Record guitar to laptop for under $300

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reenkroink

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I am looking to record my electric guitar to my laptop.

My laptop is very cheap, I got it for $400 at best buy. It only has USB connections. From what I was reading I can either mic my guitar or directly connect it to some kind of interface.

I am guessing the cheaper option would be a direct connection because then I wouldn't need to buy a mic, right?

If I buy an interface that connects via USB, will my crappy laptop still be the limiting factor...or does the interface do all the work?


What interfaces do you recommend? Is it important to have a good computer and should I invest in getting a better one first? I don't really want to do anything fancy, just record some guitar tracks.
 
Hi there,
You can plug the guitar straight into the laptop, but it's not the most desirable option and is likely to be noisy/low quality.
Even pluggin a mic straight into the laptop isn't likely to yield a good sound.

reenkroink said:
I am guessing the cheaper option would be a direct connection because then I wouldn't need to buy a mic, right?
Click to expand...
You don't have to use a mic either way.
You can buy an interface with an instrument level input, and plug your guitar straight in to that.
It will sound raw though. You'd probably want some kind of amp modeller software, I imagine.

reenkroink said:
If I buy an interface that connects via USB, will my crappy laptop still be the limiting factor...or does the interface do all the work
Click to expand...
No, your laptop will have no effect on the sound quality if you use a USB interface.
It will only be a limiting factor in terms of processing power.

You could pick up something cheap and simple like an maudio fast track.
That would give you an instrument input and a mic input, so if you don't like the direct in sound, you can choose to buy a mic later on.

Hope that's helpful.
 
This will get the job done for (fairly) cheap- There are cheaper ways but I like this better:

Line 6 POD Studio UX1 | 8thstreet.com | Call 1-800-878-8882 | Most Orders Ship Free!

There's lots of options, but an interface that's portable and has amp modeling software seems to meet your needs best. Line 6, often a company that's a pain to deal with, is a leader in that area. What the hell? I'd spend a couple extra bucks, still well below your $300 mark, and consider this:

Line 6 POD Studio UX2 | 8thstreet.com | Call 1-800-878-8882 | Most Orders Ship Free!

Finally, what I would do with the $300:

Zoom H4n | 8thstreet.com | Call 1-800-878-8882 | Most Orders Ship Free!

That does what you need it to do, and also gives you a 4-tracker and mics. In the end, it's simply more versatile. You can use it as an interface, as a standalone recorder, a preamp, metronome, headphone amp. It can run on batteries and fits in a guitar case. You could record to the laptop, or just dump the tracks as WAV. files from the Zoom to the laptop. The Line 6 UX-2 has the advantage of more and better amp modeling, and pretty good preamps. The Zoom H4n wins on versatility and portability. Which might serve your needs better depends on what you might want to do with recording in general. Hope that helps.
 
Steenamaroo said:
No, your laptop will have no effect on the sound quality if you use a USB interface.
It will only be a limiting factor in terms of processing power.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by processing power. Is that when whatever software I'm using receives the file from the interface? Will it just be slow or will there be certain things that it won't be able to do?
 
I just meant that the speed of your computer will limit how much you can have going on at once; The number of tracks, effects, virtual instruments etc.
It won't have an effect on the signal quality though.
 
Richard Monroe said:
That does what you need it to do, and also gives you a 4-tracker and mics. In the end, it's simply more versatile. You can use it as an interface, as a standalone recorder, a preamp, metronome, headphone amp. It can run on batteries and fits in a guitar case. You could record to the laptop, or just dump the tracks as WAV. files from the Zoom to the laptop. The Line 6 UX-2 has the advantage of more and better amp modeling, and pretty good preamps. The Zoom H4n wins on versatility and portability. Which might serve your needs better depends on what you might want to do with recording in general. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Does amp modeling mean lots more guitar effects like distortion, flange and things like that? If I go with the Zoom, would software be able to pick up the slack where the Zoom is lacking as far as effects?
 
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Line 6 PodFarm with a simple Pod interface will give you lots of effects and allow you to record to a DAW easily, and as long as your laptop is less than 4 years old you should have no issues recording 1 or 2 tracks at a time (processing power).
 
reenkroink said:
Does amp modeling mean lots more guitar effects like distortion, flange and things like that? If I go with the Zoom, would software be able to pick up the slack where the Zoom is lacking as far as effects?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes, although digital modeling is a little different in concept. For your purposes, it's all sounds we put on guitars- effects (FX for short). It doesn't matter how the sound got there. What matters is- Do *you* like it? You can always run a clean signal into the computer and mess with the sound there. That, however, is what they were talking about when they mentioned processing power. The more FX you use in the computer, the harder it has to work. The Zoom has a bunch of available guitar effects, but Line 6 wins on being biased towards guitar.

What the hell? Either way, you get the ability to do it right, instead of what you asked for. In other words, you put a mic in front of a guitar amp and you crank it up. Many engineers, probably a majority, would tell you to buy that Line 6 amp, or one like it, turn off its silly effects, and plug a Shure SM57 into it. The UX-2 leaves you enough scratch to buy a good used mic (if you don't have one), a small boom, and a cable. That would allow you to mic an amp, *or* go direct. The Zoom can do that too, but the Line 6 does it better, IMHO, due to better preamps. My only warning- Whether you use mics or go direct, getting *that* sound the way you want it will be a royal pain in the arse. It's just a matter of whether you spend the next 3 years playing with software, or moving a mic around and tweaking amps. Good luck. We'll be there for you.
 
Another option is Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 interface for $230. It's got really good converters, preamps, and low latency from what I hear.
It comes Komplete Elements and Cubase 6 Le. Komplete elements gives you a version of Guitar Rig, and Cubase gives you its built in Amp Rack :D
 
Thanks for the advice! Now I guess I gotta decide between the recommended interfaces...how do I do that?
 
reenkroink said:
Thanks for the advice! Now I guess I gotta decide between the recommended interfaces...how do I do that?
Click to expand...

read all the documentation and manuals - search youtube for demos - pick the one you like
 
reenkroink said:
Thanks for the advice! Now I guess I gotta decide between the recommended interfaces...how do I do that?
Click to expand...

How do you decide on your first cheap car? Mazda 3 or Ford Focus? Just do it. In the end, it won't matter, unless your recording journey ends here. You need to learn how to drive, not shop for cars. I'd look for a used Shure SM57, AKG D770 or D5, or a Sennheiser e835. Shockingly, Behringer builds a fair cheap dynamic for about $25, XM8500. I'd buy the UX-2 and start recording. Play around with mics and amp modelers, and see what sounds you like.
 
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