guitar 2 computer

[KingTom]

Several months ago I bought a new sound card, it has support for 5.1 speakers, a high quality mic sound, and line in. The speakers I have are great, and I have an awesome microphone. Today I bought a cord to hook up my guitar to it, and it works However, the sound is really soft, I get some static, and I only seem to have the option or a clean sound.

Does anyone know of a program I could get or might already have that could resolve these issues?


my (our family's) guitar:

 

[ceedj]

Hi King Tom!

There's a few things you have to look at here...

1) Most guitars (and I'm fairly sure of yours) have a mono jack. The cords have one ring. All sound card line-in's are stereo, so you'll need a cord or adapter to convert the mono to stereo.

2) You CAN use mic jack (it's mono), but the sound is generally bad and noisy.

3) There is software available for simulating the different sound you can make (distorted, chorus, reverb, etc.) but most of it runs inside recording software, and it takes a pretty beefed up PC to run just that!

Your best bet is to find a decent guitar processor that does cabinet simulation. You could use a distortion pedal, but it's VERY tinny and doesn't capture the 'air' that a speaker moves when at a higher volume (which is why most amp sound better loud).

Line 6, Digitech and Korg all make good mutli-effect 'amp modelers' that may be able to help you in what you're looking for. Most all of these have a line out, which is best for your sound card using the line-in jack (quieter, cleaner).

If you have any more questions, ask away! I record with my PC all the time.

Good luck,
-Ceedj

 

[KingTom]

Thanks Ceedj