Interface for acoustic guitar and vocals

[sosniecki]

Hello,

I'm looking for a cheap interface to begin recording my acoustic guitar and vocals. I would like to record it live with two microphones. I found a couple$40-$50 dollar interfaces that I thought would work for a beginner like myself. Will these work for what I want to do? Also, none of these have headphone jacks, but wasn't sure if that's something important to have or not. Even if I record live, is it ever possible to wear headphones and hear the reverb on my voice or guitar? Sometimes if I hear it through the headphones is helps me sing better.

M-AUDIO - MIDISPORT 1x1 - 1-In/1-Out USB Bus-Powered MIDI Interface

Buy E-MU Xmidi 2X2 USB MIDI interface | Audio Interfaces & Convertors | Audio Interfaces | Musician's Friend

I appreciate your help!

[sparqee]

First of all, the two links you have above are for midi interfaces not audio interfaces. If you want to record audio you need an audio interface not a midi interface. Midi is for things like keyboards and electronic drum pads.

Check out the sound card wizard here on this forum: Home Recording Soundcard Wizard / Audio Interface Search Tool. It will give you some good ideas about what kind of audio interface might meet your needs. Audio interfaces are unfortunately more expensive than the midi only boxes you found. Also note that many audio interfaces actually include a built in midi interface. Don't let that confuse you.

As for the importance of headphones; if you plan to do overdubs then you'll probably want to use headphones. For example you might record your guitar part and then record a second track of singing where you listen to your guitar track through headphones and sing into the mic. This way you have separate tracks for guitar and voice and you can EQ them differently, add different amount of reverb etc.