Hardware for using my guitar with jack/ardour

Thanks, again. I now a little more and think that it is wise for me to just wait and work with the onboard card. When I get more experienced and now more what I want, then the time will be there...

>Some say buy a m-audio Mobile pre. What is the difference compared to >something >like m-audio audiophile 2496 and what’s better? Audiophile 2496 has line level inputs. The mobile pre has the pre in it. I don't know which is better but probably the second is more expensive. >Can you use a mobile pre also with a mixer (for if I decide to buy such >a thing later in my career ;) )? And isn’t a mixer better then a >m-audio mobile pre? The mixer you showed in your previous post are analog mixers. You can use them whether or not you have even a PC. They route the sounds, in differents ways and have preamp and EQ included. You can always use them. >Right now I just put the guitar in the line-in of my onboard soundcard >(82801DB-ICH4), and the sound goes out to my stereo amplifier and then to my >speakers… Good! Enjoy it!

Sorry for my English. I'm not a native speaker and sometimes I make mistakes like this. There is a similar word in spanish, but not applicable here. "False friends", they call them. The "line" inputs are not prepared to receive a very low signal, such as the one you get from a micro or a guitar. That's way these signals need a preamplification, to increase the amplitude of the signal up to a suitable level for a "line" input, which has enough level and neglectible noise to be further amplified by the "amp". That's the idea I have, better take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamplifier. I don't know the mobile pre, it seems like an audiocard with a pre-amp included. But again, it is not a matter of what is better, it is a compromise, you have to weigh up quality and price. Above all, think about your needs. For example, if you say, I just want to record my guitar and I don't mind if it is a bit noisy because I like noisy sounds and anyway I am not a professional. Then you probably already have what you need. Try it. Try the software amplifiers you have available, I think CAPS is a good choice to have a stab (through Jackrack, you know). If you were a professional audio recorder, responsible for the recording of a wide range of instruments and different kinds of music and musicians you would need better equipment, for sure. But you wouldn't buy an expensive state-of-the-art car to get to the city centre. Walking is better for that. Cheers! Pablo

Thanks for the advise! [quote]But you do need a "previous" because the inputs are "line" inputs rather than "mic" ones.[/quote] What do you mean by 'previous'? Some say buy a m-audio Mobile pre. What is the difference compared to something like m-audio audiophile 2496 and what’s better? Can you use a mobile pre also with a mixer (for if I decide to buy such a thing later in my career ;) )? And isn’t a mixer better then a m-audio mobile pre? Right now I just put the guitar in the line-in of my onboard soundcard (82801DB-ICH4), and the sound goes out to my stereo amplifier and then to my speakers… Here some hardware information of my pc: [code]cpu: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53GHz, 2533 MHz graphics card: Micro-Star International GeForce4 Ti 4200 sound: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller storage: Floppy disk controller Intel 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller disk: /dev/hda ST340810A /dev/hdb MAXTOR 6L040J2 cdrom: /dev/hdc TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SH-S182D MEmory: 512 Mb [/code]

It depends on what you need. If you want to record by yourself, then I don't think you need a mixer. In my case, I write drum parts with Hydrogen or even bass parts with Rosegarden, then I record these parts onto ardour as audio tracks and I capture the guitar, playing along with the other tracks. I don't have a mixer. Ardour has it and the latency I get is low enough to choose "software monitoring" when I am recording. Or you can play the guitar along with your favourite band without a hardware mixer if you connect a jack-aware music player like audacious to the outputs of your audio-card. Honestly, I am rather new to Linux Audio and Digital Audio as a whole, so please don't take these lines too seriously, but I would begin by getting a good audio card, to your needs, before a hardware mixer. If a pair of analog inputs and outputs for stereo playback is enough for you, I recommend you the m-audio audiophile 2496. It's PCI. It is very well supported by alsa and jack and I think it even has a "hardware" mixer, or kind of (controlled through envy24 app). But you do need a "previous" because the inputs are "line" inputs rather than "mic" ones. However, you can achieve the appropiate level by means of a effects pedal or even by software through LADSPA amp plug-ins. But a SoundBlaster Live is good enough just to make some music... Take a look at the Studio Hardware Forum, anyway, see what people runnng 64Studio have and you can always send a post with your hardware stuff and get better advice! Audio world is too big to just give a recommendation, but start by getting informed and don't waste your money in things you don't need, that's my hint. Best Regards Pablo

Or is this thing better? http://www.musicdeals.nl/index.php?productID=4122&PHPSESSID=00d13813d39a2655fcb2f258ff703218