Suggestions for a cheap/cheeful USB Guitar interface

[mike257]

After years of trusty service, my home recording setup is falling apart around me - my PC has suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure (don't worry, the music is on the other two drives!) and the input jack on my trusty old Behringer V-Amp has packed in.

As all it's used for is knocking up very rough 'song-on-progress' demos for the guys in the band to learn, I don't need super hi-fi, and it would be nice not to be tied to the EMU 1212 sat in my PC.

Has anyone got any experience of the various 'guitar-to-usb' solutions floating around the low budget end of the market?

I only need rough demo standard, and it'd also be nice to be able to throw it into the missus' MacBook and use Garageband for a few bits too.

Any thoughts on things to try out (or horror stories to avoid)?

Cheers,

Mike

[Dropzone]

The ,mackie spike can be picked up cheaply

[discreet]

A quick search produces this, but I haven't used one, so...

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Guitar-USB-Interface-Link-Cable-PC-Recording-USB-/220816864817?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3369b5f631#ht_2849wt_954"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Guitar-USB-Interface-Link-Cable-PC-Recording-USB-/220816864817?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3369b5f631#ht_2849wt_954[/url]

[mike257]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1319720186' post='1417691']
A quick search produces this, but I haven't used one, so...

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Guitar-USB-Interface-Link-Cable-PC-Recording-USB-/220816864817?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3369b5f631#ht_2849wt_954"]http://www.ebay.co.u...1#ht_2849wt_954[/url]
[/quote]

Was looking at those, it appears to be exactly the same as the Behringer one, just missing the bundled software, might just take a punt on it. I only need something for quick and easy demos so it'll probably do the trick. Cheers!

[winterfire666]

i got one of those as a backup a while ago, it works great! but if you get one get the latest verion of the asIo4all audio drivers
this really helped to reduce latency. ( WWW.ASIO4ALL.COM )

[waldemar]

I use a Line6 Pod Studio GX

I really like it. It works great with Garageband. Costs £80 - so not cheap, but you do get a load of amp models which are good fun to mess about with.

Here's an example clip I made a while back for a related post a while back. Main track fades off about halfway through so you can hear what I'm playing a bit more clearly. The shame of it.!

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:60501]

Download the above file and change the suffix to .mp3 and it should work fine - the attachment editor thing seems to have screwed it up a bit...

Hope this helps.

Edited November 4, 2011 by waldemar

[GarethFlatlands]

[quote name='Dropzone' timestamp='1319718890' post='1417664']
The ,mackie spike can be picked up cheaply
[/quote]

I've used a Spike for years and always had issues with plugging the guitar in direct. I have loads of issues with bad signal and have to adjust the lead on a variety of guitar/lead combinations to get it to work. No idea why or if this is a common issue. I can't get a good signal with my Jazzmaster at all. It's fine with a POD or similar.

[mike257]

Thanks guys! The Spike is more than I'm looking for really, I've got a fairly decent audio card (EMU 1212M) for when any 'proper' recording needs doing, more just looking for a quick and cheap way of getting a direct guitar signal in for quick songwriting demos so the cheap and cheerful USB piece is a great shout.

I've got an older version of asio4all floating about somewhere but will grab the latest when i pick up an interface, cheers for the tip-off!