I understand that most guitars don't put out adequate signal to just plug into a soundcard and work well. Apparently the soundcards do not provide enough power. From my limited knowledge of electronics, I'm guessing it'd be a really bad idea to go guitar -> amp -> soundcard, but what about doing guitar -> distortion pedal -> computer? The distortion pedal is DC instead of AC, and wouldn't it work as a pre-amp?
Edit: Also, I know you're never going to get a good overdrive/distortion sound out of an amp unless you're playing it loud. Is there a way I can get that sound, I'm guessing with external hardware, without blasting my amp? I live in an apartment and I really can't play very loud where I live. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Sure you can plug directly into the soundcard, and you can send a line-out from the amp there as well. All my tracks are recorded by going straight into the pc and adding amps later.
Quite a few people use the Vamp modellers. they're very inexpensive. Some might argue that they're also very cheap but if your doing it for pleasure and not because you're a gear snob who cares? I bought one brand new for $135.00 cdn 4 years ago. You could probably pick one up for $99US or less. There are some free plugins that you can download but they can be really noisey. Tubebaby, MDA JCM 900 to name a couple.
Sure you can plug directly into the soundcard, and you can send a line-out from the amp there as well. All my tracks are recorded by going straight into the pc and adding amps later.
Oh I read somewhere once this was a bad idea safety wise. Guess they were wrong, that's cool.
It's not a safety issue. You do have to be careful of levels though. Ideally, you should go through a direct box first. It's really more of an impedance issue than anything.
hey y'all,
I'm getting good on guitar so I want to record. But how do I go about recording the acoustic guitar to the pc? Do I need a mixer, or just a mic? What mics are good? I just want a really crappy recording for myself, to hear how I sound - I'd like to take a stab at singing, as well. Thanks.
Well if you just want a recording like that just get a tape recorder. of course they're mostly all digital now but it would be much cheaper. plus you can record your riffs so you won't forget em.
acoustic in to PC is easy. if you have an acoustic/electric plug into a direct box then your computer or audio interface.
otherwise you need to mike the guitar. a pre amp for the mike would be nice. if it is an active mike you ccould go straight in.
when I record electric guitar I plug into the direct box and sometimes use the effects in the recording software. sometimes I hook up my stomp boxes then go into computer.
the danger that you had heard is about line voltage. guitars and mikes and pedals have low voltage.
line voltage is something different.
I wouldn't consider it the best option but there are plenty of usb mics out there now. For a cheap alternative take a look at the Samson C01U. I'm not sure how they work with certain DAWS but for the price(around$60-70us) you get a condensor that plugs right into your computer without having to buy a seperate interface. Not bad. Just download ASIO4ALL and Kristal AE(and any of the multitude of free VST effects) and your are set to record.
Thanks y'all! hueseph, I was actually looking at that exact mic you mentioned. I bought an extremely cheap desktop mic from Radioshack yesterday, and it's horrible. I play as loud as possible, and can BARELY hear the recording. I'm probably going to wait until I get paid to buy the Samson. I also bought some blank tapes though, so I can record on tape, but there's a weird clicking with every chord. I thought it was my strumming as I hit the pick guard, but I even was careful to not hit the pickguard, but still heard the sound.
Dogbite, what's an active mic? I was looking at a vocal unidirectional mic yesterday, but plugged into their computer and got nothing. Did it need phantom power, or the mixer or whatever?
Edited: D'oh, the mic's volume was turned down to 6. It works fine now.
