Lunahorum Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I have an m-audio 2496 sound card and a standard guitar with passive pickups and a 1/4jack out. I am just using a 1/4 to rca converter to record guitar/bass into computer and I have been doing so for years. Is this a problem due to the impedance differences (whatever that is?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 You're probably getting pretty cruddy sound quality by doing that. You're much better off plugging the guitar into your amp, then plugging the line out of the amp into your audiophile. Either that or run the guitar through a DI box, which lowers the impedance. I think you probably are being hurt by impedance issues -- guitars generally have high impedance outputs, and I don't think line-level inputs are designed to handle that properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Yeah, you really need to get your hands on a DI box to lower the impedance, this will reduce the noise level and give you optimal tone out of your guitar. Something REALLY cool that was recently released is the Waves GTR3 interface. It's relatively cheap (about $75-90 if you shop around) and is specifically made to convert your guitar signal into a low impedance signal in the same way an amp would. And it's made specifically for amp modeling software, I recommend you check it out. http://www.waves.com/content.aspx?id=2590 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skummel Maske Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 I tried to look up the word impedance, but couldn't find an easy answer anywhere. I've got my guitar plugged directly to my external sound card with a standard jack, does that mean that I don't have to worry about a reduction of my sound quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunahorum Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 I have tried plugging into my amp then running a line out from there into the sound card. There is more noise doing it that way, but I can definitely adjust the sound level to come in higher (-10dB instead of -24dB) if that's an advantage? I'll check out the GTR3 interface SM thanks. I can't tell, does that thing have a digital output or an analog output and does it have a preamp? (it says on the site it has a "transparent preamp") thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I tried to look up the word impedance, but couldn't find an easy answer anywhere. I've got my guitar plugged directly to my external sound card with a standard jack, does that mean that I don't have to worry about a reduction of my sound quality? I'm not gonna get technical, but impedance is the voltage to current relationship, and it's pretty logical to assume that if your source and destination are of different impedance, there will be some sacrifice. In your situation, you do have to worry about sound quality unless your external sound card has a mic preamp built in, that would convert the signal to be used properly in the digital domain. If your sound card only has "Line Input" or something similar, then you are getting a reduction in sound quality. So either get yourself a good preamp/DI box, or if your sound card has it, use the Mic Input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I have tried plugging into my amp then running a line out from there into the sound card. There is more noise doing it that way, but I can definitely adjust the sound level to come in higher (-10dB instead of -24dB) if that's an advantage?I'll check out the GTR3 interface SM thanks. I can't tell, does that thing have a digital output or an analog output and does it have a preamp? (it says on the site it has a "transparent preamp") thanks! The amp's line out is a bad idea. Unless you have a brand new state of the art amp that for some reason has a line out (most high grade amps do not), then you're doomed to a very high noise level. As for the PRS interface, I don't really have the details on it, I can't find a spec sheet anywhere. I'm thinking of getting one myself because I just ditched my old pre-amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Ah my bad. I was thinking of keyboard combo amps I guess, which generally do have a line out because they have a builtin mixer. So yeah, you want a DI box or the thing Snapple linked to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunahorum Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 let me post a quick mp3 of my guitar playing plugged straight into the sound card. I think it sounds fine, but maybe the clean tone will suffer. I read that high impedance is most noticeable for high frequencies which means the clean tone I guess. A distortion tone gets its high frequencies from distorting the strongest parts of the signal anyways. Or at least I think. I am just bsing this whole "logical thought" and I really don't know. But I will put up some recorded clean and dirty parts and maybe someone who does have a good impedance matching system can do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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