preamp question

I'm not familiar with your mixer but if it's not powered you'll some kind of amplification. What are you using for your line-in on your sound card? If it is a line-in that you are using, then it too has no amplification functionality.

You'll need some kind of guitar amp to hook to your mixer and then your sound card. I assume you are using the mixer to add effects or EQ or another instrument simultaneously? Other than that you shouldn't need the mixer at all. If I'm wrong, please accept my apology.

There will be many more answer to come shortly. :wink:

I'm not familiar with your mixer but if it's not powered you'll some kind of amplification. What are you using for your line-in on your sound card? If it is a line-in that you are using, then it too has no amplification functionality.

You'll need some kind of guitar amp to hook to your mixer and then your sound card. I assume you are using the mixer to add effects or EQ or another instrument simultaneously? Other than that you shouldn't need the mixer at all. If I'm wrong, please accept my apology.

There will be many more answer to come shortly. :wink:

Hi bish, yes its plugin into the line in of my soundcard can i just use a preamp to hook up into my mixer than to my soundcard?...if so what preamps can u reccomend? as i was thinking of the behringer GD 121 is it anygd? thanks

I've read good things about the GDI21, but you might want to also invest in a cabinet emulator/DI box, like their Ultra-G GI100. You'll get amp emulation from the GDI21, then cabinet emulation from the GI100. I read that this gave a more realistic sound. You can run just the GI100 into your mixer if you want a really clean sound to manipulate with amp emulators (like GarageBand) in the computer.
The Ultra-G isn't an absolute requirement, though, so you can see how you like the GDI21 first. Or, consider a Sans-Amp, on which the GDI21 is based.

Based solely on my experience and home equipment and using my computer to output the audio or for recording in this is what I've done. (disclaimer: this is my situation only. Yours may be the same, different or null and void.) :D

From my guitar I go into http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/480674/ and out of that into my sound card. From there I can either go out of the Vamp into headphones, line out of Vamp into line in of sound card and then control the sound from either the computers sound card interface or a third party audio recording software. Currently I'm experimenting with 3...Audacity, Kristal and Sonar.

The sound card delivers sound via any of these, the PC speaker, an audio out of the sound card into headphones or my desired route of connecting my PC to a home stereo system and having the sound delivered to the audio system I've connected to my PC. I can also use headphone out of the stereo amps headphone jack and disable the external speakers on the sound amp so I can play late at night and still record while hearing the desired sound.

As more people read your question, I'm sure you'll have a flood of variations of how to connect and get the desired results you are trying for. The learning begins now..... :D

I use a Behringer UB502 mixer, which is simple, cheap, and seems to do the job I need it to do (which I'll admitt is fairly low-tech stuff) Anyway, it's got an inbuilt pre-amp with eq, and I think 3-5 tracks. It's got tape (phono) in/out, headphone amp, and stereo out, and it's nice and small.

It's only got the preamp on one channel, which is a bit annoying if you're recording a group, but for general purpose stuff it's great. Tough too, mines had coffee spilt on it, it's sat around in a damp garage for weeks, and has been thoroughly abused by my band, but still works fine. I think they're about £25-£30. I run that into an ordinary soundcard, and can get a decent sound quite easily.

Worth a look at least

Peter

Hi introuble
The Creative x-fi extrememusic soundcard ( http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14066 )
should be very good for recording purposes as it has support for ASIO low latency.
The yamaha mg/10 mixer manual http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/english/mixers/MG10_2E.pdf
shows that the mic inputs has XLR connectors and a preamp.
The manual recommends that you use external pre-amp between the guitar and a line-input of the mixer.
If you have acoustic guitar with built-in preamp just connect it to a line input.
If you an electric guitar you may be able to connect it to one of the XLR mic inputs, but you need a special cable with 1/4" mono jack at the "guitar end" and a XLR male connector in the "mixer end". But the risk is that the signal level from an electric guitar is to high for the small signal mic inputs of the mixer. You wont brake anything in the mixer but you will have lots of clipping of the signal.
Depending of the signal level from the guitar mic´s you may also be able to connect the electric guitar directly to a line input.
But the normal way to connect an electric guitar to a mixer is to use a dedicated pre-amp or another amplifing device as the V-Amp 2 etc etc.

Hi introuble
New information on mic/line inputs of a mixer.
I tested to put my electric guitar directly to one of the mono mic/line 1/4" jacks on my UB802 mixer. With mixer channel gain knob set nearly to max, the signal level from the guitar was just high enough to reach the clipping level on the mono mic channel.
This means that you CAN use an electric guitar directly on mixer with good result.

Hi introuble
New information on mic/line inputs of a mixer.
I tested to put my electric guitar directly to one of the mono mic/line 1/4" jacks on my UB802 mixer. With mixer channel gain knob set nearly to max, the signal level from the guitar was just high enough to reach the clipping level on the mono mic channel.
This means that you CAN use an electric guitar directly on mixer with good result.

hey thanks for the help kale...but still do u think that i need a DI box like the benringer GD121 to plug into my mixer for my guitar?...would it be better?

You'll want to get a Computer Interface like one of these. This will boost your signal to your computer.

The hook-up will look like this:

guitar>mixer>interface>computer

If you get the V-Amp like Bish suggests (I use this as well) then it will look like this:

guitar>V-Amp>mixer>interface>computer

If using alaptop you'll probably want speakers/monitors so it'll sound better than the stock laptop speakers (or use your amp's CD/AUX imput jacks). This can feed out of your mixer. I just purchased the UB802 Mixer (from eBay...hopefully delivered next week!) and it also has phantom power. You'll want this if you plan on using Condensor mics.

Hi introuble
No, I don´t think you need a V-TONE GUITAR GDI21 http://www.behringer.com/GDI21/index.cfm?lang=ENG just for connecting your electric guitar to the mixer.
But if you want a nice electric guitar amp sound (overdriven or clean) and not just a flat guitar sound, you need something like the GDI21 or a V-AMP 2 .

Kalle

Hi introuble
hey thanks for the help kale...but still do u think that i need a DI box like the benringer GD121 to plug into my mixer for my guitar?...would it be better?

Yes, I would use a pre-amp into the mixer. The pre-amp will allow you more control of your tone. As others have said it will allow you to use options that the pre-amp has to offer. Like distortion and effects.

Joe