How to Record Your Guitar Playing Over a Backing Track [ Update Aug 2012 ]

August 26, 2012 /

From the very beginning, I have always recorded myself playing guitar to see exactly what I sounded like, and to see if I had made any progress. This is one of the best ways to become a better guitar player. If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, how are you going to fix it?

Back when I started doing this, the tools were very primitive and sounded horrible. Today, you can get near studio quality results for about $120. If you are not already recording yourself playing, then I want to ask you why not? It will benefit you more than you think. You will only realize some things that you need to work on, only after you have recorded yourself and listened back to the track. This is very revealing!

In this tutorial I’m going to show you a fairly inexpensive way to record over backing tracks to see what your playing really sounds like. I have chosen the equipment below based on price, ease of use, and reliability. There are many other ways to record yourself which don’t involve a mic or a guitar amp, but some of those solutions can be more complicated, and frankly using an amp is so much more fun!

This is the equipment you will need assuming you have a guitar, a guitar amp, guitar cable, and a computer. Updated August 2012

Computer

PC or Mac Whatever computer you have or purchase, either will get the job done. The Mac is a little easier to get going since you’ll already have an audio editing program installed, Garageband. On PC you’ll need to download Audacity for Free.

AT 2020 USB Mic – $120

I’ve been using this mic for different applications for over a year, and I can tell you that it is very durable and extremely easy to setup and sounds really good. There are cheaper solutions, but this one is really great quality. Link to product. This is an affiliate link and I’ll make a few bucks if you decide to purchase it from clicking this link.

Audio Technica AT2020USB Studio Condenser Microphone

Software

So now that you have all the gear set up, you will need some software to mix and record your audio. Guess what? It’s FREE!

For PC – Audacity is a fantastic program that is both easy to use and easy to install. It does not take much computer power and can export mp3s if you download the special file needed.
Download Audacity for FREE right here.

For Mac – Garageband

If you have any questions, please add a comment below. Remember if you’re not recording yourself and hearing what you should be practicing, you not going to understand if you’re getting any better.

Which is More Important for Tone? The Guitar or Amp

Gibson Les Paul Traditional Plus Demo

55 thoughts on “How to Record Your Guitar Playing Over a Backing Track [ Update Aug 2012 ]”

  1. Hello John,

    Thanks for the post on recording. I have been doing the same thing with Audacity with the solo on Slide Guitar Method 4. Audacity is a great program and you can’t beat the price.

    Tim.

    • Thanks! I saw your video and it sounds great. You can apply the same thing to get a better sound on your videos as well. I’ll be doing a video soon on how to add video that is HD with High Quality audio played over a backing track for minimal cost.

    • You can connect direct to your computer with a 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter, but it will not sound too good and will be very low volume. If you want to connect without an amp, you’ll need something like the pod, but I’ve never used them. I haven’t tried the iphone app. Thanks for the comment.

  3. Hello John,
    Thanks so much for posting this. It is exactly what I needed.
    The video does not work for me here. Do you have it somewhere
    else I could try? Take care, Mike

  4. Yes, I have Adobe Flash Player 10.1 installed on my computer.
    I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it to make sure I had the latest version.

  5. John,

    I can’t see the video either. I’ve also downloaded and installed flashplayer.

    Thanks.

  7. This is great stuff! Thank you so much. I would like to video myself playing acoustic and overlay myself singing harmonies, splice it with other videos while my original audio continues, etc. What software would you recommend? I don’t want to record audio separately and lip synch. I’d like to capture it all together. Ideas?

    • Thanks! You need video edting software. I used Premiere elements when I first started. You can try it free fro 30 days. Record yourself playing acoustic. Mic on the guitar and mic on the voice. Replace the audio from the camera with the audio from the mics. You will now have a video with great audio. Record anything else and add it to the audio with the mics. It just takes some planning and trying. Hope that helps.

