Newby help - reocrding guitar amp directly to computer soundcard

[dig5150]

OK - I'm new and you are probably sick of people like me. If someone can help, I'd appreciate it.

I currently play guitar through my behringer gm110 amplifier. Anyhow, the amp has a DI output or XLR out. The manual says that you can record the amp sims etc direct to a recording source using the output.

So I thought, I'll record some riffs to my PC". Therefore I bought a cable which runs from the DI out on the amp to the mini socket microphone input on the computer. I turned on the stock standard sound recorder that is in the machine (windows 98 - standard recorder) and recorded a riff. Needless to say when I played it back it sounded "very ordinary".

Basically, I'm just looking for a low (preferrably no cost) way of improving the sound of my recordings. Can I jazz up the recording once its done? Can I download a better sound recorder or software for free?

I don't need any fancy solution - just want to be able to email back and forth with friends attaching fair sounding guitar riffs for song ideas.

Thanks
Adam

 

[canada-paul]

If you're using the stock soundcard on the computer and recording into the "mic in" input, its going to sound like crud. Those inputs are typically pretty noisy. Try to see if you can get decent levels on the "line in" input.

But for the most part, if you're using the stock sound card, it doesn't matter what you do, its going to sound pretty ordinary at the best of times.