What do I need to record vocals to my computer?

What do i need to record at home for a band?

• So my band and i are ready to record. We have: Drums,Guitar,Bass,and Vocals. Our Equipment: We have: Drum Mics and over head mics with boom mic stands We record Bass and Guitar Direct. We use Cubase4. For Vocals we use a regular live Mic. We have a mixer. We have pro speakers. We also have a **** load of cords and adapters and extra little equipment. My question is what else do we need?? People say to get an audio interface/sound card for pro quality. If i get one do i need to get one with enough inputs for the drum mics we use 6 drum mics. Will i still get a good sound if i get an interface with 2 inputs What will the audio interface do for me?? how do i connect the interface...is it mixer interface then computer or which way? I need to know soon as possible because were saving money to get new **** and were using our spring break time to record. Any tips or suggestion on tips we should get or do when we record. Before we just used a headphone cable and plugged it from the mixer to the computer and that allowed us to get sound into the computer but its really low quality and we get a little static and stuff.

• Answer:

  all you NEED is... a computer recording software instrument mics (sm57 is great) vocal mics(sm58 is great) your usual gear for playing live(amps, cabs, guitars, just what ever you normally use) and an interface. good speakers(monitors) are also helpful audio interfaces are what turns your analog sound into a digital signal for your computer to read. if you were to use a usb interface you might as well just run the instruments through an fx processor straight into the computer. but firewire and usb 3.0 gives you a faster connection resulting in tons more quality in your sound. interfaces are a necessity in getting a professional sound. do not listen to what other people say. these are the necessities. mixers are really nice to have, but they are definitely not a necessity. same with midi keyboards, and all the fancy stuff in most recording studios. also keep in mind you get what you pay for. obviously if you have a mac pro and pro tools 10 with and a stockpile of mesa amps its going to sound better than a rack mount line 6 into a windows computer running audacity. m-audio make great interfaces and you can even go as low as one input. the number of inputs doesn't affect your sound. you will be doing a lot of unplugging and replugging if you only have one or two inputs though. thats where mixers are really helpful. you just plug everything in once then leave it. hope i helped!