How to record guitar sound using PC?

[cowcowcow]

What sound card do I need?
I am using SoundBlaster Live

When I plug in the guitar directly using the Line-In of my soundcard or through my POD, The sound is not acceptable, Do I need some special sound card to record?

[davenit]

cow, I have the exact same setup as you and it sounds wonderful. I use a pod.

What do you find unacceptable about the pod sound? I recorded something and put it on the multimedia thread. Download the one towards the end of the posts and tell me if that is the same as your sound (in blue type that says "in the morning"). If not we can go through all of your computer settings. Through email would probably be better than wasting the space here.

Dave

[hamand]

please post your info here, it's useful stuff...possibly material for a faq.

thanks.

[carlos seo]

I don't know if it's "healthy" for your SB Live! plugging your guitar direclty in it's line-in conector. Anyway, the output of guitar pickups is too low and when plugged directly, the sound card's built-in amplifier can't amplify the signal enough to make it sound good. I don't know if the POD has a built-in amplifier, so, I can't help if you're plugging in your line-in jack. But I can suggest you another way of recording (the way I use in my small home studio): just mic your speakers and plug the microphone in your SB mic in jack (you don't need an expansive microphone to sound good; a good quality 600 ohms, unidiretional dynamic mic can do the job). Control the recording volume through your SB Surround Mixer software and edit your tracks using Creative Wave Studio. For editing, though, I think Wave Studio is a piece of crap; I'd use SoundForge or Cool Edit, as these programs can add effects to your recording, plus they have EQ, Noise reduction and many other features for deeper sound editing.

Happy recording!!

[davenit]

I go pod=line in. That's it. The signal is more than strong enough.

Dave

[cowcowcow]

How did you set the volume when you record it?


POD output volume
Guitar output volume
Line-in volume

on the POD ,you use the "phone" or the *left and right output?

[ripl3y]

Quote: from cowcowcow on 4:41 am on Mar. 1, 2001

When I plug in the guitar directly using the Line-In of my soundcard or through my POD, The sound is not acceptable.

I've always found guitar-POD-Mic Input the better sounding option.

I have an SBLive! also and found that the line-in way made the sound all mushy.
(maybe my cards knackered, but the mic input works best for me)

Steve

[davenit]

Pod volume - around 12
Guitar output - floored
Line in volume - 50%

On my SB card the microphone input is way to hot. I have to use the line in.

On the pod I use the left output.

One point of note and it's important. I have all midi connections OUT of the pod. The only cables going to the kidney bean is the guitar in and the audio out. I found that the midi cables caused the sound to change.

I record with cakewalk 9. I control the track volume with the volume on the pod. It makes recording a lot of fun..

Dave

[30yroldpig]

Hi There

I am not a really big fan of recording via the SB series sound cards. Remember that they are in fact nothing more than hyped-up PC speakers. These card are primarily designed for audio Output such as video games and the like. Their Input jacks (line in/ Mic) aren't meant to be used for HIGH quality recording.

Should you wish to record high quality audio at a reasonable cost, may I suggest the M audio Delta 44, 66, 1010 series PCI cards (http://www.midiman.com). They are indeed sweet cards at very reasonable prices, allowing either 4, 6 and 10 simultaneous inputs.

But if you find youself having to use your SB Live card for audio recording, I suggest that you use the Mono line out on your POD and go into the line in of the sound card. Stereo out is nice for the effects, however, remember that you only have one line in on the card, therefore Stereo out is useless (the signal is being "mixed" when coming through a single input, and therefore, not true stereo).

Also check the line in Input levels (not the mic input levels) on the SB mixer. Are they too high? *Too low? *Also check the output level of you POD.

Best of luck

[hamand]

drum roll please:

http://www.line6.com/Main/The_Lup/Ti...r_Tutorial.htm