Setup Question.

Quattroste

Firstly I'm a complete newbie to this so try to keep it simple if you can

While playing around with an Amplitube demo last night I accidently clicked into the "How to connect your guitar to Amplitube" help page. It stated that you should never plug your guitar directly into a Line In connection as it can damage your guitar. My setup is Guitar to Mixer to Mac(audiophile 2496) to crappy amp and crappy monitors(soon to be changed to Event TR8's, via Teamdresch!)

Am I doing the right thing here? I could take a line out from one of my amps but that would colour the sound right?

Also can someone recommend a decent USB or Firewire sound card for Mac? Not top of the range as I would not appreciate it but not something I will want to change in a couple of months because it's limiting.

Thanks
Ste.

cornbb

Hi Quattroste,

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm not sure its possible to damage your guitar by plugging it into a Line In socket, as the signal is going in the opposite direction. You needn't worry however, as your signal is currently going in via a mixer. Make sure your mixer is connected to your audiophile via the mixer's aux out/studio out phono outputs - I don't know what brand/design mixer you are using but this is probably the safest bet.

You could indeed take a line out from your amp and feed it into the mixer. It would colour the sound alright but some amps use some sort of digital emulation/modeling on the Line Out so it might be a desirable sound. On the other hand, if your amp doesn't do this, or if you just want to use Amplitube to define your guitar sound, its probably not worth having it in your signal path due to additional noise/artefacts.

As for a soundcard, try out the Edirol UA25 - it won't have the highest quality converters in the world but as long as you only need 2 mic/instrument inputs its cheap, cheerful, reliable and a breeze to set up and use. It'll allow you to dispense with the mixer and give you better results than your current card.

All the best.

Quattroste

Thanks cornbb.

My mixer is a Berhinger MX1604(??). Why should I use the aux outs and not the main outs?

cornbb

Oops, I meant to say control room out. It probably won't make a difference, but some mixers have some sort of phono output, might be an idea to use that (if available) instead of the main 1/4" jack outputs.

11811

if you've a guitar amp,even a practice one, use a line out from that, or mic it up for best results. altho i've often used a guitar straight in to a line without bad things happening, but if the manual says so don't!

TelePaul

Seems odd the manual would advise against such a thing. GENRALLY, so long as an output goes to an input you can't do too much damage. Although unless the line input is high impedance it won't do much for the sound. If your amp has an emulated DI output, you can use that...don't disconnect the speaker though if it's a valve amp!

squibs

GENRALLY, so long as an output goes to an input you can't do too much damage.

Agreed - the only way I can think of causing damage is by connecting the output of a P.A. amp to an input expecting mic level - that would probably produce some smoke...

jimi_t

Quattroste wrote:

While playing around with an Amplitube demo last night I accidently clicked into the "How to connect your guitar to Amplitube" help page. It stated that you should never plug your guitar directly into a Line In connection as it can damage your guitar.

The mind boggles sometimes...

Quattroste

It never crossed my mind before and i agree it seems odd that they would state that but they do!

Anywho, what is the verdict on these sound card options
M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB
Edirol FA-66

Thanks
Ste.

Frankiestylee

I don't know the FA one, I'm assuming it's just a firewire version of the UA, but the Edirol sound cards seem very solid and do the job.

jimi_t

Quattroste wrote:

It never crossed my mind before and i agree it seems odd that they would state that but they do!

Anywho, what is the verdict on these sound card options
M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB
Edirol FA-66

Thanks
Ste.

Definitely the Edirol. M-Audio drivers are brutal, especially for the likes of the Fast Tracks. I had one and was not impressed