hey, Pop. Think thru this with me...
When you plug one piece of equipment into another, you have to make sure the receiving equipment is getting the type of signal it expects to get. What type of signal depends on the piece of equipment. As a recording engerineer, it's your job to understand each piece of equipment and connect them properly.
Some very basic facts you should know:
- A typical microphone produces a 'mic-level' signal (there are 2 types, HiZ and LoZ; but they're both considered mic-level).
- A typical sound card accepts either a mic-level signal or a 'line-level' signal. The 2 are not compatible even though the plugs look identical. Also, you can't use both at once.
- Mic-level signals must be amplified to line-level in order to be used by recording software, outboard effects, mixers, J-Stations, Pod, PA amps, etc. (I'm trying to keep this simple, so if someone who knows better is reading this, bear with me.) This amplification is done with a mic preamp.
So, the simplest connection would be to plug a mic into the mic-in on the sound card. You can use a cheap PC mic to do this. (Of course, decent quality mics use a different physical connector than your typical sound card uses, so you have to use an adapter. But the conversion from mic-level to line-level still needs to be done.)
Anyway, that's the simplest connection but definately not the best. Most sound cards have terrible quality mic preamps, so people who are serious about recording buy better quality mic preamps (either stand alone units or mixers with preamps built in). Once the mic-level has been amplified to line-level, you can use the line-in of the sound card instead. This is a much better solution.
What's this got to do with a Guitarport? Nothing; except that the Line-In on the sound card is made to be used with equipment that produces a line-level signal. Does the Guitarport? I'm not familiar with the unit, but if you can plug a guitar in and then plug the Port into an amp (like a typical stompbox), it probably does. So yeah.. try it.
But the better solution is to buy a mixer, plug all your instruments into the mixer, and plug the mixer into the sound card. The mixer will handle all the conversions for you.
tj
