Line-in recording on the soundcard

K

KyaiZen

New member
I have a SB Live! card on my PC. I attempted to record my guitar via the line-in, but discovered that the level was extremely low (barely audible).

I read in the manual that the Line-in was meant for 'external devices such as CD or MD player'. What can I do to boost up the levels?

All I did on the software side was to select line-in from the Windows mixer. Do I have to alter the settings on the SB mixer?

Thanks for any help.
 
Are you just plugging your guitar into your SB card? If so, thats your problem. You need to get a preamp.
 
Right - "Line in" means "line level in" -- a standard, specific range of voltages. Signals from guitars are not line level (nor are those from microphones).

What you need is some means of getting a line level guitar signal to your line input. There are many ways:
  • Many newer amps have line outs for recording, variously named DI, Direct Out, Line Out, Recording Out, etc. (NOTE: this is not the output to speakers. These put how high-level signals and will fry your soundcard.)
  • Most guitar effects boxes have a line out. There are a lot of newer ones with so-called "modeling" features that use digital signal processing to make the signal mimic that from a desirable "classic" amp/speaker combo (for example, the Johnson J-Station, the Line 6 POD, Yamaha DG-Stomp, etc.) -- these can be a particulary attractive solution.
  • There are direct boxes that can be used to get a signal to line level.
  • Stick a microphone in front of you guitar cabinet, run it through a mic preamp or a recording console, and take that into your sound card. This is the classic way (many say the only way) to get great guitar sounds.
 
might go into the Creative devices and see where your line 2 level is, as well......

I use my SB Live to practice and I can plug in directly and hear fine..... :o)
 
oops........


butttttttt...........



if you're doing serious recording, the above posts are correct..

I've seen POD haters and lovers, but I fall on the side of loving them...
might look into something like that, but if you're just doing a dry input for clean tone, you should still be able to still get signal, albeit, probably not the best tones!
 
GC, are you perhaps plugging your guitar into the Mic In? There's a preamp, albeit a crappy one. That would make your guitar signal audible. But I'll bet it doesn't sound very good...

I'm a POD lover too...
 
on the SB Live, it has the Live Drive, which has a 1/4 inch input that is labeled as "line in 2"......I would think (?) it has some kind of preamp, because the guitar comes through pretty decent!
It's not top notch, but it doesn't really sound that bad.....
This is, of course, assuming that Kyai has the Live Drive as an input box as well?
 
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