recording problems with usb soundcard

[Sim Y]

I am quite new to recording so please bear with me.

I have a semi acoustic guitar and a dynamic mic for recording.
I am using a Laptop with an integrated soundcard so bought a Behringer u-contol UCA-222 as I know that integrated cards aren't worth using for recording. I'm not tring to do anything special just get a true-ish recording of the sound.

My guitar is plugged into the aux of a hi-fi (to use as an amp). The hi-fi's headphones are then connected to the input of the usb soundcard.

The results sound bad, lots of background hiss, and sound is crackly and distant like an old record. It sounds worse than trying to record though the integrated card.

I think I must have some settings wrong somewhere on my computer as the sound and levels coming out of the hi-fi are fine as i've listened to it.

Thanks for any help you can give

 

[mjbphotos]

The problems are:
Using the hifi aux input for your guitar. Most likely you need something with a preamp to boost the hi-Z guitar output.
Using the headphone output to the USB interface. Use the "tape out" or other aux output from the amp.

Basically, you should forget using the hifi amp at all and get yourself a pre-amp that has inputs for guitar and mic.

 

[Sim Y]

I have a Numark EM260 dj mixer that i've tried using also. It has 2 channels and line an phono on both inputs, I've tried inputting through both and using the master out into the usb card but similar rubbish sound.