If I need a USB Audio Interface for a Guitar, Do I Also Need One For a Vocal Mike?

  • Thread starter Thread starter The Wood Man
  • Start date Start date
T

The Wood Man

New member
In one of the threads someone replied to me that I could use an EdiRol USB Audio Interface to take my analog guitar signal and convert it to digital. Would it then follow that I would need a similar device for vocal recording? And if so, what is it called?

And when I get all this together, am I simply plugging it in to the mic feed on my PC tower?

I assume I plug my guitar into the EdiRol, but what do I then plug the EdiRol into? And what about the mic?

As you can tell - this is all new to me and this site is the only help I got.

Thanks.
 
The name "USB audio interface" kind of tells you what you need to plug it into.

As for the guitar and vocal thing, well, there are several things you need to understand.

There's this signal level called line level, which is the level used to interconnect gear (mixers, recorders, effects devices) htrough cables. In order to be effectively routed to a recording device, everything needs to be made to be line level.

Electric guitar pickups have very small signals (called instrument level) that are amplified to line level by the preamp stage of a guitar amp (the power amp stage them amplifies it so it can drive speakers). You can't plug a guitar straight into a line-level input, it's not a line-level signal.

Microphones also have very small signals that require preamplification to get to line level. (In live use, a mixer would send its output to a power amp to turn all line level signals into a powerful-enough signal to drive the PA speakers.) Like a guitar, you can't plug a mic into a line-level input, it's not a line-level signal.

Audio interfaces come in different types. The simplest accept some number of line level signals and digitize them so they can be recorded and manipulated in the computer. Others include a preamp that can accept mic level and/or instrument level signals also.

As far as I know there are at least a couple of Edirol USB interfaces. The cheapest simply accepts a stereo line-level signal, like the output of a cassette deck or CD player.

If you already have the front-end stuff needed to get microphone and instrument signals to line level -- namely a mixer or mic preamp and a direct box or direct line-level output from a guitar amp or (the tied and true and best way) a mic that you just stick in front of the guitar amp speaker, then an interface like this will probably suffice.

If not, you might wish to consider one of the more expensive models that boast a mic preamp. I think they even have one that has a guitar input with their COSM amp modeling technology built into it.
 
Re: If I need a USB Audio Interface for a Guitar, Do I Also Need One For a Vocal Mike?

The Wood Man said:
In one of the threads someone replied to me that I could use an EdiRol USB Audio Interface to take my analog guitar signal and convert it to digital. Would it then follow that I would need a similar device for vocal recording? And if so, what is it called?

And when I get all this together, am I simply plugging it in to the mic feed on my PC tower?

I assume I plug my guitar into the EdiRol, but what do I then plug the EdiRol into? And what about the mic?

As you can tell - this is all new to me and this site is the only help I got.

Thanks.
Dont know about the Edirol, but this would do it all in one.
http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/omnistudio_usb.php
 
cool stuff, but beware of m-Audio because their usb interfaces don't have proper Windows drivers, especially in XP they (can) cause your system to become unstable. my M-audio midi-usb interface turnes out to be completely unusable because XP could not coop with the driver software.
 
Hey dont knock the M-audio!

M-audio makes great hardware, its very system specific but then again all hard ware will act diferent depending on your system.
Clean install of the os and dropping anything you dont need will make it all much better.
Try to dedicate the computer its just plain better and less troublesome.
I use a M-audio mobile pre with Win XP and have no problems.
I would sugest the M-audio omni studio for all the ins and outs.
Also if you have a tower I would recomend you go with a PCI card audio interface then a USB. More band with and if you use m-audio cards they can add a second card and work together.
The Delta 1010LT has 10 ins and 4 outs for under $300 and has a mic pre.....
Just some thoughts.
-Reco

p.s. I know all of this on M-audio cause I know one of ther developers...
 
Can the Delta 1010LT be used in a Laptop? If not, what do you suggest that is about the same?

dave
 
Re: If I need a USB Audio Interface for a Guitar, Do I Also Need One For a Vocal Mike?

The Wood Man said:
In one of the threads someone replied to me that I could use an EdiRol USB Audio Interface to take my analog guitar signal and convert it to digital. Would it then follow that I would need a similar device for vocal recording? And if so, what is it called?

And when I get all this together, am I simply plugging it in to the mic feed on my PC tower?

I assume I plug my guitar into the EdiRol, but what do I then plug the EdiRol into? And what about the mic?

As you can tell - this is all new to me and this site is the only help I got.

Thanks.

Depending on gain, you might need a mixer to get the gain up to the best level for use with the EdiROl USB device.

Both guitar and mics are very low level. Keyboard are usually line out level, which is much higher.


Check the EdiRol docs for what gain is needed at input for a good result.

Ed
 
Would the mixer on the PG Musice PowerTracks Pro Audio be OK, or areyou talking about somekind of a pre-amp?
 
An external preamp might be needed. You want the input at thje right level when it enters the EdiRol device. Their docs should say what you need.

Ed
 
Just skip all the external stuff. Get one with pre's and gain controls onboard.
The 1010 cant be used on a laptop I would check out the omni studio usb it has 4 or 8 ins and out and direct hardware monitoring eliminating monitor latency.
Ther great products also the Firewire 410 is a good option for laptops.
If you need any of these e-mail me or post and we can order you one there all pretty reasonable priced.
-Reco
 
Back
Top