Guitar recording to a PC? is it simple?

Soldato
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Looking for something simple, so my brother can plug his guitar into it, to his laptop and then play back what he played.

Nothing expensive, but nothing made out of peel-away plastic either.

Anyone got anything they would recomend?

TYIA

ColiN
 
You may be better checking the Music, Box Office & Books section of the forum, the people there will proberly be able to give you a good answer.
 
The main problem is lag from the sound card similar to a high ping when gaming! you hear what your playing after you've played it and its strange.

Decent sound card + guitar rig (or similar) + some recording software is the formula! :D
 
I do this a lot, and assuming he already has an amp, all you have to do is take a lead from his amp headphone socket to the line in port (or mic, but check the it doesn't have mic boost enabled). Then, just use audacity to record and edit.
If you are actually looking for a device to do it, then the Line 6 Guitarport should do the trick.
 
I do this a lot, and assuming he already has an amp, all you have to do is take a lead from his amp headphone socket to the line in port (or mic, but check the it doesn't have mic boost enabled). Then, just use audacity to record and edit.
If you are actually looking for a device to do it, then the Line 6 Guitarport should do the trick.


Thats the one, very easy to use..
 
Aright so supposing he gets the Line 6 DI box and plugs it into his laptop surely he will get lag from the sound card?

I have tried recording before with a poor SC and it just lags??
 
I'm going to make something up here.

Does the sound have to be converted from analogue to digital? If so is that what causes the sound card latency issues? Therefore if the Line 6 box has A/D converters (which it surely must to pass the info via USB?) then the hard work is done by the external box reducing latency issues.

Was that a good guess or total BS? I'd love to know because I think it sounded alright :)
 
Yup, latency is a measure of A/D-D/A conversion.

When you use external outboard gear from within a DAW system (say for example a Focusright Dynamic Processor) then you will encounter small amounts of latency as it has to go Digital > Analog > Back to digital. Although only very small, most DAW's have something know as ADC (Automatic Delay Compensation) whereby it automatically delays the project to compensate for the latency.

All soundcards will have some kind of AD/DA converter inside them, and each soundcard will offer varied latencies.
 
Thats what I was getting then! :D

We used to record everything through our drummers PC (on a decent SC) before we got a mixing desk and proper external soundcard setup but on my onboard there was about a 2 second lag lol! :O
 
So a Line 6 POD Studio GX will do the trick for him? its for a birthday gift and as he already has lots of things he wants, its hard to find anything new to get him. But he loves pear cider, wine and his guitar/laptop. so i thought maybe something like this would do him as i have never seen him listen back to what he has played.

Thought about this forum but as the heading says talk about your fave music/films i was 50/50. guessed wrong again lol.

But big THANK YOU to you all for the links/ideas, very nice of you all :)

ColiN - now off to find a shop in manchester that sells this thing.

PS - this lag - is that only for listening to it live, I guess if he plays and the laptop records it, then he plays it back, it will be ok?
 
the lag I was talking about was only when trying to listen to what you were playing/recording at the same time.

If the others are correct the DI box should eliminate the lag anyway :D

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17949519

all the tunes on there are recorded using a PC. The first 3 straight into a PC the second set through a mixing desk! thats what you can achieve at home :O
 
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