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So the SB Live comes with the right inputs on board or should I get this Live Drive 2?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The SB Live has a mic input for connecting the cheesy mic that comes packaged with the card -- this is virtually worthless for anything else. It also has a stereo minijack Line In, and another for the Line Out. You will likely need some sort of adapter to connect anything to this. There are cables that have two 1/4" or RCA plugs on one end and a single 1/8" mini plug on the other end. Then there's also the S/PDIF in...
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I don´t know this S/PDIF thing, is it the "optical" connection? The guitar jack is called the 1/4" right?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
S/PDIF stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interface. It's not optical; looks like an RCA jack. It takes a stereo digital signal from things like a DAT recorder, a stand-alone analog-to-digital converter, some preamps and effects boxes, and such. You can bypass the SB Live's analog-to-digital conversion with this, which will improve your results if you have the equipment.
And yes, the standard guitar plug is a 1/4" mono plug. (There are also stereo versions that use a slightly different jack and cable, which are sometimes used for stereo effects sends out of a single jack, or for sending a balanced signal like you get with a balanced XLR microphone cable.)
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I do not own a mixer or a pre-amp, but I don´t intend to record vocal parts. Are they necessary for recording the guitar? Maybe I should mic my amp? And the mixer.. is it needed if I only want to record one track at a time? I ´m afraid it would sound crappy if I plugged straight from the boss or the amp on the board... what would be a cheap but correct setup??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You don't really need a mixer per se, but you do need some way of getting the guitar into a line level signal that you like the sound of. Something needs to bring the guitar signal up to this level. Typically you have a line out from effects boxes or from most modern amplifiers. As you surmise, you will probably agree with 99% of the population that
a direct guitar signal sounds pretty crappy. Some direct outs will give you a pretty decent sound to start from. (I used to use
an Alesis Quadraverb GT and it wasn't too shabby.)There are also the new breed of amp-modeling recording devices --
the Line 6 POD,
the Johnson J-Station, and the new Zoom device I just say advertised in the new Guitar Player. I use a POD and I love it. There are those who swear that the only real way to get a great guitar sound is to mic a great-sounding amp. If you do want to do this, you'll need a decent mic, and a preamp to bring the mic signal up to line level. There's also quite an art to getting the mic placed just right to capture a good sound.
Actually, I think that the real key is a great-sounding guitar being played by a player who can get a great sound! If you have that, than any method will give gppd results, and the recording will be compelling and capture the magic. Jeff Beck recorded the
Frankie's House soundtrack with one of those ART or Digitech guitar preamp/multieffector boxes and it sounds terrific to me. A lot of people are admitting to tracking their new recordings the POD these days, and the examples I've heard all sound perfectly good.
Good luck!
-AlChuck
[This message has been edited by AlChuck (edited 07-25-2000).]
