Guitar tone on computer

[Soul Conspiracy]

I find it hard to get a good guitar sound on my computer. I had an Ibanez RG and a zoom multi effects for the distortion, I record from that through the line in on the PC. I think my sound card is a soundblaster or something, it's not very good because it came with the pc.

It never sounds really heavy and rich.

Is the problem the soundcard, or do I need a pre-amp or something?

 

[FrostGiant]

Is the mutlieffects thing a modeler? If it's just effects you are going to have that problem. For direct recording you generally want something to model the amp and cab rather than just the distorted effect (like a POD does or the Boss GT-6). I know zoom makes modelers too so I may be wasting my time.

 

[Soul Conspiracy]

Well it has "amp simulator" on it and that helps kind of. I did have a digitech genesis thing for moddeling amps but I had to sell it because the bank wanted some money

If I mic up my amp, do I need a really good microphone and will it still sound shit because I on;y have a standard sound card?

 

[FrostGiant]

You don't need an expensive mic to mic your amp. A SM-57 would work fine. But you would want a mic pre as well. Also better soundcards never hurt. How many tracks are you using for the guitar? I would at least double track it if not 3 or 4.

I record on a standalone unit (BR-8) so I'm not to well informed on what a good soundcard is. I've got a delta dio 24/96 thingy from M-Audio. Basically it's so I can dump my mixed songs into N-tracks for some final tweaking.

 

[SPL]

Just get yourself a Behringer V-amp. A cheap fix, and good tones for direct recording.
Zoom isn't exactly known for making good sounding products.

 

[Hewy80]

If your guitar sounds shit coming out of the FX unit then dont expect the computer to make it sound great. The basic sound cards are good enough to record and get a half decent sound but if you want to sound like the pros you need pro gear which costs$$$$. You probably need to do multiple guitar tracks on each channel to give it a bit fatter sound. I normally do at least 2 for each channel not including the solos

 

[paddok]

Ok here is a big question for everyone. Does any body know a good laptop they would reccomend for recording my playing ? (Im in the market for a laptop and would like to get something I can do all this on.)

 

[fadingessence]

just something to add, I use Sonar for recording/arranging and you can add fx with it...including amp and cab sims. So I can record just like you do, even using just a metalzone in between, and then throw in a 4x12 sim and beef up the sound a lot.