I’ve written once before about connecting an electric guitar to your computer for recording tracks, and although it’s been popular I think it was entirely too lengthy and complicated for the simple process of plugging in to your Mac.
It’s really a simple process that can be done very cheaply–most of the time. If you want to plug straight into your Mac instead of any kinds of external devices such as a Digidesign M-box 2 (which I use) you don’t really need a whole lot. Assuming you’ve got instrument cable for your guitar, you really only need one other part: an adapter.
Note: This article assumes you have an electric guitar, an acoustic-electric guitar, or at the very least a pickup for your acoustic guitar.
This article is specifically written towards Macs, which seem to have very nice sound cards built into them–even the MacBook line. The MacBooks and Mac Pros all have Line In ports which you can plug an 1/8″ connector into to pipe sound in.
Note: The new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a combined audio in/out port. I’m guessing this has to do with trying to cram so much into such a small laptop. In System Preferences you can switch between these functionalities and use it as a Line In port for your guitar. The downside to this is, if you’re using external speakers or headphones to monitor your recording…you simply can’t.
Getting the adapter
The main hurdle you have now is that instrument cable as used to connect guitar to an amplifier has 1/4″ connectors on the ends. You’ll need an adapter to convert that 1/4″ to 1/8″ so you can plug it into your Mac’s Line In port. You can find these wherever you normally look for electronic/audio components–RadioShack for me. The adapter looks something like this:
I got mine at RadioShack for $2.69. Not bad, huh? Note that this adapter is a mono adapter. You could get a stereo adapter if you wanted, but as most instrument cable is mono so you would have a wasted channel.
Volume
Now’s where things get a little variable. I have a Stratocaster which has Seymour Duncan pickups in it, which provide a very strong signal. With this setup, I can go to System Preferences>Sound, select Line In as my audio in port, and then go to GarageBand, Audacity, or whatever recording program I want and record perfectly fine that way. I don’t have to turn my volume knob all the way up in order to get a good signal for recording. However, depending on your guitar you may have a really low signal or a really hot one.
If your signal is fine, then you’re done! You’ve got a basic but functional way to record your guitar into your computer. From there you can amplify the signal using software amplifiers (such as Guitar Rig or the amps built into GarageBand). Or, if you have another instrument cable you can run your audio out from your “real” amplifier into your Mac but be careful about how hot your signal is coming into your Mac–too loud can damage things.
If your signal’s not fine
In the case that your signal is so low you can barely hear it, even with the guitar’s volume knob and the volume setting in System Preferences dialed all the way up, you may need to invest in a pre-amplifier to boost your signal.
In my previous article I suggested Griffin’s iMic, which will work, but if you’re going to be setting up a personal home studio-type environment you may want to splurge and get an M-box from Digidesign or something like a PreSonus Audiobox USB. These are more than pre-amps: they are audio interfaces. Consider them a seperate, dedicated sound card for your Mac. These types of things are handy for when you need to minimize your latency by “outsourcing” the processing of your guitar signal.
A note about latency
If you notice that there seems to be a delay between when you strike a note and when you hear it come through your computer you may need to get an audio interface like mentioned before in order to free up some of your system resources. Varying factors like amount of RAM, processor usage/speed (don’t be ripping DVDs with HandBrake while trying to record something), and even hard drive speed in some applications can cause your recording to lag behind. Although you can adjust this lag in your recording afterwards, it can be annoying when trying to record tracks to a drum beat and you’re always off a few milliseconds.
Overview
Hopefully, things have gone well for you. As I said, in most cases with Macs you should be fine with just the adapter. Please note that going straight through the sound card in your Mac is not the best way to do this ‘professionally’ but for simple home projects and song demos this is definitely an effective and much cheaper way to try things out without spending hundreds in pro equipment.
Feedback
Have fun jamming and please leave your comments below if you have questions and if this article has helped you in any way.
New blog post: No Nonsense: Connecting guitar to Mac for less than $5 (usually) http://bit.ly/4SHhH
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
I’m having a problem plugging in directly to the Mac. I have a new iMac (not the very brandest-newest-ones they are advertising with the screen that goes all the way to the edges – I have the one that was out just before, the one that has the barest bit of aluminum around the screen
) and I’m trying to plug an acoustic guitar pickup into the Mac directly to use in GarageBand.
I have (I think) the proper adapter for it and it fits nice and snug into the back of the macine. It’s a 1/4″ Female Stereo to 3.5mm Male Mono made by PlanetWaves.
I’ve SCOURED the internet for advice on this and I think I am doing what I should be: I’ve changed the line-in setting in system prefs, I’ve changed the GarageBand input source to Mono1 – In fact I’ve used every combination of those settings and I just can’t get a sound out of it. Nothing reads on the track volume levels, nothing reads within the system pref volume levels.
I don’t have an amp so I don’t know if the cord itself is defective – I’m going back to the store to plug into one of theirs to see if it is dead. Is that the only solution? Is there something else I could be doing wrong? The acoustic pickup is a Dean Markley ProMag Plus. I’m completely new at this so there’s no detail too small or too obvious not to bring up.
Thanks.