odd distortion when recording....

[cybersaga]

ok, I get his distortion, but only after I record and playback... I got my guitar right now plugged into a mixer (a cheap one from radio shack, exactly the kind everyone says not to use) but it's not the mixer, I'm sure of that... I even bypassed the mixer, plugging the guitar straight into the computer (yes, the line-in jack) and the same thing happens... it sounds perfectly fine, I can play and stuff, no problem... but when I try to record and play it back, it sounds all distorted... I just don't get it...
I'm using Cakewalk Pro 9 (although it's not Cakewalk either 'cause the same thing happens in Sound Recorder), and I've got an AWE64 sound card...
hopefully someone else has seen this problem before and it's fixable without replacing the sound card... hope one you guys can help...

 

[Gidge]

It could be the mixer still.....if you plug the guitar straight into the soundcard you wont get a good signal.....youd do better going into the mic in straight from the guitar, with the guitars volume VERY LOW, and watch your recording meters to see if you are clipping (going over 0db).....'

do you have access to any effects pedals that you could use as your preamp and go into the line in?.....

 

[cybersaga]

I do have a distortion pedal... I don't think that woule be any good though...
I did get the recording to work in sound recorder... there was some setting I could go into... something to do with the sound quality... it was on radio quality... I changed it to CD quality... and it worked fine... but it still didn't work in Cakewalk... but I couldn't find any setting like that...
man... this is giving me a headache...