What is my best option for plugging my guitar into my laptop and recording it?

[DarkHorseJ27]

I'm not opposed to spending a few bucks but I would like to keep it cheap. I'm not wanting to do anything special, but I want it to sound decent. I also want to be able to play it in real time to someone else. So what is the best route?

[girevik]

Not sure what your budget is, but your best options are probably USB audio interfaces, as there are several brands and models available for $100 or less. I can't recommend any specific ones as I have no experience in them.

 

My current audio interfaces are my Roland VG-99, which works as a USB interface in addition to all its other functions; and my MOTU 828MkII Firewire interface, which costs more than $100.

 

Also don't know what you mean by "play in real time to someone else".

[tracyevans]

For a good, affordable, and versatile USB input, I recommend the Sonuus i2M. USB guitar input along with hardware pitch-to-MIDI translation. The cost about $150 and works on Mac, PC and iPad.

[GuitarTab4Synth]

I was thinking about the Boss BR-?? stuff and zoom and digitech multi effects pedals. And then I was thinking about the Fender Gdec 3 and Mustang combos.

Then finally I said how much quality of a recording do I really want.

 

Without playing back the recording through these things, I had no way of knowing if 16 bit and 44.1khz would be satisfactory.

 

So I'm stuck. I would like know more about this as well.

[GuitarTab4Synth]

Just my 2 cents from the education I received via Pell Grant.

16 bits is used to encode sound during the analog to digital conversion

More bits give you better resolution at the expense of storage.

44.1khz represents sampling frequency which is standard CD audio quality.

And this number is important because Nyquist said the sampling frequency must be twice or greater than the signal you are sampling if you want to recover the signal without problems like aliasing.

That means signal less than 22.05khz can be recovered accurately.

Guitar signal does not go up that high so 22.05khz limit is fine.

But that is not to say oversampling like 96khz would not return better results.

At the end of the day, does you ear hold up to differentiating the nuances of the signal that you are working with?

[kurtdaniel1]

There have been threads listing various interfaces here. Just search on the word "interface" for example. I found the one I bought by reading one of them, a Lexicon for usb 2.0. It is also recommended by my guitar teachers..

[Anderton]

Agreed about the Sonuus. I've checked out the i2M (here's more info), but haven't reviewed it...if you're interested in the MIDI guitar aspect, I did do a review of the G2M's most recent version. It's similar, but doesn't have an audio interface, only MIDI.

 

Native Instruments had Guitar Rig Mobile I/O, which was really compact, but it doesn't seem to be available any more.

 

If you want mic inputs and well as DI inputs for guitar, Mackie's Blackjack is very good. I did a pretty lengthy review on it in the HC Articles Library. Another good, and more recent, option is the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. Really, a lot of it depends on how many inputs you want to record at once, whether you need to record mic and/or line level signals, size, etc. I would recommend that you stick with USB, not FireWire, as fewer laptops are including FireWire and not all have card slots where you can add a FireWire interface.

 

16-bit and 44.1kHz is definitely adequate for guitar, although for studio situations, most engineers these days use 24 bit. The files take up 50% more space, but with hard drive prices being what they are, that's not a big deal.

[chevybusa]

Craig mentioned the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and I would second that times INFINITY. A buddy of mine got one so I could record him singing and strumming acoustic for a bunch of songs he'd written, and then I'd add piano, strings, horns, drums, percussion, etc. etc. and it sound {censored}ing PHENOMENAL...the thing is he brought a buddy over that plays electric (he had a Les Paul) and we just plugged it in directly and ran it though Amplitube 3 and it sounded so {censored}ing good it's not even funny...I would definitely recommend that interface and start demoing various programs like Amplitube 3 (which also has many special programs like one devoted to Fender amps, one devoted to Hendrix's sounds, one devoted to metal, etc. etc.) to see what you like, there's also Peavey Revalver MKIII, NI's Guitar Rig 5, Overloud TH2, Studio Devil Virtual Amp 2, WAVES GTR, Softube makes some, and I'm sure there's a few others I'm forgetting...Definitely do your research on what program you think would be best, many will let you demo them (I'm assuming you already have a DAW, if you don't and need one, Logic Pro 9 has a whole mess of amps and pedals and stuff) and you'll be good to go, good luck!!!!!

[boofin]

Gee, sounds like no one here actually records guitar. Just get a line 6 Gx1 usb interface and pod farm. Great guitar sounds and effects. Price is very reasonable for what you get. Sounds wonderful and very intuitive to use. You could make an album with it.