Would I be a fool to buy this...

[albie]

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/stor...&category_oid=

And try to record guitar through it?

[Halion]

Yes. I don't even think it has any inputs, and if it did, they would suck greatly.

A budget that small is not gonna get you anything even quarterway decent as far as sound quality is concerned.

[LemonTree]

Originally Posted by albie

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/stor...&category_oid=

And try to record guitar through it?

Looks like you're on a budget.... for another tenner you could get an M-Audio audiophile 24/96 from www.dv247.com

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by albie

Would I be a fool to buy this....?

Yes.

[DavidK]

It has a remote!!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I have never seen a soundcard with a remote. A man can never have too many remotes Why you would need one I have no clue, but its interesting.

[albie]

It has an inline hole thingy. I'm not bothered about a great studio sound, I just want to not hear the buzzing anymore!!!!!!!!! The buzzing of using my mic input thingy with my guitar.

Yes, I know about d-boxes, and the like. But I don't like to use the web for buying stuff. That would be insane. And you just can't get food stuff over the counter. Not here, not in Hull, England.

I just thought using a different hole thingy, might get rid of that buzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not going to gamble forty quid of my dole money to find out.

[Jim Y]

I wouldn't buy it - Creatives USB Soundblasters seem to cause a lot of installation problems. I don't think it has a guitar pre-amp anyway, so you might not get a better sound for all that.

Is your computer a laptop?
Is it an electric guitar you want to record or a mic'ed up acoustic?

[albie]

Ah! I mostly play quietish electric, and hence get that buzzing-ness. I have had to switch to playing louder and using an equalizer to knock off the offending entrails of the buzzing.

But now how do you get rid of the voices? The voices!

Funnily, I made a lead to connect my guitar to my laptop with two old headphone pluggy things, and sometimes, with a bit of a twist, the buzz would almost vanish. That's why I wonder if it's about mono or stereo leads. I've tried both though, and no success.

Maybe it's a magic lead.

I think the buzz comes from the fact that there's a constant circuit. Perhaps a diode would help?

Any electric wizzes here?

[Jim Y]

Most likely a bad earth. Try a seperate wire from the metalwork on the back of the laptop to the bridge of the guitar.
A soundcard microphone input isn't electrically ideal for a guitar pickup. For one thing. it's got a power supply on it's ring contact. The mic jack has the Tip (signal), Ring (phantom power for little condenser mics but it's usually only around 2.5volts and should tolerate being shorted out) and the body or Sleeve which is the earth or ground.
What you need is a mono 1/4" jack to mono 1/8" jack cable if you must use a mic input.
More ideal would be something like the Line6 usb guitar port or toneport (whatever). Maybe you could find one on e-bay or classified ads?

[albie]

I wondered about the earth thing. No electrical equipment uses an earth wire anymore. Or is that something different. I find if I place my hand on the metal of the guitar I can get rid of most of the buzz, but it makes playing impossible, and the buzz merely pulses, getting louder and quieter. Which is really hard to get rid of later in the clean up.

I'll try what you said though. Or maybe I'll play naked and attach a wire to myself. In some appropiate place.

[Jim Y]

If the laptop is connected by it's external power supply, it should be getting an earth from the AC wall socket. However, I think there may be ones about that don't connect the AC earth to the computers chassis. Then again, if it's running on battery, nothing is earthed and a guitar will most definately be noisy without an earth (or ground if you prefer) to it's metalwork. The guitar relies on the equipment it's plugged in to to make the earth connection via the screen of the jack cable.

[Codmate]

Yeah - that device looks pretty nasty.
...and Creative's drivers...
*shudder*

[altiris]

also turn off your monitor(PC screen). I thought I had a buzzing problem once until I backed off .then I just turned off my monitor. wow I had a clean buzz free sound. Thats not the issue if you have LCD screens.