How to Record Your Guitar on Your Computer

If you are one of the many amateur guitar players who wonders how to connect your guitar to your pc and record your playing, there are several answers, most of them simple.

For checking the quality of your guitar set-up your computer has its own sound recorder which you can access by going to the Start Menu, then All Programs, Accessories, then click on Entertainment. The sound recorder will save your recordings as .wav files. Of course, you will find that the built-in recorder will not give you nearly enough recording time so the best solution is to download a free audio program called Audacity. You will find it right away in a web search.

The most obvious way to record your guitar on your pc is to simply use a microphone. Yep, just plug in your mic and record what comes out of your acoustic guitar or your amp. Many computers' jacks are color coded so if you have a pink jack on your computer, that is the microphone.

You could also try connecting your guitar into the microphone jack on your pc. This will result in a higher quality sound than recordings you will make acoustically but the sound card on your computer is not likely to have a high enough impedance to match your guitar, so there is still going to be some quality problems.

You will be able to plug a microphone into your computer via a jack. Or you can use the one that is already built into your laptop. The trouble is the quality of the sound that is produced in this way. If you just want to check on your timing or phrasing, then using the microphone to record acoustically is okay, but nobody is really going to want to listen to music  made in this way. If you have problems with the quality of your sound, the answer may also lie in buying a better sound card.

If you are an electric guitar player you then you can connect your amp to your pc directly using a cable. You can buy a cable made specially for this purpose. It has a larger plug at one end to plug into the line out jack on your amp and a smaller plug to go into the line in jack on your computer. This jack will be colored blue.

If you find that your computer does not come with a line in jack then you will need to buy an external sound card with a socket for microphone or line in. You plug this into your pc's USB port and not only do you have a line in socket but the sound card is bound to be of higher quality that the one installed on your computer.

If you connect your guitar to your computer and you can record your guitar playing but you cannot hear it as you play, you will need to take a look at your computer's sound card settings.

If you are willing to spend some money do a web search for audio guitar mixer software. Some of the mixers are free and some are quite cheap.