I want to hook my guitar up to my amp (Marshall 30W). I want to hook my amp up to my computer. I want to make really loud terrible noises with my guitar and record them on my computer. Now, here’s the problem:
I read an advice thingy once warning against hooking up a stereo to a computer in a certain way (I forget the specifics) because there was a chance it would blow the sound card. But the column did say if you hook the stereo up to the computer another way (all for the purposes of recording - in this instance, I think it was recording LPs on to one’s computer).
Now, I rekken if anything is going to blow my sound card, it’d be my guitar playing. Or is there a way to hook the amp up that won’t do this? Or won’t it explode the sound card anyway, without me doing anything special?
Anyone up on sound-y sort of stuff able to help me?
PS - my amp, I see has three plugs that I could stick leads in to connect it to the computer. A “CD Input”, a “Headphones” and a “Line Out”. The Line Out looks promising, but I really don’t want to risk it.
Line out on the amp to line in on the PC should do it. Check to see if the line out is stereo or mono, you will have to buy the correct cable. The line in on the PC should be stereo.
And, I’d record a few seconds at a time starting at a low volume level. Play it back to make sure you are not overdriving the sound card (you’ll know if you do). Work your way up to the desired volume.
Don’t forget that many times you can adjust the input level on the line-in. Check out “sounds” under your control panel, look for the recording controls.
MC$E
PS If you really want to do this right, look into a Guitar Port or similar device.
Line out on the amp to line in on the sound card should be ok. You might damage the mic in on the sound card if you accidentally plug it in there so be careful. If the amp is mono (as most amps are) then you can use a Y adapter from radio shack or the likes to put the signal on both channels of the line in on the sound card. Something like N-track or cakewalk makes a nice multi-track recorder on the PC side.
If you really want it to sound like a live guitar you need a good quality microphone placed in front of the amp, then go into a mixing board, then take the mixing board into the line in on the PC. It’s a much more expensive setup but it gets around the kinda “dead” sound that you get from going straight line in from the amp.
