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Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Guitar via Linux

Ok, this is the problem: I have an electric guitar and a very old and quite heavy amp for it. I seem to be moving around a lot and I don't want to haul the amp every time I relocate.

I want to use my computer as an amp. I want it to run under Linux. Is it possible to do this?

I've seen these devices:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/F … -main.html
http://www.guitarport.com/

Any idea if they work under Linux?

I've also considered getting some sort of 1/4" to 1/8" converter and powering the guitar through line-in. The problem is I would have to have some sort of amplifier inside the converter, correct? (I don't know much about this...) I don't think the on-board amp would be powerful enough. Another option, maybe, would be some sort of software amplifier, is there such a thing?

I'm not really concerned about quality or recording or anything, I just want to play a bit without having to haul this big ol' amp around. Maybe I could just buy a smaller one, but running it through my Arch box seems like a cool geeky idea. Is it possible?

Thanks,
Dusty

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paranoos

Member

From: thornhill.on.ca

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 442

Re: Guitar via Linux

I don't think you'll be able to plug the guitar directly to the card. I've got my guitar going through one of these (it has an amplified line-out / headphone jack), and it's pretty quiet compared to recorded music (because of their extremely loud mastering techniques).

If you want a new amp, i can recommend the Roland Micro Cube ... it's very tiny, comes with a shoulder strap. my friend has been playing for many years, and he was impressed enough with it to buy one.

That m-audio device you showed SHOULD work, since it's USB, and m-audio uses standard usb-audio for their other devices. however, it's pretty expensive! it's better to get a new amp.

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: Guitar via Linux

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I might get that microcube one of these days...

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slackhack

Member

Registered: 2004-06-30

Posts: 738

Re: Guitar via Linux

the microcube is cool.

you can plug directly into the sound card with a jack adapter if you pre-amp it first -- through a pedal, for example. it's not too bad with powered speakers, and with headphones it's actually pretty good.