[LAU] Line noise

[David Haggett]

On Saturday 20 October 2007, leslie.polzer at gmx.net wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm trying to get my electric guitar connected to my sound card.
>
> Keeping the card's input gain low keeps away the noise, but
> produces a very low signal. I can put Jamin right after that and crank
> up the input gain, but there's a maximum to it and I'm not sure whether
> that's the right approach.
>
> Turning up the card's input volume increases the gain, of course, but it
> delivers a lot of very ugly noise as well. If I connect a microphone to
> the port, I get a high-gain signal without noise.

I'm not an expert by any means.  What sort of pickups does the guitar have, 
and is the noise you are experiencing similar to mains hum you might hear 
through an amp?

It could just be that the signal from the guitar is too low, or generally 
noisy and the digital gain on the card just magnifies the noise.  I have a 
Terratec DMX 6Fire (has a built-in pre-amp) and have to turn up the pre-amp 
quite a way to get a useable signal.

Maybe you could use an external pre-amp and/or noise gate effects pedal before 
the signal goes into the card?


-- 

David Haggett