Yes, the modeling technology will beat the Fx gadget.
Now if you played semi-professionally, I doubt you will be satisfied with your sound, though I know you told us it is for a fun project.
The problem is, the manufacturer uses low grade AD converters on these boards. And using the Zoom in the signal path may be giving you stage gaining. Another member here already suggested how to go about finding a level that will not clip. The crackling might be digital ¨artifacts¨. We are all operating with sampling technology these days and so these are the issues. Also, I wonder if the cable is an inexpensive 1/4 inch to miniplug?

To match the possible impedance situation, I would try using a microphone, as the manufacturer intended. Mic your amp!
Playback options-monitoring- is also an issue while tracking on these systems.
Buying an interface will go a long way and is well worth it!
Good luck and keep us posted!
Guys here are savvy and the nicest people around!

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FIGHT!

STUDIO DEVIL BVC is FREE and it is one of the simpliest and best sounding DAW guitar amp simulation plugins I have ever used. All DAW come with FREE Reverb and EQ plugins so you can model your own guitar sound easily. For recording into a computer direct you want to not use any pedals in line as they tend to give you a hard time trying to get a good sound IMO. I would go guitar straight into ASIO device into PC and use simple yet effective plugins on your guitar channel. Howerver if you are MIC'ing an amp then thats a different story. I have been recording into a PC for the past 15 years and have gone through numerous methods and configurations, Pedals and plugins and eventually always come back to the most simplest. Like I said earlier I plug my guitar straight into MIC jack when I want to just do quick recordings.

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GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.

Thanks for all the suggestions, the guy from ebay got back and wasn't sure whether the adapter would work, so will call in Maplin to see what they say (they sell a version which has an installation disc for some virtual amp ware ), but all that'll have to wait for now, as we are off on holiday for quite a few weeks

To satisfy myself that something would acually work on my old laptop through a usb port and Audacity would recognise it, I miked up my little amp with of all things, a webcam with a usb plug (told you I sold off a lot of gear, could've used my beyer, if I still had it) and after a lot of tweaking around, managed to record 2 guitar tracks over a backing track in audacity, with surprising results , considering it was only an inexpensive webcam, the sound was a good 2/10 , so I know at least I'll be able to record into it now one way or the other
So thanks again

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Change the drop down menu in Audacity toolbar from 'microphone' to 'line in' or 'aux'.

Good luck!

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

Don't leave home without it!

Just a quick update .
I managed to download and register, the free version of Amplitube
I tried it out with the laptop mike as I still don't have a guitar connector to usb yet
(as I said earlier,,we are off on holiday soon for 5 weeks and didn't want to order one up from ebay, as it'd probably come while we are away) , so will get one when we get back, similar to this


Now I know I have to plug my strat in before I open Amplitube to get the amp effects on it
but when I want to then record myself on Audacity, when I select "Microphone 2 in"
(which is what Audacity calls anything inserted in my usb connection) OR asio4all driver if that's supplied (apparently the free version "clicks", every 30 seconds) , I know that Audacity will actually record the sound, but will it record it with the amp sound (IE overdrive and reverb)


It was all so much easier with a reel to reel tape recorder

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

I think you said there was a line-out from the 4040. Try to put a cable from there into your new interface.
If you want to record all your setup , I guess you have to use a microphone.
But if you downloaded Amplitube, I guess the only reason to do that is to use the amp-and pedal- simulations within this. Then you just plug your guitar cord into your interface

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A-man

No mate, I downloaded Amplitube free as a back up, in case I couldn't get a decent sound in audacity out of the zoom,which has more effects and 3 amp simulators built in

The Amplitube free only comes with 3 different amps (alter the settings and you get 9 combinations ) but has no delay or chorus
The zoom has
3 amp simulators
3 different cabinets (9 combinations)
2 clean settings (you can use eq or amp sim with any setting)
4 overdrives
3 metal
chorus
compressor
step
tremolo
pitch shift
wah
auto wah
slow
octaver (3 versions)
reverb (3 types)
2 delays (can use both together)
Volume pedal
tap delay
assignable pedal
So to buy online versions of most of these would cost an arm and a leg, so will play it by ear
Thanks for everyone's input

Ted

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Which version of Audacity are you using - line in will work fine.



This might help you too:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page

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

Don't leave home without it!

Hi Mike
I'm using 2.0.1, and with a usb plug plugged in, I have a coice of
Stereo mix (Realtek high definition audio)
Microphone (usb audio device) and
Primary sound driver

I don't have any line ins on the laptop

I get quite good sound with the last 2, with the primary sound driver seeming to give a better input
I was reading up and Audacity has problems with asio drivers sometimes, so I have also downloaded Reaper and will give them both a go when we get back from our holidays and I've got one of the connecters as in the picture in my other post

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Reaper is a much better program anyway, IMO. Audacity is good to learn
basic editing with but can't compare to Reaper with great VST support.
Forum member, Tony Houston knows a lot about Reaper as well.

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

Don't leave home without it!

Thought I'd do a bit of an update on this
First of all, I ditched Audacity for a trial version of Reaper,(which I intend to purchase), Reaper seemed way easier to use, with tracks recording in real time
I ended up buying a guitar to usb cable like this



After reading up on the Behringer type , I decided I wanted to be able to hear myself though the laptop, laptop headphones, or amp plugged into headphone socket of laptop

I downloaded Asio4all drivers and played around with them and got virtually no latency (supposedly 4 ms)
and everything was working fine apart from one thing
MASSIVE HUM
I tried everything, taking the guitar into another room , moving it around to see if that cured it
It happened in both Amplitube and Reaper , Amplitube being the worst, with deafening grounding type hum with every setting I tried on the amplitube with the noise gate not working ( having to set it that high, it was clipping all the time) and in Reaper, only marginal improvement using their noise gate

In deperation, I thought I'd try the mono (left) output of my Zoom pedal direct into the laptop via the above lead
Guess what? NO HUM !!
I have the Zoom set to 11 (out of 15) on "ZNR" (Zoom Noise Reduction) and that gives me a cristal clear sound with no noticable drop in decay on clean settings and a very slight reduction in decay, in distorted tones (and only at a very low volume)

I have the output control of the Zoom set to minimum and the incoming levels in Reaper are fine (it must be near as damn it, line level at that setting)
I don't use Amplitube, although it is loaded into Reaper, as the amp simulators in the Zoom sound slightly better (I have an equal number of amps, as it is the free version of Amplitube only, and also 3 different cabinet types to choose from, plus an EQ) and the added advantage is, I can pre set the sound I want in the Zoom, then add even more effects in Reaper, so happy bunny now

The only thing I can think of that might be causing the hum, is a bad earth
When I plug my strat direct into my little amp,even when using the built in distortion, no hum
When I use the zoom then into the amp, no hum, even on distorted tones and with no ZNR
When I use the USB cable = hum , so you would think it was that, but my theory is, Everything else, has an earth connection on the 3 pin plug
Amp has
Zoom has
Laptop hasn't
I can't test any more theories out, as we are off on holidays tomorrow, but am taking laptop and would be interested to see how others are using Amplitube with one of these cables , do you get hum?

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Have you tried unplugging the laptop from it's charging adapter while using it. If the hum goes away then you have a groundloop issue. I had this and had to disconnect the ground pin from my laptop power adapter. But generally if you are using any sort of Amp overdrive plugin or effect, the noise floor gets raised (amplified), so you will hear the HUM. So yeah using a noise gate like you have is generally the solution when it has no major affect on signal decay.

_________________
GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.