Recording...

[violation]

Here's the situation: I ordered our 5th amp, the Line 6 Spider III and on their site it says:

"With POD® 2.0 style direct out on board, the best way to record the Spider III will be to connect the headphone/Direct Out connector to your mixer or I/O box. The amp's speakers will mute out automatically, and you'll have killer Line 6 tone going direct to your recording application. Of course, if you want to make some noise, you can mic up a Spider III just like any of your other prized amps."

Here's the questions:
1 - So all I need is a 1/4 instrument cable to go from the Spider III to the mixer or I/O, it goes to the PC and I use the included recording software to record?

2 - Where it says "the amp's speakers will mute out", how will I hear what I'm recording?

3 - What I/O box or Mixer would you reccomend? I have both Firewire and USB ports if that helps.

Thank you very much! I've been recording with a PC mic from Wal-Mart (cost $11, lol).

[violation]

I think I've got it... what if I get this and set it up like:

Guitar through pedals to amp, amp's direct out to Channel 1's Instrument/Line on the MAudio, Logitech PC Speakers to Stereo Line Output on the MAudio and MAudio USB cable to my PC and use Audacity to record.... would that work?

[NYMorningstar]

My guess is you won't be real happy with the Maudio in the future once you get into recording. It only handles 2 channels at 16 bit. You don't want to invest in equipment you are going to grow out of real fast. Set back from this and take a clear look at your intentions and then buy your equipment. Maybe you'll only be able to score one piece at a time. It's best to get one good piece of gear than 5 pieces of shit.

For starters you want to look at converters ad/da. You're going to want at least 24 bit and probably an interface that will handle more than two channels.

[violation]

I'm just looking for a simple interface that will give out pretty good results... I'll be recording guitar and vocals, that's all. I don't want some huge professional setup worth $10k, lol.

[rayc]

How were you intending to monitor your recording & mixing?
Line out of amp to input of s/card or break out box etc into recording program out of program, through soundcard or similar & through monitor speakers or, (if needed) head phones.

[NYMorningstar]

Originally Posted by violation

I'm just looking for a simple interface that will give out pretty good results... I'll be recording guitar and vocals, that's all. I don't want some huge professional setup worth $10k, lol.

I gathered that from your first post. It sounds like you already know what to do. Maybe you want to take a look at some casio equipment. They claim to be pretty good and would be right in line with your $11 mic, lol.

[violation]

How would you record with this mixer? Plug the guitar into the amp, amps line out to line in on the mixer, mixer usb to the computer and headphones in the phones jack to monitor? Someone on another forum uses that mixer and the quality is good (to me anyway).

[NYMorningstar]

I wouldn't go from the amps line out to the mixer. I'd mic the amp instead.

[violation]

Now that I can do! My step-dad has tons of expensive mics since he was the vocalist and guitar player in his band... he pronounces them "sure". Anywho, thanks for the help.

[andycerrone]

Personally, I never direct out a guitar amp. I think you completely take away from the character of the amp, especially when you've got your personal settings already figure out on it with the speakers you have. The speakers will give it a different color,and when you take that away, the sound is going to be different from what you usually hear. Granted, a lot of mics will do that, but if you've got good ones like you say, (I'm assuming that the "sure" mics are SM-57's.. and fyi they're spelled Shure, for future reference) then you can get a really good mic'd guitar tone.