Hey y'all,

Well here's a question that I've been trying to figure out on my own for quite some time and I trust my Fender family with treating me gently. When using products like Amplitube Hendrix and the like how do they work? I'm assuming that you can use them with your amp for modeling and recording? If so how do you hook your gear up to your PC or laptop to use it? A friend at work wants to load Amplitube Hendrix on my computer for me but I'm just wondering how the set up works.

I do not know, but I too want to know the answer to this question so I bumped the thread.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Nice to see that I'm not alone here,lol. Oddly enough I can't get a decent search on google or anything else. I know all I need to know about the program itself now after reading I just have no idea how the components work. I've read about cords to input the guitar into your computer but I assumed that you would be able to get these sounds through your amp which I cannot seem to find the answers for. I'll keep searching and hope to find out anything else.

You need a device that will take the signal from your guitar, analog, and convert it into something your computer can use, digital.

For example, Vox tonelab effects pedals, they have outputs that connect to your computer. Boss has them as well, there are others including rack mounted devices. Try a search on guitar digital interface.

The outputs will be USB, spdif optical or spdif. Your computer probably has USB, may or may not have spdif input. You may need to put a sound card into your computer.

I use a Line6 device. This is a little larger than a cig pack, has a guitar jack input, a USB output to connect to my computer and a mini jack output for headphones, connection to a receiver or an amp.

I use the TASCAM US-122L. It's an interface device allowing connection between computers and sound equipment.

It also comes with a limited version of CuBase which is home studio recording software but that's another topic.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

You can also use a soundcard designed for digital in/out like this :

http://www.jr.com/maudio/pe/MIM_AUDIOFILE/

Personally, I don't like using USB devices, but just my preference.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Today's MF stupid deal of the day :

Tascam Digital Recorder :

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Thanks guys. I felt pretty stupid asking but I just couldn't figure out the configuration of it.

Go to the thouston come back thread and I believe someone posted a link to him there. He can and will surely help you out. He loves this type of discussion.

Like I said before Miami Mike can really show you the way.

http://songcrafters.org all about home recording.
Jump to the forums section and the relevant recording ones are at the bottom.

I have a e=mu 404 sound interface for my PC.
And my new DigiTech RP-155 pedal has USB connection to allow direct use of a PC based DAW.

There are lots of other Instrument to usb adapters , some are quite inexpensive !

This one looks neat, no idea it it actually works well!
LightSnake Guitar to USB cable!
http://www.music123.com/SoundTech-Light ... 7.Music123

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Keep on Truckin, Going full speed ahead down the highway to hades.

Tony, this is one for you!

As mentioned before you will need an audio interface, which is a piece of hardware that typically has input jacks (1/4 in, XLR, DIN, etc) for your instrument(s) and autput for monitor speakers, headphones, computer (USB, or FireWire).

If you have a desktop computer you can find some audio interface cards but they are not that great these days.

If you have a Mac (iMac or similar) you can use DI (direct injection) plug in your instrument in the 1/8 jack with the 1/4 jack converter. With this setup you need to use a pre amp in the pedal form (I used boss bd2) or any other form to get enough gain. Signal from guitar itself is not enough with the guitar with the passive pickups. I have never tried active pickups this way.
The drawback to this method is that signal is not very good and there is an issue with latency (when you strike a note/chord there is delay before it gets reproduced on the computer).

So now back to better method. Audio interfaces come in different classes and price points with variety to confuse you as a consumer of course.

sub $100 = Basic one channel, cheap analog to digital conversion components and pre amps, limited number of inputs and outputs. USB connectivity.

$100 - $200 = More inputs and outputs, some have better analog and digital conversion components, two channel recording, latency monitoring, better hardware. The closer you get to $200 the better they are. USB connectivity.

$200 - $350 = Even more inputs and outputs, great analog and digital converter components, 2 or 4 channel recording. great pre amps. USB or FireWire connectivity. (FireWire is a must if you record more than 2 channels at the time and you got to have very decent computer with a good processor and a lot of RAM 4GB).

$400 and up = This is getting serious semi pro to pro level equipment.

They all do the job of recording instruments and there are many of them on the market, you will need to pick one up obviously based on your budget and what is good enough for you. Some brands to look for are Lexicon, PreSonus, Tascam, Yamaha, Emu, Roland, etc

Hope that helps

Great post Danielhelc!!

Well, I respectfully disagree with that statement.

The audiophile 192 is one of the finest sounding cards I've heard :

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/A ... le192.html

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Well maybe I should have qualified that statement with more details.

What that meant was that after I discussed this topic with different folks in person and in web forums there seems to be a common number of issues with the sound quality and hardware/software drivers compatibility with windows operating system (XP, Vista) and DAW software.

Interface cards are additional option indeed and I am glad that it worked out for you, however the general opinion gravitates toward the separate unit as far as plug-and-play capability, ease of use, less problems etc.

From my experience I have used (mentions lest expensive options) DI method and it was fine due to my very top of the line hardware. I have used Tascam US-122L which self destructed after the one year of warranty expired. Currently I am using Lexicon Omega and PreSonus FireBox and so far so good. I'll post some sound clips soon.