I plan on recording me playing with a cable hooked into my amp to my line-in port on my computer, but I have some questions. Should I use the external speaker port, or the headphone port on my amp. And I don't have a very good sound card, would buying a better one improve my recording quality?
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Recording through line-in on computer.
- Thread starter Ghost360
- Start date
Yep, a line level input really prefers signal from a line level output. Sounds like your amp doesn't really have an ideal way of going to the soundcard. You need either a soundcard/interface with an instrument input or a direct box that has a line out, like one of the Tech21 bass boxes.
Although the headphone output will safely get hot signal into your input, it's another mismatch. I get a great strat sound by recording out of a practice amp's hp out, but it sounds like someone rolled the top way up to the moon and the bass way off.
The speaker output will give you the greatest fuzztone you ever heard for 10 seconds and then will fry the soundcard : )
Although the headphone output will safely get hot signal into your input, it's another mismatch. I get a great strat sound by recording out of a practice amp's hp out, but it sounds like someone rolled the top way up to the moon and the bass way off.
The speaker output will give you the greatest fuzztone you ever heard for 10 seconds and then will fry the soundcard : )
Do you even have a soundcard or is it coming off the motherboard?
PC's in the last couple of years are fully capable of recording and playback of DVD quality sound. Two problems are level matching and latency. The standard drivers that come are fine for windows apps. to allow you to tweak it better for realtime use pick up ASIO4ALL
For level matching, just a small $50 mixer is all you need. It will convert from mic or instrument level to line input with no problem. Look for one with "gain" adjustment on the channel. A small mixer is always handy for other things.
I'd guess that you'd have to get into $250 or more interfaces to beat what's already included with most PC's these days.
PC's in the last couple of years are fully capable of recording and playback of DVD quality sound. Two problems are level matching and latency. The standard drivers that come are fine for windows apps. to allow you to tweak it better for realtime use pick up ASIO4ALL
For level matching, just a small $50 mixer is all you need. It will convert from mic or instrument level to line input with no problem. Look for one with "gain" adjustment on the channel. A small mixer is always handy for other things.
I'd guess that you'd have to get into $250 or more interfaces to beat what's already included with most PC's these days.
Yes. Buy a soundcard. Doesn't even have to be that fancy.
Works well for splitting channels for more than one instrument - set one instrument to left channel and one to the right and separate them on the computer. I'm hoping to grab a 10-channel mixer and this rad multi-input card from M-audio as an upgrade.
A line-out of the amp would be great. The best part of a physical mixer in this case is to have interfaces that will let you avoid touching the back of the computer/easy access and being able to access multiple line-out/aux/studio/monitor outputs.
I've got some decent recordings done this way on the past. I used a showed-up-at-my-house-one-day 4-channel Behringer mixer and whatever-microphone-I-had-at-the-time plugged into my Soundblaster X-fi soundcard set to near-zero latency.
Works well for splitting channels for more than one instrument - set one instrument to left channel and one to the right and separate them on the computer. I'm hoping to grab a 10-channel mixer and this rad multi-input card from M-audio as an upgrade.
A line-out of the amp would be great. The best part of a physical mixer in this case is to have interfaces that will let you avoid touching the back of the computer/easy access and being able to access multiple line-out/aux/studio/monitor outputs.
Not to hijack this thread. But an Ashbory is a great example of a bass that can just plug into a line in. It has a built in preamp that seems to hit line levels just fine.
Buy an interface. Sound cards are the thing of the past. I got a Konnekt 6 for $150 and it sounds great both in and out. It has a huge volume knob and you can hook your computer speakers up to it with the right Hosa cable. I tried the line-in thing with that ASIO4ALL and the sound through the interface makes a HUGE improvement. Worth every cent.
