I don't know if this is the right forum for this, but I'm looking for help.

[Misbelief]

So, I want to begin recording and I have ideas about what I'm looking for, but I really don't know where to start or what products will fulfill my wants. I'm sort of lost.

I want to be able to sort of use my PC as an amp. By this I mean, I only would like amplification to come from my the program I'm using. I want this program to have several different effect settings, effectively working as an amp, but through my pc. Ontop of this, I would like to be able to record what I play and layer several recordings over each other. I want to be able to create and make songs in a fairly simple and efficient manner, while also using the program to just jam. 

What will I need in order to do this? What pieces will I need to plug my guitar into my pc(or guitar into the device, that will then go into the pc)? What programs will I need to record and basically work as an amp? 

I working with a budget of around $400, will this be enough? Also, I have a regular gaming pc, will I be required to buy some extra things for the pc? Thanks in advance for any help.

[silverhead]

You need three things that will work with your PC to do what you want, and they are well within your budget:

 

1) an audio interface - a piece of hardware that will physically connect your guitar (or microphone) to your PC. This will likely include a USB cable as the physical connection.

 

2) a software program generically called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that is your recording program. There are many many commercially available options in a wide price range. To start with you could look at something like RiffWorks (for guitar/microphone only) or Reaper (which enables you to use MIDI. If you don't understand what that is yet, you don't need/want it yet). If your needs increase over time you can upgrade/replace your DAW, but both of these options are low cost (Riffworks T4 is free) and very capable. Riffworks is pretty simple, good for jamming, and aimed directly at guitarists. Reaper is more complex, powerful, and wider in scope but there'll be more of a learning curve.

http://www.sonomawireworks.com/T4/

http://www.reaper.fm/

 

3) a software program that runs along with your DAW, on your PC, to process the audio signal (guitar or mic) coming through your interface in #1. This is what gives you simulations of guitar amplifiers, vocal preamps, and lots of FX like chorus, reverb, delay, distortion, etc.... These are often called 'plug-ins' because they are used, and accessible from, within your DAW. Some will also run as standalone programs to be used when not recording.

 

Items #1 and #3 are, again, readily available at low cost from many commercial sources. Since you've come to the Line 6 forums I can point you to SonicPort VX (a standalone audio interface) or one of the POD Studio series of audio interfaces (again, #1) which come packaged with a Pod Farm license (#3).

 

http://line6.com/sonicport-audio-interface/sonicport-vx/

http://line6.com/podstudiogx/

http://line6.com/podstudioux1/

 

EDIT: I should point out that it's possible to record without a separate audio interface. You could just connect your guitar, with appropriate adapter, into your PC microphone input. But your PC soundcard is not really designed for this application and it opens up one problem/issue after another. You will be forever trying to improve poor to mediocre results, and you will never get as good a sound as you will by using a properly designed external audio interface. Since your budget allows it I would definitely do that.

[Misbelief]

Ty very much for the information. I downloaded Riffworks and bought the line 6 Pod studio UX2 with POD farm. Do you know if it comes with all of the required chords or will there be additional attachments I will have to purchase? Again, thank you very much for helping me.

[silverhead]

The POD UX2 should come with the USB Cable required to connect the UX2 to your computer. If not, it is a standard USB cable that only costs a few bucks; and you probably have one lying around anyway.

 

The only other cables you will need are a standard guitar cable, plugging your guitar to the UX2 as if it were an amplifier, and a standard microphone XLR cable if you want to use a microphone for recording.

 

I think you will be very happy with your setup. Congratulations, and please come back here if you have any issues getting things working well.

[Misbelief]

Ty very much. I really appreciate it.

[ColonelForbin]

Get a decent pair of monitors; 5" is plenty loud. Something like M-Audio makes some decent budget friendly options.

The speakers are crucial; but you can get away with some low cost options to start with. 

Sweetwater has a deal going on some M-Audio speakers for like, $50 each after rebate.

Including isolation pads, a pretty sweet price!

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BX5D2S

 

You will need a decent soundcard; the purpose of an external card, is to reduce monitoring latency; IE, the lag time from the playback to the recording.

