I am wondering if some of you could give me tips on recording flute with my laptop. It may seem ridiculous that I'm asking considering all of the rock bands I've played in, but I have always had someone else setting me up and doing the recording (VERY talented sound engineer-types, which I am not!).

I was looking at the silver bullet microphone but I have no idea which type to get and how you hook it up to the laptop, and then if I do get that mic, I have no idea what recording software to use (is there anything free and VERY simple for someone new to recording software?)

Thanks for any tips you can help me with. I have ideas that I need to get recorded!

By the way, I did go ahead and order the Silver Bullet. I still have no idea how to hook it up to the computer or what software to use with it - so I could really use some advice. thanks

This type of Mic has a 1/4" RCA jack and you can get an adapter to plug it into either the line in or the Mic input of the comp's sound card.
Something like this:
http://www.fullcompass.com/product/353162.html


Although my Mic is different, I use a laptop and I record and edit with the freeware program Audacity (1.2.6 version):

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

a sample of my "practice recordings":

http://www.4shared.com/file/74726419/8a10b242/tel_fa_9d.html

I do not know that microphone, but beware that some dynamic mikes have an output level which is too low for a laptop sound card.

It happens to one microphone I have (a Yamaha YM70S) and it records too low with the input level control set at max. So I have to use another mike that works OK but is of lower quality.

If this happens to you and you have to use that silver bullet model, you may need an external preamplifier. That would be costly and add a complication, but still it can be done.

Also, condenser-type microphones may not work when directly connected to a computer standard sound card, so take it into account in case the silver bullet is one of those.