need help setting up guitar and uca202 to my laptop for..

[classicrock]

Hello everyone. Newbie here

i need help setting up my uca202 and guitar to my laptop. i am new to recording and stuff since i play my music with my guitar amp and pedal effects. im planning to record my guitar using audacity and also guitar rig 4.

So lets start

i was searching for a cheap usb audio interface and came across with uca202 and ucg102. after i read a couple of reviews about the 2, i decided to go for the uca202 since it has good reviews compared to the ucg102. the reason why i bought it is for me to able to hook my guitar to my laptop ( using guitar softwares like jamvox or guitar rig ) without sounding like crap, and eventually, record my guitar with audacity. since i have a not so very decent sound card, i figured that buying uca202 well suit my simple needs.

i have a fender squier VM tele, msi ge60 ONC laptop, uca202, and creative 2.1 speakers.

question: do i need to purchase a mixer and a studio monitor and hook it up to my uca202 in-order for my guitar to produce great sounds?

im not a techy musician.. i just want to plug and PLAY without a hassle. i just want to hook my guitar to my laptop, my uca202, guitar rig 4 and rock the hell out of it. but i dont know the proper set-up.

i tried a couple years back plugging my guitar directly to my comp, and it sounded like hell.

another question: what is the right set up when using my guitar and uca202 to play guitar rig 4 without sounding like crap. and what are the right cables to use.

i saw a vid from youtube he was covering time by pink floyd using his uca202, but i dont know his setup.

here is the link to that video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oacmZVX_Tc

PLEASE help. i didnt realize how complicated sound recording is.

please help. thanks

[kozikowski]

i didnt realize how complicated sound recording is.

And you haven't even started recording your voice yet.

i figured that buying uca202 well suit my simple needs.

And you're probably right.

The simplest analog hookup has your guitar 1/4" out plugged into the RCA Left Line-In of the UCA-202. The UCA202 Stereo RCA Line-Out are connected to your speaker system. Plug the UCA-202 into your computer, let the machine think about it a little and then start Audacity -- in that order. Audacity checks for hardware when it starts.

Without going into exhaustive research of how all your equipment connects to each other, let's go for the simple first and get crazy later.

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Devices > Recording and Devices > Playback. Select "USB Audio Device" (I think I'm correct here) for both. You should be able to play something in Audacity and have your speakers work. Then strum the guitar and record it in Audacity.

Let us know where it didn't work.

The up side of this when you get it all to work, this is one of the configurations we recommend to produce Perfect Overdubbing.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... rdubs.html

Koz

[classicrock]

thanks for the reply

i have a very stupid question. i apologize in advance.

what rca cable should i use? i went to the electronic shop awhile ago looking for rca to 3.5mm jack but i got confused if i should buy a mono for the line in and a stereo for the line out.

and please post some pictures if possible, cause tomorrow i will be going back to the electronic shop and buy the proper cables/jack.

thank you.

[classicrock]

and by the way. my creative 2.1 is a computer speaker. which means there is no left or right cable. just the 3.5mm headphone jack. how can i connect it to the uca202 since it only has headphone and an rca output.

[steve]

and by the way. my creative 2.1 is a computer speaker. which means there is no left or right cable. just the 3.5mm headphone jack. how can i connect it to the uca202 since it only has headphone and an rca output.

Does it work if you plug the speakers into the headphone socket of the UCA 202? Check that the headphone volume is turned down when you connect the speakers, then carefully increase the level on the headphone socket and speakers.

[classicrock]

the headphone works. but is it ok if i use this http://www.tovvs.com/en/3-5mm-stereo-fe ... cable.html so i can just hook my computer speaker to the rca and the rca to the line out of my uca202? ill go buy some cables later and ill get back to you and tell you how it goes. thanks.

[kozikowski]

If you want to do fancy overdubbing later, then you're going to need that UCA-202 headphone output, so yes, this adapter...

http://www.tovvs.com/en/3-5mm-stereo-fe ... cable.html

Plus one of these.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/stereoJumper.jpg

Should get you from the UCA-202 to the speaker system.

The headphones should be connected to the UCA-202 headphone connection like this.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

The connection from the guitar is not one you would want for actual musical production, this is just to get you running enough to get the concept

So the task is to adapt the mono 1/4" of the guitar to at least one of the RCA connection of the UCA-202.

Ummmm..

What kind of 1/4" cables do you have now? If you play with who knows how many pedal effects, you probably have a number of 1/4" mono to 1/4" mono cables, yes?

Koz

[classicrock]

hello guys i just bought all the right cables. i did all the steps. now i am experiencing a problem. i am experiencing this crackling noise when i strum my guitar and i also get like 1 second delay. how can i get this crackling noise to disappear?

[kozikowski]

We'll take the delay as a separate problem.

Click on the right-hand edge of the volume meters and pull sideways so they get very big. Does your recording look like this, or do the red meters smash to the right and the blue waves fill the vertical space?

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg

Koz

[kozikowski]

Plug your headphones into the UCA-202 and switch to Monitor. The live performance delay should be gone. This is how you have to monitor your overdubbing performance. The headphone jack in your computer should get dusty from non-use.

You can't have speakers in the same room with a microphone during overdubbing. Jury's out if you're merely playing an instrument. I never tried that (I'm one of the authors of the overdubbing tutorial). But in any case, the only live theatrically perfect mix is the one from the UCA-202 headphone jack.

Getting the delays to vanish is the reason to use hardware-based overdubbing and not relying on the computer/software to do everything.

Koz