Beldaran, I need your help: how to record my own music

[GuitarmanTim]

Ok, first off: this topic is for anyone that can help me out but I think Beldaran would be most capable of doing that, so there, that should explain the title.

Now, the problem I have: I want to record my own music with decent to good sound quality. This is my current setup:

Small Marshall 15 Watt electrical guitar amp
25 Watt Washburn bass amp (good enough for me)
50's reissue strat by Fender (mex)
Epiphone Les Paul Standard
Yamaha keyboard with MIDI out
Guitar FX: Boss MD2, best distortion pedal ever, and a CryBaby WahWah pedal (analog)

I can borrow a good mic and micamp from my bandmembers, and a good Semi-acoustic guitar+amp from my neighbour.
For me, this is enough to make the music I want, I can use a software or hardware drummachine or have my band's drummer play something for the percussion part.

Sofar, I've 3 things in mind to record my stuff:
1) Cassette tape record, 4 tracks, around 200$
2) Audiotrak Maya44 Professional Sound Card, 4 stereo in/out jacks, here's a review. (http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=51690) Little over 100$
3) Midiman/M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Sound Card, bout the same as the Maya44, here's a review. (http://www.digit-life.com/articles/maudioaudiophile/index.html) Around 200$.

Right now, I'm leaning towards buying Maya44. But the Audiophile looks good to, here's a pros/cons list:
Maya pros:
Great analoge recording
Low price
Maya cons:
16bit/44.1kHz recording max (so no 24/96)
no digital or MIDI in/out

Audiophile pros:
Great analoge recording
better quality because of 24bit/96kHz recording
digital and MIDI in/out
Audiophile cons:
almost double the price of the Maya

NOTE: I am a mad with a small budget, if need be, then I can buy the Audiophile BUT, I won't unless the quality is really alot greater. I'm getting a new computer in a month, so if I buy one with a soundblaster Live! card then I will also have great MIDI input if I buy the Maya. No digital input/output doesn't matter to me much, I won't use that anyway. The thing is, I wanna know if 24/96 really is so much better than 16/44.1

Can anyone who has every recorded music (semi) proffesionally help me out on this? Should I go for the Maya or the Audiophile or maybe the cassette thing or something totally diffirent? Please don't tell me I should be a stand-alone harddisk recorder because they cost way to much money. I'm not expecting crystal clear, perfect studio-like sound but it's got to be a bit better than what I can get through my 2bit 10buck mic and SB16 now. Would I be able to record something like a 128 bit mp3 with a Maya or Audiophile? I know that 128 bit doesn't say much because I've heard great 56bit mp3s and sucky 320 bit mp3.

Help me out please, I don't wanna buy something that's totally not gonna give me what I want.

[Beldaran]

Ok, I'm glad I caught this topic before it slipped off the front page.

Since cost seems to ba an issue, I should point out that buying a sound card will require the purchase or otherwise illegal aquisition of some very expensive recording software in order to ge the multitrack capabilites you need.

So my reccomendations are as follows:

Give your marshall amp to someone who doesn't know any better and go buy a nice Fender tube amp for $800. It will make ALL the difference in the world. I'm serious. Nothing will improve your sound quality as much as this.:D

I would reccommend purchasing a stand alone multitrack recording unit. Like you said, for around $200 you can get a functional tape unit. However, good music requires good investment. I myself have amassed nearly $12,000 in equipment just to produce a professional sound.

I reccommend that you save extra and spend around $500 for a REALLY NICE 4-8 track recording unit if you are serious. If that's not an option, go with whatever multitrack tape unit you can find, because you can always port music made on the tapedeck into your computer, and unless you are multi-tracking guitar solos or orchestrating a symphony, you probably won't need more than 4 tracks.

Good luck with your purchase and welcome to the insanely addicting world of home recording.:evil:

[GuitarmanTim]

k, thanx man, the software is not a problem, and yeah I was gonna buy a Fender Twin Reverb or Hotrod Deville but damndamndamn they cost a bucketload of cash. That will come in good time. Here's what I'll do:

Buy the Maya, try it out. If I like it, I'll keep it, if it sux, I can always say it doesn't run with my comp and get a refund. The tape unit, well, I dunno, it's a tape, I mean, that already has "bad quality" writting all over it if you ask me. Those stand-alone things look really nice, I agree but I'm not just in a possition to buy one of those. But I'm only 17, if I really wanna get deep into this I can always buy something good later.

Thanx for the help Beldaran.