I just got an iMac and I have a Zoom H2 in a drawer...

[Phil M]

Is this enough to record simple home demos? I want to mic amps rather than go direct.

 

[David Garner]

Is this enough to record simple home demos? I want to mic amps rather than go direct.

Should work fine as long as you don't want to close mic it.

 

[jaydub69]

That's a great start Phil. Not much less than I use to record ideas and practices.
I often just go mic to laptop (with 1/4" to 1/8" adapter cable).
Works fine to GarageBand.

Here is a short clip from band practice with just one mic to laptop. I think it sounds great-
http://web.me.com/jaydub69/Site_3/Music/Entries/2009/3/30_Flowers_Clip.html

 

[Phil M]

Very cool. I'll have to figure out how to make this work. For right now, it's just going to be for writing in my spare time. I play in a cover band but I'm getting the itch to get some of my original ideas down.

I also have an SM57. If I wanted to close mic my amp, is there a way to interface that with the H2?

 

[jaydub69]

That I don't know. My old partner had the Zoom. At least one of the Zoom varieties has an XLR Hi-Z input. The mic would go into that. Let me know
-john

 

[jbd3]

If you want an inexpensive USB mic you can just plug right in to your laptop, there's that Blue snowball mic. The little stand it comes with is good for close-miking a combo or the bottom speaker of a 4x12, plus it has a -10db pad so you don't blow it up. You can also switch it between cardioid, and, um, whatever the other thing is. It won't be anywhere in the ballpark of an SM57, but with an SM57 you'll also need a bunch of other stuff to get the most out of it, and that gets spendy fast. I use the snowball & garageband mostly to quickly record riffs for later--the higher the obstacles to recording, then obviously the less recording you do--plus I wanted to self-consciously limit myself from opening that economic rabbit hole of huge expenditures! I'd rather spend the money on guitars...

Anyway check amazon, I think you can find those snowball mics as cheap as $75 new, it's a good way to dip your toe in the pool without jumping in the deep end.

Or you can buy an Axe-FX and never touch another microphone in your life. (I don't have one, I am saying that on behalf of my friend who does and has made some great-sounding recordings with it with not much fuss.)

 

[Phil M]

Thanks for that, jbd3. I will look into that snowball mic. Yeah, I definitely am not feeling like spending a lot of money or jumping in all the way right now. You can close mic with the snowball?

 

[David Garner]

Very cool. I'll have to figure out how to make this work. For right now, it's just going to be for writing in my spare time. I play in a cover band but I'm getting the itch to get some of my original ideas down.

I also have an SM57. If I wanted to close mic my amp, is there a way to interface that with the H2?

There isn't a really good way. You can do that with the H4n, but not the H2 unless you want to get a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, in which case you could probably just line in to the Mac with the SM57. What you would do is go through the H2's external mic adapter -- not sure what the sound quality would be like.

You might look on fleabay for a used interface of some sort. I have a Line 6 Gearbox that works pretty well and I paid less than $50 for it.

 

[jaydub69]

In that case I would get the adapter. 1/4" to 1/8". I see that the iMac is not a laptop, so using the cable to the Zoom would be your best bet. Easy cheesy.