jim -

i use reason to create music, and right now, i’m using cubase to record all acoustic instruments. i have a decent vocal mic (around $500) and in the recodings i’ve done that you’ve heard, i used a fairly cheap vocal mic (around $40) for the guitar. so my set up, was playing and singing at the same time (which caused some time variations, as i wasn’t using a click track_and some quality variations, as i’m simply not that good) running both low-impedence lines through a small mixer and then (this caused futher quality issues) straight into the stock audio card via a 1/8″ jack. it’s really not that bad of a recording, but i can’t jive it with my reason files, because it’s not “studio” quality.

for that, i need to get my butt in gear and go to atlanta and spend some time with my brother-in-law whose a sound engineer for a record label. but he’s busy, and i’m busy, and still it’s no excuse. i think, for a minimul amount of money, you could be set up. get cubase (it’s cheap and easy to use, $250 me thinks) or if you can get an Mbox (which i think you should be able to pick up for around $500) that is the software *and* the Mbox itself, so your guaranteed to get studio quality recordings. then, it’s all up to the mic and the set up of the room (elimination of white noise). if you can dish out another $500 for a good mic, or if you already have one, then isolate the room. you can use blankets or whatever.

if you want, i can send you a copy of all the songs i’ve done, so you can hear the quality (as what you heard via the internet was a *very small* mp3 file, so the quality was drastically reduced), which really isn’t that bad, all things considered. i was graced with the mic and the software, so i don’t have anything in it at all at this point. but even if you could only invest a couple hundred bucks, you’d be squared away.

peace