Before you can turn your computer into a recording studio, there are a few basics you might wish to review. Today it can be done easily and without major cost.

Any computer that is going to be used as a recording device must have three things:

• A good quality sound card and driver.
• A device to plug in your audio input.
• Software to capture the audio signal to digital format.

The first of these is fairly easy. If you do not have a good quality sound card, you can usually combine the first and second items into an external USB peripheral. Many companies make excellent devices for under $200 that are roughly equivalent to what a state of the art $100,000 recording studio would have only dreamed of years ago.

Rather than play favorites, we will provide a list of manufacturer's and the various devices they offer here. If you do not have one, it is likely that your local music store stocks these or you can even order them online from us.

If you want to buy one for Guitar, Vocals or Bass and do not want to break the bank, you will want to buy a Toneport UX (1 or 2) midi port. You can lpug in either 1 or 2 input from a guitar, high impedance XLR cable Microphone or other instrument and convert the analog signal into a digital one. We highly recommend the Toneport for guitar, bass and vocals becuase of the software package called Gearbox. Gearbox comes with a virtual effects rack and various amp models.