How to plug guitar/mic to Audiophile 2496?

M

mr.rudy

New member
Hi,

I am a total beginner. I just got an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard and I don't know how to connect an electric guitar/mic to it so that I can record some tunes. Do I need some hardware like a pre-amp or is just some magic program enough? The only thing I have figured out so far is that I need a jack to rca adapter ;)

any help will be much appreciated
 
If you want to use mics to record you will need some preamps, the 2496 doesn"t have any.....for guitar if your amp has an effects send or a line out you can connect that to your 2496 but you will need an adapter....

Good luck
 
Get a mixer and route the outs into the 2496 and just plug your guitar, and anything else you want, on seperate channels on the mixer. You don't necessarily need a pre amp, but you'll get a more clearer sound if you use one!
 
thanks guys,

It seems I have only cursory knowledge about mixers and preamps. In a nutshell, what is the difference between them?
 
mr.rudy said:
thanks guys,

It seems I have only cursory knowledge about mixers and preamps. In a nutshell, what is the difference between them?
Click to expand...

The mixer is the large thing that has the knobbies and faders on it. :p

Mixers usually have preamps on them. Preamps are the things you plug the mic cable into. It drives the signal to make up for a lack of signal level the mic has on its own and drives it up so you can record at a proper level. The preamps in the pic are the black holes with the three little holes in the middle of them.


Preamp units usually only have a few knobs on them, if any at all.

I think I explained that close to accurately without getting into detail. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
So there is no way of plugging a mic to 2496 other than through a preamp, right?
I plugged the guitar to the analog outs on the card (I read on some other forum that this was the way...) but the sound is very poor and comes out of only one speaker (there are two outs - left and right - and I can plug the guitar to only one of them) Is there any way of making the sound to come out of both speakers? (dual mono?). If I bought a preamp for the mic, would it be possible to connect the guitar through it to improve the sound quality?
 
Nope, you need a pre-amp or a mixer as stated before.
You can than connect the in- and output of your soundcard to the pre-amp or mixer. That's the only way to get a decent sound.
ART has a tube pre-amp which you can use for mic and instrument.
 
Are you sure that I would be able to connect the guitar to the ART Tube MP preamp? All the descriptions of this preamp talk only about a microphone - guitar isn't mentioned anywhere.
I just want to be 101% sure if this is what I need before I buy it.
 
That preamp has an Instrument level 1/4 In input as well as a XLR Mic input....

You will get a Much better guitar sound if you use a Mic and record from your Amp ,a big Part of the Guitar sound is how the amp interacts with the speaker....
 
So say if I was going from a mixer to my 2496 sound card, and I was using a program like Audacity, would I be able to record both my bass and guitar at the same time?

I would think no because the card only has 1 set of RCA inputs, so the computer only detects it as one instrument, right? Thanks.
 
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