Can You Do This???

[BTO]

First off, I am a total newbie when it comes to the ins and outs of PC recording, but not when it comes to guitar stuff.

I'm still at the point where I am monkeying around getting sounds and things that will work for my dinasaur music. I have the NFR version of Mackies Traction, but I haven't actually recorded anything with it yet. I also have the Producer version of Fruityloops 5. That is what I am doing my experimenting with at this point. But the time has come to get some guitar down over some of the loops I've neen putting together. I downloaded a free software amp/speaker/stompbox emulator called Free Amp 2 that is sitting as a VST plug in Traction.

I need a source of pre-amplification between my guitar and my soundcards line in. It's just the stock soundcard that came with my PC. I will be upgrading when my recording skills warrant it. Right now I just want to get some semi-decent guitar sounds tracked.

My question is, without blowing anything up, can I use the pre-amp out from the parallell f/x loop of my Laney VC30 before the line in on the sound card and use the f/x mix control to set levels? Alternatively, I also have an old Rexx solid state, analogue pre-amp that has a line out meant to run into a power amp.

Would either of these work for what I want to do?

Miking my amp is not an option at this point do to my living arrangements, so I need to do everything in the box. This is just for learning purposes and having a little fun. I will be looking at a dedicated guitar modeler: Line 6, V-Amp, Tech 21 Sans Amp etc once my soundcard is upgraded. But this is all baby steps right now.

Thanks in advance.

[Tadpui]

As long as you're careful to send only line level signals and not speaker level signals from your amp to your sound card, you should be OK.

So you can do either of the things that you mentioned. Go from a line out of your amp, or plug your guitar into that preamp and send a line level signal out of that into your sound card.

[Ironklad Audio]

just be aware that you'll probably have a pretty weak signal going straight into a standard soundcard...but yea, it'll work

[TelePaul]

Originally Posted by BTO

First off, I am a total newbie when it comes to the ins and outs of PC recording, but not when it comes to guitar stuff.

I'm still at the point where I am monkeying around getting sounds and things that will work for my dinasaur music. I have the NFR version of Mackies Traction, but I haven't actually recorded anything with it yet. I also have the Producer version of Fruityloops 5. That is what I am doing my experimenting with at this point. But the time has come to get some guitar down over some of the loops I've neen putting together. I downloaded a free software amp/speaker/stompbox emulator called Free Amp 2 that is sitting as a VST plug in Traction.

I need a source of pre-amplification between my guitar and my soundcards line in. It's just the stock soundcard that came with my PC. I will be upgrading when my recording skills warrant it. Right now I just want to get some semi-decent guitar sounds tracked.

My question is, without blowing anything up, can I use the pre-amp out from the parallell f/x loop of my Laney VC30 before the line in on the sound card and use the f/x mix control to set levels? Alternatively, I also have an old Rexx solid state, analogue pre-amp that has a line out meant to run into a power amp.

Would either of these work for what I want to do?

Miking my amp is not an option at this point do to my living arrangements, so I need to do everything in the box. This is just for learning purposes and having a little fun. I will be looking at a dedicated guitar modeler: Line 6, V-Amp, Tech 21 Sans Amp etc once my soundcard is upgraded. But this is all baby steps right now.

Thanks in advance.

Pre amp is a good bet, or an emulated d.i out if your amp has it; you might be able to diconnect the speaker from the Laney's pre amp. A decent compresor might do the job too, even a foot pedal.