I have a small laptop(not too fast0 and am looking to plug in my guitar and get some effects and maybe record some tracks and some fake druns. Any suggestions?

buy some junk at guitar center to plug into your laptop. you'll be lenny kravitz in no time.




*edit* like this thing maybe? do some homework.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-TonePor...ing-Interface-103373676-i1126366.gc

Bedroom black metal band, incoming.

what type of amp do you have?
if you have one with a direct out, plug the direct out into your line in on your laptop...
thats the cheapest and most simple way to do it... or you can go and spend the $100 and get a cheap audio interface which will be more stable, sometime it lags when you plug directly.

I have a marshall tsl and randall head. Do I need a program downloaded? I want to record some riffs and cut and paste and edit and shit. Maybe program some drums. I think protools might be a little to much. How is that tone port thing by line 6? Would that do the job?

just google for audacity

if you got a line out on your amp, you can plug it into the linein on your laptop and download a free recording program like wavepad from download.com

search= cool edit pro 2.1 torrent
its the easiest to use recording/mixing shit ever
it has a few bugs and isnt "professional" but just for fuckinaround on a laptop its perfect

try some line 6 sort of thing, they usually have some pretty cheap interface/guitar software thinger which while not for super high quality stuff, good for tracking ideas down

and for free recording programs, try either audacity or Reaper, a lot of the line 6 toneport things /whatevers come with le versions of recording software, (usually ableton live i think)

i demo'd an entire album last year with the Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro software, a cheap drum loop program, one mic and a practice amp

I agree with Secthammer, Reaper http://www.reaper.fm is a great free multi-track recording program.

If you've got a couple of bucks to spend, get an M-Audio Fast Track Pro I have one and I love it. I use my Behringer V-Amp Pro for my recording preamp (has amp models, cabinet emulation, fx, etc.)

if you don't have a USB 2.0 port on your laptop, going in through your line-in is your best bet.

If you're looking for a commercial piece of software for recording, look into Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro, or Adobe Audition (I enjoy Audition and it's simple learning curve [read: I'm lazy and want to plug in and go])

adobe audition is simple and easy-to-use and the line 6 toneport/gearbox ($80-$120) does what you want it to do, without sounding studio quality (it's pretty damn good, though).
Or invest in a microphone and mic your amp. I did that for a while and it sounded okay. Or, forget a laptop and get a cheap 4track or 8track or whatever you want.

Actually, it IS studio quality. It's the old guitarports that only ran 16 bit.

Got me. I've got one, and love the sound. It's still digital and doesn't compare to actually putting a microphone to an amp IMO - I guess that's what I meant by that.
But yea, I love that thing. I haven't used it in a good year or two because of my computer situation but it's WELL worth the money.

Not trying to put you down, but that's a lack of recording experience, not a lack of audio quality. There's a lot of bands that record with the line6 gear, and you'd probably never know it.

One thing, probably the BIGGEST thing, is that with modeling you have access to far greater levels of distortion than the actual amps would ever be capable of producing. Most people instinctively crank the gain, then proceed to complain about "fizz" or "plastic" sounds. Try dropping gain to 10:00 or lower, and stick an overdrive pedal in front instead.

you've put me down so much I'm starting to cry. Nah, seriously, you do have a good argument going for you. I can offer no rebuttal other than just stating that when it comes to recording for albums, I'd rather mic an amp or go analog. Maybe that's just me. Then again, half of my releases were underproduced blackmetal so that should tell you what I know.
The fact still remains: this guy should buy one.

GET TRACKTION http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion3/index.html
its definitely the most fun and easiest to use. also mad cheap.
I think you should use line in for starters. Then get a usb mixer later.

I second the Cool Edit Pro rec. I used to use it and when I upgraded to Adobe Audition it just sucked. A bunch of really handy interface features were done away with.

I also second the M-Audio USB interface. I have one of the newer models with Phantom Power and it certainly works whenever I use it.

I'd agree. Just the metronome, tuner, and usb interface are worth the price. Add in the guitar amps, bass amps, preamps, effects, and it's a really sweet deal.

Really? I used Cool Edit back in the day and liked it a lot - but once Adobe took over I tried it and liked it even more. I don't like the new versions of it, though.. I can't exactly remember the version I use. It's 5 or 6 I think.

Just the way you had to do things didn't make sense to me. Like selecting the place in the song to put the marker or whatever it's called. A bunch of mundane things that ticked me off enough.

I use Logic Pro now. There are a bunch of interface things with that that I don't like either. It also could be that I haven't figured it out yet. I'm thinking of getting Pro Tools to try that out too. I've seen it in use twice while in recording studios and it looks pretty simple actually.


By getting, I mean finding. You know what I mean by finding.

I used to record a lot more than I do now. I should record some more material soon.
If you want to see what I've done...

http://www.myspace.com/thebriananthonymartinslp

Another bonus to the toneport: it acts as a soundcard, processing your tone independent of the computer. This means if your laptop is shit, it will still work. Added to that you can monitor with amp and effects but record dry to re-amp later. Just some cool stuff to be had.

For $120 I got 78 guitar amps, 28 bass amps, 6 preamps, 80 effects, 24 guitar cabs, 22 bass cabs, recording interface, tuner, metronome, and on and on. It's not the be-all end-all of guitar, but it's more than worth the price.

im telling you guys try tracktion and use a wheel mouse.


bennyhillifier

Pro-tools is hardware dependent, so you can't steal the software unless you've got an m-box or something lying around. It acts as a dongle.

I personally use Sonar, but I gotta say that Logic is awesome. I'd stick with it if you can. If I had a Mac, I'd run Logic.

Pro Tools is definitely one of the best ones out there.

Bah, there's so many good ones - Logic, Sonar, etc.

Let's list the ones NOT go use:

I disagree. Pro Tools is shit. Unfortunately, it became an industry "standard". However, it's function sucks, the midi implementation blows, it's overpriced, and requires overpriced hardware to run it. Even back when it was first appearing, I went with Digital Performer instead. I have always hated Pro Tools.

Ah, I forgot about that with ProTools.

The only thing I don't like about Logic is that it's a pain in the ass to select the point you want to be in the song. You have to actually fast forward to the point you want to be. I think there must be a way around that that I'm just not finding. For all I know, I already figured it out and already forgot. Besides that, the Logic Pro interface is pretty sweet. I FOUND a Logic Studio package that basically lets you do everything you ever need ever to record and print cds. There were some programs that were unnecessary like random players and stuff like that but Apple knew what it was doing with this software package.

here is a short clip of some crap I did with the toneport a few years back.
http://www.abaroth.com/mp3/Arillius/shortclip.mp3
It can sound much better than that too.
Like he said above - WELL worth the price.

That's a pretty good sound. Was that an acoustic or an electric?

acoustic. i've actually got my acoustic to sound much better than that.

I was going to say if that was an electric that it was a fantastic clean sound. The only problem was the background fuzz really. I hate that stuff. At my house, I usually wait until everyone is out of the house or is on the opposite side sleeping or watching tv. I haven't recorded in ages though.

haha, that fuzz is there because it was the electric/distorted guitar fading in. There is no fuzz at all. It actually has a feature that gets rid of any excess noise.

Or, you could be talking about the damn crickets.