recording on audacity

hey guys, i play electric guitar, and i would like to record my own stuff now. i have downloaded audacity, and understand how it works..now i just need to know the best way to record my electric guitar into audacity...i have a crate halfstack amp and love the sound of it, but i dont know how to record it and get a nice crisp sound without it being too loud....do i need to buy an external microphone for better audio, if so which kind...cuz the built in mic on my laptop doesnt cut it...thanks

 

if you're on windows i recommend using goldwave instead... i've used audacity on the mac and i wasn't a fan of the user interface

 

whats goldwave? is it free or do i have to buy it

 

http://tinyurl.com/pds33k

 

if you're on a mac, I recommend using Mixbus. It's only $80 and sounds really good for a DAW.

As far as getting a good sound, you can experiment with direct feeds or preamp outs into your computer, or go the microphone route. Picking a mic that you think sounds good with your setup can be a challenge. To start out with, a Shure SM57 is pretty hard to beat for an all around mic that's hard to f#$k up.