  9. Very cool article. Very cool wesbite as well. Glad that I stumbles across it. Lots of useful infromation. Rock on! I’m using Garage Band at the moment.

  10. Hi there,

    Great blog you have going there. Looks like a great resource for people looking to learn the guitar.
    I also wrote a blog recently on guitar lessons.

    Thanks.

  11. Hi John,
    Hope you don’t mind a sax player enquiring. I have been trying to figure out how to record myself over backing tracks and your site is the most informative I have found.
    As I don’t use an amp, can I use a mic to record myself straight into the Audacity software (guess I would have to use headphones for hearing the backing track whilst playing and avoid the track being picked up by the mic) would I need the mixer? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Mike

    • Thanks for the comment. Yes you would need headphones and a mic to put on the saxophone. I love horns. When you give it a shot send me the file. I’d like to hear it. If you have a usb interface then you wouldn’t need a mixer. Something like this would work great. http://www.audiomidi.com/Fast-Track-II-P12662C329.aspx Then you would just need a mic, cable, and mic stand. That audio interface comes with Pro Tools as well.

  12. thank you from France John for all your lessons (Ive got the all blues lessons and some of slide) and i got very good progression since 1 year

    everething becomes simple with your very clear explanations

    why don’t you make more lessons on the recording ? how to do a good backing tracks like you do ? how to uses effects….? how you mix it …l

    thanks

    Jean-Christophe

    • Thanks a lot. I will look into making some tutorials on how to make backing tracks. I use Beta Monkey to piece together the drums with Pro Tools and sometimes use the elastic audio plugin to get the tempo right.

      http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/

      Thanks for the comment.

      John

  13. Hi John Tuggle
    Thanks for this post, it’s a lot of advantage.
    Let’s me ask you some thing before i’ll buy Behringer Xenyx 802
    I saw the specification of enyx 802 , that show output from main outputs connect to 1/4 TRS jack but the Hosa CPR 203 that you recommend is type of TS jack.
    So, i wonder that can also use TS and TRS jack?
    Regards from Thailand
    Sakarn S

  17. Thanks for another excellent post. Where else could anybody get that type of information in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.

  18. Hi, Just one question if i may :) When i record from my amp and i have the background music playing at the same time, why can’t i hear the background music when i record?

  19. ahh =/ when will the slow blues lesson come up then? because i got everything set, only that when i want to record i can’t hear the background music, there for i dont know what to play. I play from my amp (mustang by fendeR) Thanks man :)

    • You need to have speakers set up to your DAW. It’s different depending on how your computer is set up.

  20. Hi john,
    I’m new to the recording world. I mainly play nylon strings.
    I’m looking for something that I can record two guitars and voices (4 mics?) and/or also add other virtual instruments to my playing ( like a virtual flute or piano, etc).
    How can I do this??. I really like your parameters about something simple, realiable and easy to use. Can you please guide on what to get (if windows system better, I don’t have an apple comp and they r expensive).
    Thank you very much!!

  21. Hi John!
    I’ve always had trouble with recording, this time I would like to record me playing a cover to Slash by listening to the music myself on an mp3 player and have that down. After, i wanted to put in that mp3 file after and sync them together. How do I do this? I have windows so no apple products will help I dont think.

  22. I must be a complete idiot because I bought exactly what you have & cannot get any sound on playback, so I have no idea if my lead is being recorded. What am I doing wrong? I’m sure the list is very long, but please be patient with be because I’m an idiot!!!

  23. What if I own roland quad capture audio interface. That doesn’t have line inputs. How can i make it communicate with mixer? thanks!!

  25. Hi. I bought a Behringer X1204, it has a USB connection and I was wondering how I can play a song on my computer while playing my guitar with the song. I am so new to recording and right now I am using my camcorder’s mic and I have my stereo speaker close to it and the guitar amp next to it and it’s bad. I downloaded Audacity today and watched some videos on “How To” but I am trying to figure out how to use my mixer to record to my PC (not MAC). I like playing along with a song (MP3) in my youtube videos. One guy did a great job with Jesse’s Girl and even had the Tablature up (I’ll try to figure that out later!). Or there is a guy who did a nice job on “The Cars’ You might think” and I am not sure how he got the “compression” down on his gear but it looks like he used a MAC.

