recording stuff

[klarrix]

hey~
i was wondering if anyone knew whether there was any way of recording electrical guitar music directly into your pc, perhaps with some kind of software and/or adaption kits. i'm getting one this thursday and wouldnt mind sending my friends short snippets- just for fun though, no urgency, so dont break your backs if you arent sure!

kirby

[Twigman]

Use a standard computer music lead cable (the samll ones) and buy an adapter to go into the guitar, plug the other end into you line in on your sound card and then record.
I think thats waht I did...I did do it properly once...

[floppybootstomp]

It may work plugging directly into the Mic. socket, but the line out signal from a guitar is a little higher than a Mic., so it may distort. Worth a try though.

If not, only answer is a dedicated pre-amp. Plug the guitar in the pre-amp, plug pre-amp into line in socket.

For recording software, there's loads out there, many freebies, but dbPowerAmp with it's add on aux module would work well. And it's a freebie.

[Theo]

If you're serious about recording, I'd recommend you buy Adobe Audition (which is actually Syntrillium Softwares "Cool Edit Pro", but bought out by Adobe). It'll set you back around £250 (£125 ish on ebay, however), but it's seriously one of the best PC sound recording/editing software packages out there, and I heartily recommend it.

Of course, you probably won't want to spend that amount on a piece of software that you don't know whether you'll use professionally or not, in the future, so how about Windows Sound Recorder? If you're only sending snippets, then it's absolutely fine (as long as you know about saving to formats/bitrates/frequency/etc).

In terms of plugging in, if you have an amp or a pedal, plug into that and then plug a cable into either the headphone or line-out plug. Take that line to your sound card via a little converter plug which you'll easily be able to get from Maplin or similar places. If you don't have an amp or pedal, plug straight into the microphone port (still using the 3.5mm converter... that's what it's called!).

If you're using an acoustic guitar, however, you'll need to use a microphone. The best way without using a microphone stand, I've found, is to sit with the guitar like you normally would, and hold the microphone between your legs so that it points to the errr.. hole.

Hope that helps at least a little!

[klarrix]

cheers, that should do fine, guys!