|
Home / Music
How To Plug A Guitar Or Bass Into A Computer
By:Jon Broderick
Every town throughout the world has one or two fully dedicated aspiring guitarists and bassists. These disciplined folks spend countless hours improving their craft. Their local musician community is made up of a small group of less-dedicated folks and people with divergent tastes in music. To the truly passionate musician, sometimes this can be frustrating. The dedicated guitarists and bassists of these communities have often surpassed the ability of local teachers, and are thus on their own following their musical heroes. Although guitar tab books and guitar lesson DVDs help, trial and error becomes the primary method.
If you are one such individual, there is a musician resource that you may have overlooked: the Internet. Now, please don't misunderstand. I know that you have already found out about the internet. You use the internet every day and you have probably found countless guitar tab sites, guitar lesson sites, band classified sites and the like. You have learned a lot on the internet. Your eyes have found the Internet, but has your music?
When you connect your instrument to your computer, you connect your music to the rest of the worldwide community of musicians. Out there on the internet, unlike in your home town, are many many people just like you, who want to hear your music. They are as dedicated as you, they are into the same music, they are your peers without question, and they want to hear what you are working on.
This article teaches you how to plug your guitar or bass right into your computer, to start sharing your musical ability with the world-wide internet music community. We are assuming that you have an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar with a pickup.
Overview
Turn your computer around and look at the back of it. You should see a walkman-style mini headphone jack in one of the shiny steel plates back there. Actually, you should see 3 mini jacks. If you look closely, they have little etched pictures next to them. One is a picture of a mic, one is a picture of headphones, and the other some picture you don't know what it is. The one that is not mic and not headphones is the line-in jack. Your guitar has a 1/4 inch cable that is too big to fit into this mini headphone jack. So, you will need an adapter that will convert the quarter inch jack to a mini jack. You can find this sort of adapter at your local electronics shop. In the U.S., Radio Shack is your best bet.
The following are three scenarios that describe how to plug your instrument into your computer.
Average Situation
Here's the deal: your guitar is supposed to plug into the line-in jack. But your guitar is not loud enough to play direct into a line-in. So you have to put an effects pedal with a volume control in between the PC and your guitar. That way you can give your guitar enough of a volume boost to hear it well on your PC.
Poor Situation
If you don't have an effects pedal, or something else to give your guitar a slight volume boost, then the line-in method won't work. Your guitar will be too quiet. If this is the case, you will need to plug your guitar into the mic jack instead. The guitar is too loud for a mic jack. So, you will have to turn the guitar down for it to record properly. Even then, it won't sound too good. Computer mic jacks just don't sound good. But, it works.
Ideal Situation
Ideally, here is what you want to do: get a mixer, plug your guitar into your amp, mic the amp in a sound-proof room. Turn it up really loud. Mix your effects into the signal at the mixer, and plug the mixer line out into the line in of your computer. If you have all the equipment for this, then I would suggest you get one more item: a studio-quality audio card. These cards have improved circuitry and software that will significantly improve the sound of your records and the flexibility of your system.
I hope this article has been helpful to you and that your music inspires and fulfills you throughout a long and happy career. I also hope that you will join a musician community on the internet and get as much satisfaction out of it as I have.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: musician resource, musician community, musician resource, guitar lessons, online guitar lessons
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Jon Broderick is a guitarist from California who has been an online musician since 1998. You can find Jon featured in online Music Competitions and online Guitar Lessons at major music websites.
|
|
| Top Music Articles |
- 1). U2s Bono From Rock Star To Designer To Humanitarian By : Sher Matsen
U2s lead singer Bono isn’t content with being part of a top band. Fashion and Music – well I’m sure they can mix!
