Hey Johny. Well the brain of your rack setup is going to be your mixer. And there really are a dozen ways you can set the whole shi-bang up.
Seems to me that you want to take your "normal" playing guitar signal, with all of its assorted effects, and pump them into your computer to record an as-is sort of guitar track. This is by far the easiest set up, and theres not really a set rule how you rig it up. Frankly, you are almost better off (assuming the senario I mentioned is the mission) hooking up all of your effects and stopm boxes the same way you would for playing any gig, and micing the amp. Taking that miced sound and shoot it thru your mixer into your computer.
The upside to doing this is that you end up with a what you hear is what you get deal. Thats to say if you like the sound and the effects as you are playing, then you have a solid track you are recording. The downside is that you end up with a what you hear is what you get deal. The irony there is, if you are not 100% happy with the effects and sound, you are limited to your editing options. In support of that, 9 out of 10 times, what we think we are hearing as we play, is not the reality of the literal signal. This makes our tracks seem as if they are missing something along the way.
It seems that more and more of the folks who are using a computer to record with, begin to rely on fewer outboard effects and pedals. And the rack that we used in the past with distortion, delay and all that slowly switch to a rack full of compressors and preamps. Although opinions vary, it seems the most flexible way to record and end up with a final product that tickles us... is to record the best possible clean signal we can, and add effects via plugins after the fact.
I bet a nickle that I created more questions for you than I did answers.
