Sample Recording Comparison between Pickup & Pickup w/ mic

SonSprinter

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Aloha My Ukulele Ohana:

I am looking to start making some recordings. Nothing fancy to sell. (Just some pick-strum worship music to play as background music before/after church.)

So I am looking to purchase a used Line 6 POD Studio UX1 guitar interface.

But I am also trying to decide if I should record with microphone in addition to pickup. In which case I was thinking of purchasing this:

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Recording Audio Interface Studio Package (Contains high quality condenser microphone, referencing headphones, and Scarlett XLR mic cable Audio interface includes 2 high-quality Focusrite microphone preamps; unique LED indicator halos Included Software - Cubase LE 6, Focusrite Scarlett Plug-in Suite, Red 2 & Red 3 Plug-in Suite, the Softube Time and Tone Bundle, Bass Station soft-synth, Loopmasters samples 24-bit performance at up to 96kHz sampling, minimum 105dB dynamic range on record and 102dB on playback USB powered portable package; Kensington lockable).

Can any one help me find some recording(s) where I can hear the difference between recording with just a pickup, and recording with a pickup and a mic? Even just a short few strum comparison will be fine.
 
Hmm, well, any comparison you find is going to be essentially meaningless unless it's your pickup and your mic. Sound of each varies so much that I really don't think you'd get anything out of the exercise.

What uke and pickup do you have? And what are you recording on? Windows? Mac? iPad?
 
I'll be recording on a i5, Windows 7 computer.

I have not selected the recording software yet.

My ukulele is a Cordoba 20tm-ce (https://www.cordobaguitars.com/p/20tm-ce), which has a Cordoba UK2000q 2Band Active Piezo pickup.

Yeah I'm just trying to hear a sample of how a recording could improve if you added a mic to a pickup... before spending the money on a mic.
 
My recommendation would be to start with the pickup and add a mic later if needed. The Focusrite package is good but probably overkill. If you can find one of these it might be ideal.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UM2usb

In any case you should be able to get a two input interface for under $100 (and maybe under $50) that will let you start cheap and expand as needed.
 
In general, mic recordings are going to be far superior to pickup recordings. Of course there will be exceptions, and of course recording techniques and equipment will have a huge impact, but generally mics produce far superior results. If you want the best possible sound, get a mic and learn about recording, there is a lot to be learned.
 
In general, mic recordings are going to be far superior to pickup recordings.

Unless you plan on adding effects and such (or mitigating string and background noise), mic recordings are the way to go. Optimally, you'll want to use two mics in a quiet, studio-like environment. Air conditioning and/or heaters tend to wreak havoc on mic'd recordings. Read up on the guitar forums for more info. There's a ton of threads on this very subject.
 
Awesome! Thank you very much. Any suggestions in guitar forums?
 
Can any one help me find some recording(s) where I can hear the difference between recording with just a pickup, and recording with a pickup and a mic? Even just a short few strum comparison will be fine.

Here's what it sounds like when you record solely through pickup.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=184409

WARNING: You won't be able to unhear what's in these recordings, and your ears will likely never be the same.
 
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