Bono was born Paul David Hewson in 1960 in Dublin Ireland. His stage name is Bono. Bono is the lead singer of US, he is also a songwriter. He married Ali Stewart in August 1982 and they have 5 children. Bono is also actively involved in as an activist and screenwriter.
|
- 2). 4/4 Rhythm Strumming By : ian Williamson
If you are learning how to play the guitar, the basic 4/4 strumming technique is one of the first guitar playing techniques that you must be able to master.
|
- 3). Feel the Guitar Beat By : ian Williamson
The reason why most people who try to play the guitar and are not “up to snuff” is that they give too easily. The problem with these people is that they tend to think that there is something wrong with them and why they simply cannot get the strings to sound right.
|
- 4). Music Production and Mixing Tips & Tricks By : Ian Waugh
What makes a pro recording pro? What is the "sound" that the pros get and how can you make your recordings sound more professional?
The simple answer is - there's no simple answer. But with careful listening and a little experience you can create excellent results with modest equipment.
Good mixing starts ear
The first and most important item of.
|
|
|
- 6). Understanding The Purpose Of The Guitar Neck Shim By : Michael Granger
Some guitars will just NOT adjust properly with the standard methods available like the bridge saddles, nut filing adjustments and the ability to set the bow (or lack thereof) of the neck itself. Adding shims to the bolt on neck may be necessary to get the guitar to play properly at all locations up and down the neck.
A nut shim acts as a spacer between the nut and neck raising and lowering the distance between all of the strings at the lower end of the guitar, starting at fret 1 and moving towards the body of the guitar.
|
- 7). Creating The Perfect Structure For Your Song By : Ian Waugh
You know what they say about rules? Actually they say lots of things about rules but here's two - rules were made to be broken, and you have to know what the rules are before you can break them. While Judge Dredd may not agree with the first, the second is certainly true and nevermore so than in writing a song.
The song structure may not be the first thing you think about when you start writing.
|
- 8). Make Your Own Beats, Instrumentals, Tracks, and Demo CDs By : Matthew Keith
Many people are making an excellent living selling thier samples, tracks, and cd's, on the Internet and off, even if they're not with a major record label. Just look around on the Internet. People are paying $30 to $60 for small beat and and sound packages, $50 to $100 for small loopsets and beatsets, $100 to $300 for Instrumentals, $100's to $1,000's for complete tracks and samples, and for the few lucky ones like Jay-Z and J D.
|
- 9). iPod Shuffle: Technology for a Lifetime By : Sandra Stammberger
If someone said fifteen years ago that you could hold 240 songs in a device no bigger than a pack of gum, you’d probably be hauled off to the loony bin. But today, they are more of a reality than Survivor, the Apprentice and American Idol combined. This is an innovation brought upon by Apple with their iPod and the iPod shuffle.
|
- 10). Visual Kei As a Music World Vision By : Music Babylon
Visual Kei appears to be frequently used in videos and grab audience’s attentions. Visual Kei followers are characterised by a rather stunning, although freak appearance of a striking make-up and elaborate costumes, causing a shock effect.
To recall, for instance, Merlyn Manson, who is among few to follow the style in the US. The trend is popular among modern bands, irrespective of rumours, suggesting that the style suffered no popularity in the USA and Europe.
|
| New Music Articles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
- 4). How Record Pools Can Make Musicians Rich! By : Kenny Love
Record pools...ever heard of them? The chance is that you have not. And, there is an equal reason that you have not. And, even though major record labels have used them for years, and continue to use record pools extensively, record pools are one of the most secretive elements within the Music industry.
|
|
|
- 6). Playing an Instrument to Beat the Mid-life Blues By : Sam Salmon
The answer to being happy once in your mid-thirties is to fill your life with the things you always wanted or thought you might one day have, just on a more realistic scale. Thus begins my quest for musicians to jam with.
|
|
|
|
|
- 9). A Brief History of Taylor Guitars By : William McRea
Taylor Guitars officially began in 1974 with the purchase of a business by three friends. They had a rough beginning, but eventually persevered. Now the company boasts plenty of acoustic guitar models and has earned their place as one of the top acoustic guitar manufacturers in the world.
|
- 10). Home Run Gigs (The Top Gig Money-Makers) By : Kenny Love
Are you still playing your heart out to small audiences on gigs at unappreciative dives (excuse me, I meant to say nightclubs) that feel paying you a couple of hundred dollars for a 3-4 hour gig is also paying you about $150 too much?
|
|
|
