I'm a complete newb when it comes to hardware like sound cards and amps. I don't know much about it, but I'd really like to learn. I want to record some acoustic and electric guitar music, but my current setup sucks. Here is a quick recording I done to give you an idea of what I'm working with.
RecordTest.wav
Aside from my questionable guitar playing skills and the fact that the guitar is a little out of tune, it sounds like crap because I lack decent recording equipment. I'm gonna start saving up for some new sound equipment soon and I need some help because I don't know what to buy. Heres my current setup:
Esteban acoustic electric guitar. Yeah I know its a poor man's guitar, but I'm a poor man.
Esteban amplifier. I can live with the guitar, but this amp sounds like crap. The only output is a headphone jack, which I'm hooking into my sound card's line in jack to do the recording.
Instead of hooking the guitar directly into the amp, I'm hooking a Nady Starpower SP-1 mic into it. I'm not sure if this is a good mic or not because I borrowed it from my dad. It doesn't sound quiet right when I hook the mic directly into my computer, which is why I'm putting it through the amp first.
My sound card is an Aureal Audio card. I'm not exactly sure what model, but its obviously a pretty cheap card. Its gonna need to be replaced soon anyway because the line out jack is screwed up and for some reason only outputs sound to the right speaker.
I'm recording it all with Guitar FX Box Pro, which is a digital guitar recording program.
Any suggestions for new hardware, or links where I can read more about live guitar recording? Keep in mind that I don't have a lot of money to spend. I just want a decent sound for as little money as possible. What about those Line-6 Pod preamp thingies? Should I look into those?