Want to plug electric guitar into computer

S

si0dine

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2005
Messages
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From what I understand, I need a preamp to do this. Right now I'm thinking about getting this...

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Hig...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1235537715&sr=1-9

But, it has a 1/4" output and I need to connect it to my soundcard (X-Fi XtremeMusic) which uses 1/8" inputs. I know I could use a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, but are there any better preamp options?

Also, is there a device which I can plug both my speakers and headphones into and then switch between which is active?
 
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Get yourself a Pocket Pod...even a Pod 2.0 is pretty cheap these days, and they sound absolutely awesome. The Behringer V-Amp is slightly less impressive-sounding, but if you can find the rack version (V-Amp Pro) it has a lot more connectivity options.

You'll still need an adapter, though. My solution was ripping the cable off an old pair of headphones, cut a guitar lead in two and solder each half onto an output of the headphone cable. You can then use the 1/4" outputs from the Pod 2.0/V-Amp into the computer input.
 
Or a Toneport UX2! Which I may or may not be trying to sell to someone in this thread for $70 shipped like new with everything it came with. o_O
 
Agh, I didn't see LJ's post. What is the difference between the Toneport, POD, and Guitarport?
 
Agh, I didn't see LJ's post. What is the difference between the Toneport, POD, and Guitarport?
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Mostly features and the way the device "handles" the sound. I might be wrong, but I don't think the POD actually records audio, at least not the pocket version. The USB port is just for control.

Or a Toneport UX2! Which I may or may not be trying to sell to someone in this thread for $70 shipped
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:eek:

OP, I would get in touch with guitarslingerchris via PM. If his references check out, thats a helluva deal.
 
si0dine said:
Agh, I didn't see LJ's post. What is the difference between the Toneport, POD, and Guitarport?
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I believe that the TonePort and GuitarPort just act to translate the signal so that the computer can do the signal processing (ie using your CPU cycles to create the amp/speaker simulation). The POD and V-Amp devices actually do all that work themselves, and send an analogue audio signal to the computer.

I prefer the latter, because it also helps with jamming - no need to lug a loud combo/head + cab to jam sessions or practices, just take the POD and your guitar, plug into the PA and you're ready to go. The more recent PODs (like the XT) are even better, and produce gig-worthy sounds.
 
You can plug a guitar directly into the Mic jack on your soundcard. Just get the correct adapter at Ratshack.
 
Klob said:
You can plug a guitar directly into the Mic jack on your soundcard. Just get the correct adapter at Ratshack.
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Yeah you can get a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter, but, should you? I'm not sure the levels match. Is a guitar hi-z or line-level? I thought it was hi-z...

Also the OP is a little unclear as to what their requirements & intended use are...it could be anything from some recreational stuff (anything that works is probably good enough) to trying to do some amateur recording (something approaching a pro interface would be better).
 
YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING

trust me, all I have is a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter that cost $3 at Radioshack, I plug into Line In and I use a program called Guitar Rig for sounds. You need a decent sound card, I am using an Audigy 1 and it works great with Guitar Rig.

Here is a video of me using guitar rig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHeQtsdiIvw&feature=channel_page

If you have any questions about Guitar Rig I will monitor this thread for a while.
 
jwhazel said:
OP, I would get in touch with guitarslingerchris via PM. If his references check out, thats a helluva deal.
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I have good Heat and good eBay feedback, so says my sig; didn't want to push it too hard since it wasn't FS/FT, but I've been trying to move this beast since December. It's a great tool to jam with when you don't have an amp, and you can get decent quality recordings out of it too if you work with it. MUCH better quality recordings than I get out of my Boss GT-10 currently.

Also worth noting, the TonePort UX2 will record 2 inputs at once, vs. the POD or the smaller TonePort, all of the signal processing in terms of effect are handled by whatever pc you're hooked up to so if you're doing heavy effects and 2 recording inputs at the same time into a more heavy-duty program you want to at least have something with 2gb of memory, but it's really not that intensive at all on the system.
 
strat4812 said:
YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING
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There are a few problems though...I'm not saying it's going to set your sound card on fire. Clipping and bad signal-to-noise for one. The other is that your guitar expects to see a certain load, and if you connect it to something that doesn't provide it then the frequency spectrum comes out wrong. So...you can just get an adapter and plug it in, yes. It's electrically compatible, the signal is the same, all good. But it won't work the way it's supposed to.

So, OP, expectations & intended use?
 
strat4812 said:
YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING

trust me, all I have is a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter that cost $3 at Radioshack, I plug into Line In and I use a program called Guitar Rig for sounds. You need a decent sound card, I am using an Audigy 1 and it works great with Guitar Rig.

Here is a video of me using guitar rig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHeQtsdiIvw&feature=channel_page

If you have any questions about Guitar Rig I will monitor this thread for a while.
Click to expand...

It's certainly true that it will work, but as was stated, you may not get the expected results. Plugging straight into my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum EX, I can get somewhat decent sound, but the tone and sustain are horrible by comparison to plugging into the TonePort or my GT-10.
 
I'm not doing anything professional or live. I'm just tired of using a shitty amp for practice when I have a computer with nice speakers -- I'm usually practicing near it anyway. Also, I don't need to record a mic and guitar at the same time because I can't sing for shit.

I was comparing the E-MU 202 to the Toneport UX1 and it looks to be technically superior in every way but it apparently has terrible drivers. So, I'll probably go with the UX1 unless there are any other suggestions.
 
The main complaint seems to be that in some systems it throws a hissy fit if you enter an ACPI standby state (sleep, hibernate, etc). I poked around some forum threads that came up on google earlier to try and find out what you were referring to, and I did see a similar case where someone says that it sometimes doesn't like when Windows power management tells it what to do - so to fix it, you turn off USB power management. Also the 2/2008 drivers or any number of Windows updates may affect the issue. (And there are plenty of USB devices with similar complaints...hell, my iPod spazzes out about one time in twenty over the same thing.)

IMO get it, but get it from somewhere that won't complain about returns in case your system is one that has issues. Which is good advice for most hardware you're unfamiliar with anyway. Or, say screw it and get the UX1 / etc. It depends how tempting the difference in features / etc is to you, and whether you can afford to have an extra week to wait if it turns out you need to return it and try something else.
 
ashmedai said:
There are a few problems though...I'm not saying it's going to set your sound card on fire. Clipping and bad signal-to-noise for one. The other is that your guitar expects to see a certain load, and if you connect it to something that doesn't provide it then the frequency spectrum comes out wrong. So...you can just get an adapter and plug it in, yes. It's electrically compatible, the signal is the same, all good. But it won't work the way it's supposed to.

So, OP, expectations & intended use?
Click to expand...

I have guitar software and it instructed to connect to mic input as it is the correct impedance. I used ti once to do tuning via the software and it worked fine. I don't do that now as I have an EMU 0404 USB and my Roland amp has a tuner built in anyway.
 
Klob said:
I have guitar software and it instructed to connect to mic input as it is the correct impedance.
Click to expand...

Like I said, the main effect is distortion...it's possible that your software is trying to account for it after the fact - which isn't that hard to do, it just degrades the signal.
 
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