Writing/recording On The Go

[Buter]

I spend a fair bit of time in hotels and I need something for recording/composing. I've always got my computer with me so surely there's a good program with some sort of interface for the guitar to plug into.

What I've been doing up until now is coming up with a riff or a progression and then typing it into guitar pro. Because the sounds you get are so limited with that, trying to improvise or come up with lead lines can be a pain.

I'm not a pro and I don't want to spend the earth, here; just wanna have a bit of a play, really.

Hopefully some of you more tech saavy fellas can offer up some options.

Cheers

Buter

[Akula]

If you want a small and portable device, that you can just plug your guitar into and record stuff... I'm afraid to say it, but I gotta recommend the Line 6 Pod Studio's. Probably the GX model if you just want guitar and no vocals. The advantages are that you can get a decent number of amps and sounds to play around with, the disadvantages is that none of them are amazing (and you may be ridiculed by professionals, who generally look down on most things Line6).

For demo'ing, I'd say its worth it.

[Buter]

Well, at the moment I play through a pocket pod and headphones when I'm away so there's no snobbery issue there

I don't need vocals (I'm actually banned from singing in the European union and most of Asia), but I would want to be able to lay down a rythm track and a lead track as well as having some sort of drum track.

B

[Akula]

Yeah, in that case I'd recommend the Pod Studio. Plug your guitar in one end, PC in the other, and some headphones, and its good to go. As for software, you run the Pod Farm program on your computer and use that to change the amp/effects, then use another program to record - Audacity is a good free one.

[psw]

I use a roland BR-600 8 track portable digital studio if you were to consider a separate device that you could use along side a computer (you can clear the relatively small card into the computer, upload midi into the drum machines and sounds if you like, play into something like free audacity to turn into MP3's, etc)...

BR-600

I got mine 'as new' second hand for half new price as many may move up from something like this. It is extremely tiny and although powerful, it can be tricky to navigate around that tiny LED screen. It will run off batteries but a power pack would be highly recommends, I wouldn't expect it to last long on batteries alone and so get expensive.

What it does offer is amazing for the price though...a full Boss velocity sensitive drum machine full off grooves and fills but of course fully programmable and high quality sounds. It has 8 tracks but also 8 virtual tracks for alternate takes per track as well and can record to CD quality.

A Huge guitar effect library equal to top of the line Boss units...again fully programmable. The stock sounds can be overblown but it is pretty intuitive to get in and create your own and specifically for songs in different banks...particularly useful is they kind of map them over known amp models, so you get amp emulation type things you can start from. All the usual digital effects are in there. Some of the very useful ones for guitar and your use are decent acoustic and bass simulations of various kinds.

There is also a huge mastering suite which can be trickier to get around, but this will help build complete mixes...however a side line to this is a lot of 'vocal' tools...including various mic simulations and pitch correction!

Surprisingly, it also comes with two condenser microphones built into it that do sound surprisingly good.

Basically it is exactly the same device as bigger models like the BR-900 with CD burning on board for much lower price but with less to go wrong and saves to Flash memory so no moving internal parts, though this is restricted to 1GB and clunky...that's where the USB dumping into a PC comes in. It is worth exploring the free software that you can get for the C-900's drum machine as this is easier to program and load into the machine than it is to do it on the machine itself...

It's size is smaller than most notebook computers, very light and compact...there are smaller models that are also good but perhaps not as many features...worth checking out...

...

There are programs of course, you will likely need some kind of USB interface to play into the computer, but the cost of good software can be prohibitive. Even with a program such as Sonar light that often comes with an interface, you are not going to get all the add its like effects and particularly drum machines and programs. There are obvious advantages in it being more graphical and in some ways easier to use for detailed stuff and editing, but the cost could well be far in excess of a portable studio like this.

...

Anyway, I can recommend checking out this one, it sounds great through headphones in stereo and gives you a range of sounds to experiment and inspire...just plug your guitar in and play. It even has an inbuilt phrase trainer for slowing down audio and looping tracks for practice and learning. It has a big learning curve for the advanced functions which I have not yet fully explored, some which I didn't even realize was in there...I bought a DVD that goes through things step by step and even that only hinted at what was in the thing.

I use it for jamming with a bass player and the drum machine mostly, but that and the effects are easy to understand, just plug the guitar in and play really. The down sides are the low memory capacity and the kind of clunky USB interface in order to dump and load from a PC, but it can be done ok. You can work on a bunch of songs at a time of course, but as a practice tool just to play with drums and with headphones it is great...press the red button and it will record...select a bass simulation and you get to play a decent enough bass sounds that sound convincing in the mix, or acoustic even...who knows you may even get to do a vocal...pitch correction is that robotic effect you got on a famous Cher record as an effect when used to the extreme and needs to be applied after the fact, so don't get your hopes up to high with this kind of thing!

Anyway...another option...this one is small, but there are lots of different portable studio devices about that might fit the bill.

[RDub]

+1 for the line 6 stuff. I've got the Toneport, probably too big for travel, but I know they have smaller options. For recording, most come with demo software like Live Light. Most of the feature of the full DAW, but in a 4-track setup. Probably perfect for what you want. If you want ability to do more, look at Reaper, free download but they ask you to pay for it if you like it.

[Buter]

Guys - thanks for taking the time to reply to my question.

PSW - I almost feel that I should buy the BR-600 just due to the effort that you put into your post!

After looking at various options, specifically the line 6 studios GX and the BR-600, I think I will go with the line 6.

The main knock against the Roland is that I don't want to carry another piece of equipment around the world with me; a 10" laptop even becomes a PITA after a while (yeah I know, poor widdle diddums).

The line 6 looks like it will do everything that I need it to do for me - namely just have a means to play with some realistic sounds while I'm downroute and have a means to record something if I like the way it sounds and bring it back to the boys at home for a yeah or nay.

One feature I'll miss that the Roland has is the ability to slow music down without altering the pitch, whatever that is called. 4 years in the USMC infantry then 5 years offshore as a commercial diver (noisy environment and frequent ear drum problems) now noisy airports and airplanes have left my hearing a little worse for wear and I find it difficult to pick out guitar parts at normal tempo.

If anyone else has any other ideas, please feel free to chime in.

Cheers

Buter