using 'line out'of guitar amps to soundcard

R

robbocop

New member
Surely there must be loads of people in here have a lead running from the line out of their guitar amp to the line in(or whatever )of their sound card.I have a Yamaha SW1000XG soundcard which has a preamp thingy in it.So ive tried my crappy Marshall valvestate line out to the soundcard and all i get is a loud hum,ive just bought a Mesa Boogie DC5 which just happens to have a 'recording' out socket on the back panel,great i thought,plugged a lead into this and into the 'line in' of my card,a hum again!although this time i did hear some distortion coming out of my pc speakers,so a signal is getting through,but why is it so crappy?Whats the secret to getting a good recordable signal from an amp to a soundcard?
 
there's going to be two inputs on your soundcard: one for a microphone, and one for line level. Make sure that if you've got a line out, that it's going into the line in, not the mic in.

Another easy thing to do is to put a mic in front of the amp, and run that to the mic input of your soundcard.

good luck!
 
Most humm comes from unproper grounded electrical devices. It's also called 60Hz AC humm cycle. Unfortunately, most amps have this problem. Miking the amp will be the best way IMO. Get a Shure SM57 mic, Bluetube preamps, plug it to your Line In. You'll be amazed compared to your way now. Or, in my case, I plug the guitar to my multiFX unit -which has built in preamps- and run the output directly to Line In of the soundcard. Put the amps off the chain. That's okay if your multiFX has amps simulator. You'll loose your real amps character, but better than get the humm...
 
IMO, I wouldn't use that. Guitar tone is not limited by what comes out of the amp, part (or a great deal) of that tone comes from the speakers and by using a line out you dont exploit the speakers. You seem to have a nice amp, just mic it through a decent mixer and then stick it into the soundcard.
 
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