    So, I would like to learn if you have any links or suggestions I would appreciate it. Again, I am so new to recording anything and just have the camera skills down! LOL But not the usage of plugging a guitar for my ‘cover (by ear)” lead and rhythm and the other is to get the song to sync with the guitar together (sorry, tough to explain as a newbie!). Thanks

  26. Nice post. How would be recording a video of my guitar playing over a backingtrack, having the audio direct to my laptop.

  28. Im confused. The name of your article is recording over a backing track and on your pc tutorial, I see you opening a file of a track and then you placing your mic and playing a few licks. Weren’t we (and you) supposed to hear the track you downloaded and then you playing over it? Seemed from the tutorial other than you opening a track in the begining that you just recorded what you were playing live. I play in a band and have used downloads of that band to not only learn the songs, but also add my own solos to it. I want to add a track or record a solo to an exisiting track and then record it. I just downloaded audacity and was able to download that track, but before I go out and buy a mike I was hoping to hear how this works. Was real hopeful, pulling up your site and then seeing the tutorial vid. But like I said I am confused. Seems like you just recorded yourself with nothing underneath it. Please help.
    Gordon

    • I did play over the track but I was wearing headphones while listening to the track to play over. In the Mac version the speakers were turned on and you can hear the track. Hope that helps.

  29. Nice recording!
    I’m trying to get that kind of mix but I’m getting a lot of line noise and hiss from my laptop to amp set up.
    Thanks for the advice.
    David

  30. I watched your video and notice that you do not hear the backing track while playing your lead.. How do you know when to start your lead if you can hear the back track?

  31. Hello,

    I have been searching the web to find an answer, but to no avail.

    I would like to record a video of playing electric guitar along with a backing track for youtube with my ipad 3. Do you know if this works, and how I would go about doing it? I have an old pc lying about too if that might help?

    Thanks

  32. Is it necessary to use a USB mic when recording through a computer? Because, I want to try recording my guitar playing to see if it’s good when recorded.

    • Hi Gio, You’ll need someway to connect the guitar to your computer. You can either use a mic to record the amp or something like a line 6 POD.

  33. I know this question is out of topic, but how do you set the sound of your guitar from clean to distorted and vice versa? Are you using some pedal or something like that?

  34. Have you ever considered publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites?
    I have a blog based upon on the same subjects you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
    I know my readers would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.

  35. This is a great article. I just bought a MXL 2001 mic which is supposed to be pretty good for guitar and vocals. I plan on using it in my lessons to record students as well, but I will give this a try the next time I try recording over a track.

  36. John,

    I’m going to try this to record my son. What he does is plug his pod into his amp and plays over the guitar part. I want to record him and be able to listen to his recordings (he’s leaving for 2 years and I’m going to miss the constant jam sessions). I’m going to get the mic you suggested – but how will I re-play his songs? What captures the recording?

  37. My question on recording guitar over the backing track. Using this simple set up sounds appealing, but are you recording the amp mic’d and also picking up the backing track through the computer speakers, or just overdubbing the mic’d guitar on top of the alreay recorded backing track. The first method seems like it would be hard to get a perfect mix between the speakers and the amp. The second would mean you can’t listen to the backing track while you are play and recording the guitar. How do you set everything up so you can listen to the backing track and play and record at the same time. Can you give more of a schematic type example of your exact set up used for the demos in this article. It sounds awesome, I just want to know exactly how you got there before I invest in the mic. Thanks.

    • Hi Carl, all you have to do is point the mic away from the speakers connected to the computer. A Cardioid Mic like this reduces pickup of sounds from the sides and rear, improving isolation of the amp.

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