Home Recording

[phagist_]

I was wondering if it was possible to plug my electric guitar directly into my mic port via an adapter of some sort. I know there are tools like Guitarport out there, but i am looking for a cheaper alternative.

I dont want/need prefect quality, but something for a beginner.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[annt]

You'll need a preamp of some sort. I once recorded some guitar without it, but that was just an experiment (turned out quite interesting though). You can either put a mic in front of your guitar amp or plug the cable in the amp's "line out" jack. If you don't have an amp home, I've used a Boss Multiefect (ME-50) which is quite affordable and has many decent effects. It's one option. I also have a cheap ART Tube mic preamp, which really gives a nice tone to basically everything. Hope this helps a little

 

[Ermz]

You can get a little 1/4' to 1/8' converter jack that you can plug your guitar lead into on one end, then put the plug into the 'line-in' of your soundcard.

Now having said that, were there many audio professionals on this board, I'd be hanged immediately.

You need to keep in mind that the 'line-in' jack on your soundcard wants signals at line level. Your guitar pickups don't output anywhere near that. Along with that you'll have impedance issues, one is hi-Z and the other is low-Z.

But if you really just want to plug your guitar in there and go for it, that's one way you could go about it. I'd suggest having at least some sort of stompbox or effects/preamp unit on there that you can use to boost your signal going into the PC.

 

[Reaper of Souls]

what me an my friend do is we just have a decent mic that has a sound guard (or whatever the graded thinger is called, idk) and put it in front of an amp. We use a free program called Trackadat, and i'm suprised at the quality of some of the things we record.

 

[phagist_]

hey, i tried the 1/4' to 1/8' into the line in of my soundcard and i can't hear a thing. I unmuted my line-in in volume control, turn the volume up on both gtar and computer; yet i can't hear a thing. My friend does it without a problem.

I can run it through my amp into the mic input and it works fine, but it is a hassle always dragging my amp into the computer room.

Any suggestions of what i might be doing wrong?
(i am using a stock soundcard)
Thnks Alot

 

[opeth_353]

My recording tone always fucking sucks I use a Zoom digital recorder 16 track - It sounds good when i'm recording but when i put it onto CD it just sounds shite or clips like fuck

 

[Ermz]

Windows has set your 'Mic-in' as the primary recording source. You need to go into the control panel, sounds and audio device options, hit advanced under device volume, then on the window that pops up go to options>properties, select recording, hit ok, then where it says 'mic-in' or whatever there should be a check box saying 'selected' that should be ticked. You need to tick the checkbox under 'line-in'.

 

[Lietuvis]

I have an M-Audio Black Box, which is totally dope! It's great for just plugging in and playing, and also for using a mic. There are loads of effects that come with it, and even a drum machine. I only use it for recording, but it can also be used for playing live...

 

[phagist_]

Windows has set your 'Mic-in' as the primary recording source. You need to go into the control panel, sounds and audio device options, hit advanced under device volume, then on the window that pops up go to options>properties, select recording, hit ok, then where it says 'mic-in' or whatever there should be a check box saying 'selected' that should be ticked. You need to tick the checkbox under 'line-in'.

yep i did exactly that, yet it still doesn't want to work:S
any ideas?

 

[Kenneth R.]

i can only get it to work with mic-in, but with a preamp and good settings, it works fine for me...

 

[Ermz]

You need to make sure that you're actually getting a decent level into the 'line-in'. Since it's a line-in, you want to get your signal up to line level so you'll need a preamp of sorts. It could just be that the signal is so low that you can't hear it.

Also, make sure that 'direct monitoring' is enabled if you just want to play around in windows without using any programs.

What are you actually trying to do? Are you recording in a program such as Cool Edit Pro or Cubase or do you just want to hear your guitar playing back while in Windows? Because if you're trying to get it working within an actual program, you normally have to define what your input source is in its settings.

 

[phagist_]

I just want to hear it, then I was going to record some riffs n pieces. How do i enable 'direct monitoring'?

 

[naboo]

Try going to the sound board thing and clicking advanced controls under microphone then check the 20 decibal boost. That's the only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

[MasterOLightning]

You can use a cheap microphone and Sound Recorder and actually get okay quality out of that. If you're ever thinking about adding vocals or drums this seems to be the cheapest way to go. I use the Cakewalk program, but I haven't really mastered it.

On a somewhat related note, I have an archaic midi keyboard that I'd like to use with my laptop. The keyboard only has a MIDI output port, a "Joystick" serial port and a "Sound Card" serial port. Don't know how or what to convert to USB so I can transfer it to my computer.

 

[Kenneth R.]

it's meant for midi output, you'd need an adapter or midi box of some kind to interface your computer. or, a really expensive soundcard with midi ports.