More stupid questions about initial setup.

[Kclark01]

I have a Mackie 408M PA and your basic Soundblaster Live sound card and I'm in the intial plugging-stuff-in stage of getting aquainted with this stuff. I've installed the shareware version of N-track just to get started. I tried recording an acoustic guitar with a nice Fisher pickup through the PA with a cable going from the PA's tape out to the soundcard's mic in. Although the levels looked good on N-track's Vumeter, the sound was as if I were using a distortion pedal and it was very hissy and faint. I have studio monitor headphones plugged into the soundcard's speaker/headphone jack. I've tried adjusting the mic/recording volume in windows as well as the wav out volume for monitoring. I'm sure I'm doing this all wrong.

Should I be using another of the soundcard's inputs instead of the mic in? Should I be using my PA's "mixer out" instead of the tape out? Or should give up and go back to surfing for porn and playing Diablo II all day?

Any guidance (especially step-by-step instructions) would be GREATLY appreciated!

[c7sus]

YES! Don't use the mic in on the SBLive for anything other than a cheesey puter mic.

You should be able to use either the tape outs or the line out from the mixer into the line-in on the SBLIve.

Be sure to adjust your settings on the SBLive mixer to enable the line in. Try setting the volume at about 90% on the line in and the SBLive main to 90% too. I've noticed that going beyond these levels seems to introduce distortion when listening to CD's through the SBLive.

JUST DON'T SEND A POWERED (AMPLIFIED) SIGNAL INTO THE SOUNDCARD!

[Kclark01]

Eureka! I'm up and running! Thanks for the help.

...About sending an amplified signal into the sound card, I'm assuming that as long as I'm not sending a line from my PA/mixer's "speaker out" to my soundcard's line in I'm OK, right?

Also, I'd like to send a line from my soundcard to my PA's "tape in" so I can play back or jam along with the tracks I've made without headphones. Do I want to use Soundblaster's digital out jack, line out jack, or rear out jack? Or do I not want to do this at all? (I'm extremely illeterate in these matters for someone who's been playing music for 20 years!)

Thanks again.

[TexRoadkill]

Use the line out of the SB to send a signal back to the mixer.

And you are correct, NEVER hook up anything but a speaker to the speaker out or you will damage your equipement. The only time your really need to be worried about damage is when you have a powered output that is supposed to drive a speaker.

When dealing with normal line and mic signals you may get crappy sound if you do it wrong but you usually wont burn anything up.