that we could record to, then I could just transfer to my computer for mixing?

[Metoo]

Nope, a prosumer or professional sound card is the best way to go. In this way you record directly to the computer, which is where you are going to work the file.

E-Mu has got some nice sound cards: www.emu.com

I have the 1616M myself (BTW, there is a PCM/CIA version of this card) see here: http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=505&subcategory=491&product=13552

You could try an USB sound card. E-Mu's 0404 is not bad: http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=610&subcategory=611&product=15185 but you will get the best sound quality and performance out of the PCM/CIA one.

Also see here: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=112306

[tgc225]

Thanks, I'm gonna check that out. Basically, we have a guitar, guitar, keyboard, and bass player, and our instruments are dirt cheap Walmart purchases (we're happy with the sound so I guess we don't care). We're just kinda playing for fun during summer break.

I guess we thought it would be fun to record some Beatles tunes with all four instruments to separate tracks (should we be plugging them in directly or using microphones near the amps?) and export that to Audition so I could remix it, since I'm kinda proficient at using Audition.

What kind of equipment would we need altogether to accomplish this? And hopefully really really cheaply (I play the bass and it was $130 :p) I don't really know anything about recording besides plugging a microphone into my computer mic slot and recording like that.