Cheapest way possible...

[jay ratkowski]

I need to record on my computer but I'm tired of investing lots of money into something that I don't like or don't use enough or whatever.

I looked into getting an Echo Mia on ****, but they are all around $80 when all is said and done, I want cheaper.

Right now I have a Sound Blaster Extigy. It has 1/8" mic in, coaxial (I think) SPDIF in, and optical in. There's a MIDI in, but that is not useful.

What I want, is to be able to plug in a single SM57 and be able to use it with Cakewalk or Cubase or some similar run of the mill recording software.

So I either need a cheap-o mic preamp that will hook up to my sound card somehow, or I need a new sound card/interface that will allow me to do what I need.

I'm looking for dirt cheap guys. Like I said, I only need to plug in a single SM57. I don't care about tube preamp quality. If it is comperable to an analogue 4 track in quality, I'm happy.

Find me something! Thanks!

[caprile]

I recommend a Behringer DI box. You can plug your mic or guitar, directly to your existing card's 1/8" input. You can use Cubase, for instance, and record guitars with amp simulator software like Guitar Rig, and vocals straight with the Shure mic.

I believe the name was Behringer Ultra G. Shouldn't cost more than 30 bucks on ****. Believe me, it will sound a lot better than 30 bucks

[jay ratkowski]

EDIT - that won't work I don't think.

Looks like it's designed to take speaker output signals from amps and use it as a direct box from there. I don't need that.

I'm looking for a way to just get an SM57 into my 1/8" input in a reasonable manner.

EDIT AGAIN - I suppose I could just find a dirt cheap analog mixer. Time to go to Music Go Round.

[caprile]

That was not an assumption. The thing works, the DI box can take a speaker output just as well as an instrument or mic output (it has XLR and 1/4 inputs).

Anyway, the cheap mixer is good too!