 

When I was starting out with recording, I used the built-in soundcard in my PC, would do overdubs, and couldn't figure out why the tracks I had just recorded were not in alignment with the tracks I had been listening to while doing the overdub.

 

I've used an M-Audio Delta 1010 soundcard for a bunch of years now, amazingly it's still good quality, though it's a bit overkill for what you need - 8 channels in and out; used to do full band multitrack recordings, stuff like that.

 

Line6 makes some good options; you will define the soundcard as your audio in and out; the output to the speakers will be connected to the external soundcard, most likely connected to your PC with a USB cable. 

 

Software, you should be able to find some free recording software to learn the basics until you can afford to buy what you really want. Some of the recording softwares will do free one month trials, Adobe Audition, Pro Tools and such.

 

Take a look through craigslist, and places like that - look for someone selling a used M-Powered Pro Tools setup or something along those lines. Sweetwater has Pro Tools 11 bundled with the Eleven Rack for $640. That could be an excellent option if your budget can deal with the added cost. Sweetwater will do a three payment plan for like, $220 a month for three months. I have that rig, and it's pretty solid. I have been finally learning how to actually use ProTools! Lots of tutorials and videos and learning options for everything you need to know.

 

The Eleven Rack is an excellent stand alone piece of hardware, comparable to a POD rack mounted option. The key is, the Eleven Rack also functions as a soundcard with zero latency monitoring. It also does a good job of doing 'reamping'; where you have recorded a dry guitar track, and you output the dry track through the Eleven Rack to process the signal, and send that processed tone back to the recording to a new track. Or through an external amp, with a mic on it, stuff like that.

 

For that matter, the POD HD500x is a soundcard; though that is not it's primary function, it does give you some killer direct recording tones, and an ease of transition for bringing amp modeled guitar fx tones to the recordings

 

There are all sorts of soundcard bundles too; look for options that have full duplex in those tinier boxes; the ability to send and receive two channels, which can be two mono inputs, or a stereo input. Some will jump up to 4x4, that can be useful if you want to record more than one instrument. Many of them will have decent mic preamps; phantom power, stuff like that to power certain mics.

 

Compare sound quality as well; you want 24bit, and 48k minimum. Don't waste your time recording in 16 bit, you won't be happy with the results. Nice sound cards will go up to 24bit192k. My really old M-Audio delta 1010 works fine with Windows 8, and goes up to 24bit/96k.

 

Most of the recording I do lately is with the Line6 M20d, which does 24bit/48k, so that's been the resolution I've been mixing in lately. 24 bit gives you a lot of headroom, so your source audio tracks don't need to be massively gained up when they are recorded, and there is minimal noise even with tracks sitting at -20db. At 0db and above is where you hit digital clipping and it sounds horrible! Like paper ripping. Worst feeling, losing a good performance to a bad recording. Go conservative on gain settings so you don't cause clipping.

 

Read up the reviews on the lower priced USB audio interfaces; take a look at what Zzounds and Sweetwater have in the $100 to $200 price range:

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces/low2high/pn2

 

Stuff like this Akai would be a good option:

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EIE

 

Take some time and read what people say about the preamps; the Analog to Digital conversion, stuff like that. You could also break it into multiple parts - my M-Audio soundcard is just 8x1/4" inputs, no preamps, no XLRs, just analog to digital conversion. Many of these soundcards include mic and instruments preamps; hence the XLR and 1/4" inputs, which is great. But you could also use an external mixer or preamp of your choice, and run that into the soundcard.

 

Be careful about monitoring while recording; for example, using an external mixer as the preamp source, and also the output to speakers, feeding it's output into a soundcard, while playing audio from the soundcard through the mixer back out to speakers. You would want to monitor what the DAW is hearing; I've caused myself all kinds of level and latency issues not monitoring properly.

[Misbelief]

Ok....so now I have it. I have everything authorized. I have my guitar plugged into it, there is clearly input. I have it connected by the USB. There isn't any output. I am using a USB headset, is there a way I can have the sound come through my PC just like everything else? 

[TheRealZap]

you can't use USB anything as far as speakers or headphones...

you need to plug regular speakers/headphones into the device...

and set the device as your default soundcard... 

and then all of the computer and guitar sounds will come from the same headphones/speakers.