Blowing out the mic port in my desktop computer

[wannabee]

I am told by a computer tech, that I can easily blow out the mic port on my home computer if I use it to record my amplified electric guitar and amplified voice even a little bit. He explains that I would be much further ahead using a multitrack recorder for the same job. What do you think?

[waxcylinder]

You certainly could do - mic level is much lower level input than line level (by a factor of around 1000 IIRC). Some mic inputs have clever gizmos that detect when line level is plugged into them and adjust accordingly. Unless you are sure that yours is one of those (you will need to read the specs or the manual) you probably dhouldn't do it.

Yes you could use a mixer - but unless you need the full functionality that one of those would provide then you might be better off with one of the external soundcards the we know work with Audacity. See: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

This will cetainly be a much cheaper option than a mixer.

WC