I'm completely new to this, but I am going to start taping shows for a small band that plays the area who said I could just hook into the soundboard. I will be using my laptop, but my question is, are there any programs like Soundforge that allow you to have a free trial version first so I can test some of these out?
Also, as far as hooking my laptop into the sound board do only need L and R RCA jacks that form into a single headphone/microphone jack into the computer?
Record into CDWave - it's free and will do the job nicely. http://www.cdwave.com (http://www.cdwave.com)
You'll need several types of cables, depending on the soundboard. XLR, 1/4 and RCA are the most common outs. You'll go in on the LINE IN on your onboard soundcard, which is undoubtedly a 1/8 jack. Best bet is to buy a high quality RCA -> mini cable, then buy 2 1/4 male/RCA female adapters and 2 XLR female/RCA female adapters at Radio Shack. That means you carry around 1 cable and 4 adapters, and you're ready for pretty much anything.
Eventually you may want to consider stepping up your interface (maybe go USB or get a PCMCIA card) because on board laptop sound cards have a tendency to be noisy. I'd try it out first though before you commit to buying hundreds of dollars of gear.
Good luck!
Dirk
Thank you very much
Great advice Dirk! Always someone willing to help out around here! +T's