Mic It Or Plug It? Grr. Options

[Salsashark]

So yeah. What do you guys say? I'm recording in my tiny room. Should I record using mics, and if so, what should I be looking for? Or.... do you guys know of any good, cheap (ish) interfaces so I plug in and record. Do not have money for digi 001 so yeah something below that. I have an iBook. Any help is good. Thank you.

[xenonaut]

This thread seems to be more about how to get good guitar sound into the computer, and less about what software/audio interface to use, so I'll make a quick comment.

Obviously, you need to get the guitar sounding good ("amplified"), somehow. If you just plug a guitar into an audio interface (assuming that the interface has instrument-level inputs), it's going to sound pretty thin and twangy. I assume that you want your guitar to sound like it's going through an amp.

I think the *best* way to do that, is to play through an amp and mic the cabinet.

However, that can be a bit noisey, and depending on your living situation, may not always be practical. Other options fall into 2 categories: record the twangy direct sound and add amp sound to it within the computer, or use a hardware device with amp/cabinet emulation.

The first option is not appealing to me - I need to have the "vibe" of the amp while I'm playing. Others, however, are comfortable with this approach, and achieve decent results with a software plug in like AmpliTube (which I have played with and was impressed by, though not in the AmpliTube Live version) or Amp Farm. Note that if you use this method to get your amp sound, the latency required for A/D conversion, processing, and D/A conversion for monitoring will add a frustrating delay between what you hear and what you play. Don't expect to monitor yourself playing through a software plugin if you're trying to synch to existing tracks.

That leaves the second option. Solutions include preamps and effects units which include amp/cab emulation, like the SansAmp, the POD, the ART SGX2000, the Digitech GSP series, the Behringer V-Amp, etc. The "cabinet emulation" on my Carvin Quad-X preamp is fair (not great, but usable for rough demos); the record outs on my Mesa Boogie Triaxis are not so great (though Mesa Boogie does make a few products specifically designed for recording direct, like the Rectifier Recording preamp and the Formula preamp).

Also, some guitar effects units have started including USB ports. I don't know much about them, or their Mac-compatability (Line 6 claims that the guitar port is not Mac compatible, but I don't know if you might be able to get basic functionality out of it or not). But it might be possible that a device like this cold serve as an audio interface as well (though it would be somewhat limiting).

And again, I still think the best way is the old-fashioned way: put a decent mic in front of a cabinet and capture the sound at the speaker...