Any advice on how to connect an electric guitar to a mac?

Hello, any musicians in here? I'm going to buy an electric guitar soon and was wondering what is the best (and cheapest) option to connect a guitar to a pc or mac.
I'm looking to use Garageband specifically, to record and use its effects.
I have heard of different methods like buying an audio interface, but they all seem pretty expensive and havent found one that says that works on mac osx, i have also seen a simple cable cable that connects guitar to audio input on the computer, is this enough? Has anyone here done this?
Thanks

You will need a mixer with 1/4 inch inputs, and iGuitar software.









Yeah, I'm pulling your leg, there.

Rocksmith Cable

A unique quarter-inch to USB cable that is the first of its kind, and will allow users to plug any real guitar with a quarter-inch jack directly.

Works great

Your electric guitar is the same as a microphone you would plug in your mac. Just get a 3.5mm adapter and plug it in your input socket on your mac. You can also plug your guitar in the amp and the amp output to your mac input.

I imagine what any hipster would do is write your own code for a guitar app on your mac.
But really, there are things built to hook your guitar into.
Mac, lol.

Using an adapter for plugging directly into the mic input of the Mac doesn't work, I've tried. Noisy and sounds weird. This one is pretty inexpensive but there are better options with more bells and whistles out there depending on how much you're willing to spend. I own an Line6 Toneport UX2 which is pretty good but costs a bit more.

You need an audio interface.

click

This wwould be the correct way to DI into your mac.

I'm not sure I would bother trying to record anything with your onboard sound card.

Somewhere in my travels I saw a cheapish midi adapter kit for guitars that coupled with software like sonar x2 or FL studio would do the trick. The other way would be to mic the guitar played through an amp the bring that in as an audio file which in my case would be a WAV file.

Originally posted by sixswornsermon
You need an audio interface.

click

This wwould be the correct way to DI into your mac.

I'm not sure I would bother trying to record anything with your onboard sound card.

Or indeed one of those...Cool little toy

Damn...Here I was thinking I could save a bit this month

reply to post by g146541


Hey, I'm not a hipster! I just am too used to mac osx now,

reply to post by sixswornsermon


Thanks, I'm just a beginner, I know the internal sound card is crap but it'll have to do for a while.

reply to post by Opspeculate


I had a look, it sounds simple and easy, and there are no unwanted noises or distortion when heard through computer speakers?

reply to post by athousandlives


I use an old ISight device, it has a mic. I point it at my amp. Play through the amp.
I guess you could use any external mic. this works If you just want to get a track down and don't care too much about the sound quality.

Have fun

reply to post by minkmouse


They are cool.

I had latency problems with the Focusrite products. Might have been my mobo/chipset dunno.....I know other people who have no problems with Focusrite products, and the price is right....


I use Click for instruments, and click when more inputs are required (drums). Plus you can daisy chain them together for as many inputs as you desire.

reply to post by athousandlives


You will quickly figure out the limitations of onboard sound devices.

My favorite audio interface for using guitars is the Roland Cakewalk UA-25 EX. It's been discontinued as far as i know, so you'll pick it up for a decent price. What a card! Even though I am using a NI card now, i will never get rid of my UA-25.

There's a wide variety of great audio interfaces, of course.

$7.00 RCA cord...one end has a 3/4 inch female to insert your guitar cord.

Radio Shack, Best Buy or somewhere like that. $7 at minimum...$10 at most....

I use iRig guitar.

Plug it into the back of your Mac and away you go. My electric guitar sounds great in Garageband but my acoustic, less so. You can also plug the iRig into your iPhone/iPad if you have one.

I use the iRig Mic for vox. Also sounds good.

Originally posted by MrMaybeNot
Your electric guitar is the same as a microphone you would plug in your mac. Just get a 3.5mm adapter and plug it in your input socket on your mac. You can also plug your guitar in the amp and the amp output to your mac input.

edit on 27-3-2013 by MrMaybeNot because: (no reason given)

Correct...I do this on my mac minis (through Gband)...plug & play...

A99

reply to post by lazernation


I got one of those the other day, it works great with the iphone garageband, but not with the mac, i should say its a macbook not a desktop.
Only noise/interference when I touch the strings....
all settings are set to receive audio from line in, any idea on what might be the problem?