How can I record audio from a guitar straight to a computer without a mic or anything, live. I know there is a way, and I am willing to purchase a special device or port to do so. I'm fed up with the poor quality of my mics. I realize that I may have to play my instrument though a synthesizer like Slayer 2 to actually get audio. Is this true?

Also, is there a way to hook up my amp to my computer, and play my guitar through the amp to the computer?

Cheapest and easiest way would be to use a Line6 Guitarport with your favourite audio program. They're USB pluggable, and go for about a hundred bucks US, IIRC. The amp modeling software is based on the DSP software for the PODxt.

Here's some sound clips of the PODxt, which the Guitarport does, but using your computer instead of a dedicated hardware box, for $200 less.

If you really want to go cheap and dirty, but 1/4" to 1/8" adapters for your cables, and plug them directly to your line-in or mic ports, definately not near the quality or features as a POD, but for a few bucks it gets the job done :P.

Yeah, and it'll sound like crap. :p

Here's a short clip I made using this method:

http://www.geocities.com/hybridgames2000/22.mp3 (300kb)

shintock needs to expand on this...

it will sound like crap without any amp/cab modelling

and most inputs are going to be 16bit 48KHz at best and not that great a ADC (analog->digital converter) to begin with

the guitar port will have the same ADC that is found on the POD (not the best but better than your average soundcard ADC) and since it's a USB input device the output on the guitar port hardware is purely digital (then the software does the modelling)

now if you want somthing more simple you could go with a sansamp pedal into your soundcard's line-in (again this is limited by the quality of your soundcards input

What Jim said.

Just plugging the guitar directly into the computer, not only do you not have the sound of ANY amp or speaker cabinet, but there will also be an impedance matching problem.

A guitar's output is high-impedance. Your soundcard's inputs are low-impedance (also written as Hi-Z and Lo-Z). You would need either a microphone preamp, direct inject box, or any other device that could do the impedance switching and give out a lo-Z line-level signal. If you use a DI ($30) going in to your soundcard, you could use software amp simulation to process this raw guitar sound. Some neat programs that do this are Amplitube, Guitar Rig and iZotope Trash, but they all cost a fortune. The Guitarport costs less, and sounds easily as good. You'll also have better (probably) A/D converters, as Jim said, which is VERY important. And using the Guitarport, I'm pretty sure you could record a straight uneffected signal and use any other software amp sims if you prefer.

And Sansamp FTW. I just got my TRI-A.C. yesterday, and it kicks ***. But you would still need a DI or preamp to properly hook it up to a consumer-level sound card.

Here's a couple tunes I've been fooling around with since I got my TRI-AC.

In Flames - Man-Made God - only guitars, using two different patches, my Mesa-style on the lower part and my Marshall-style on the higher harmony part. The Mesa is panned hard left, and the Marshall hard right, IIRC.

Dream Theater - As I Am - full mix, using the "Pantera" and "Metallica" presets from the manual. Guitars are uneffected (no EQ, reverb, or anything).

Signal goes from my Ibanez SZ to the TRI-A.C. right into one of the preamps on my Motu 828mkII. I got the TRI-A.C. for $100 on eBay, you could get a GT2 for that price used as well, which isn't programmable but has a few more options for simulated mic placement, etc. That, with a DI, and you'd be set, if your sound card isn't terrible.

What's your budget, and what sound card do you have in your computer right now?

I hate it when people don't reply to their own threads. :p

Don't worry Shintock, I've been reading your replies

So have I, I just haven't taken the time to reply. Anyways, I have a Soundblaster Audigy, and I was thinking something in the $160 - $220 price range.:)

Sorry for the late reply.

~$200?

You could go for a Line 6 Pod 2.0 or a Behringer V-Amp 2. Or even better (IMO), a Tech 21 Sansamp GT2 or Classic.

The Pod and the V-Amp are both digital modelling processors. They take the signal from your guitar, convert it into a digital signal, and then apply a DSP algorithm to make your guitar sound like it's playing through a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier or a Fender Twin Reverb, for example. You can even apply effects like delay, reverb, chorus, flange, etc. Some people hate digital guitar processors, others love them. Hunt down some sound samples, and try these units out.

The Pod 2.0 (I think they have a revision out to 2.3 now) is a standard in studios everywhere. I'd recommend it over the V-Amp, and it also costs less than the more recent Pod XT (which is $300 US). I've heard some pretty good tones come out of the old Pod, and some pretty bad ones. Try one out and decide for yourself.

The Sansamp products, on the other hand, are analog amplifier modellers. There is no signal conversion (and no corresponding signal degradation), and the work is done by transistors, just like in a solid-state guitar amplifier. These products don't offer any effects like the digital ones do, but if you're recording to the computer, your recording software probably has plugins for these kind of effects.

Check out the Sansamp products at [url]www.tech21nyc.com.[/url] They all have plenty of MP3 demos.

Using one of the digital modellers, you can just use a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to plug it into the line-in on your computer. However, using a Sansamp, you'd need to buy a DI box ($20-30) for the impedance matching, as I said before.

I have a Vox Tonelab (a hybrid tube/digital processor) and a SansAmp TRI-A.C., and I prefer the Tonelab for clean sounds, and the TRI-A.C. for anything moderately heavy. YMMV.

In conclusion: if you play heavy music and have decent recording software with good effects - go Sansamp. Anything else, check out the Pod 2.0 and the V-Amp 2.

Metallica - Battery (Intro) - here's a clip I threw together for the hell of it, using mostly the California setting on my TRI-A.C. for the distortion (other than the second rhythm part, which is the British setting). The clean part is also from the TRI-A.C. (Tweed setting), and it's kind of thin, IMO.

Another cheap solution would be to get a Behringer GDI-21 pedal and a DI box. You could get all that with the necessary cables for less than a hundred bucks. No effects, just straight tone. The GDI-21 is a cheaper copy of the Tech21 Sansamp GT-2. I've heard some sound clips of it, and it's pretty decent. I can upload some for you, if you wish.

http://www.myspace.com/tonsband

language warning

listen to those songs, all recorded using the cheap and dirty method.

the first one sounds pretty good i always thought. half-on is a bit fuzzy and the other two seem alright to me, the quality only really goes down if you dont spend half an hour tweaking the levels and decide to jack distortion through the roof.

Wow! Thanks for all your help, man. I think I'll try the Pod or the V-amp.

btw, if I get a digital modelling processor, I can use the effects included with that along with the effects and plugins in my recording software, right?

You're welcome.

And of course, you could do that. Like recording a clean guitar part with delay from the Pod, for example, and then adding a reverb later on in your software. Piece of cake.

I used to love digital (assuming it was decent), but I've been hanging around analog people and noticing their better sound. Or it could (more likely) be that I just suck at modelling my effects.

I'm starting to want to mix-and-match digital and analog, and I'm going to eventually take my processor apart to see how far I can go with it. I do love this particular digital processor I have, even more once I started tinkering with it. Everytime I think I have a great distortion, I end up coming up with an even better one.