I have my basses, my old Roland synth, my positively ancient Yamaha amp, an occasional Boss chorus pedal, and my Mac Mini. So nothing terribly fancy anywhere in that setup, and certainly no opportunities to add a sound input card. I also never ever bought an effects box, or an amp with pre-amp out, or anything with Line 6 written on it. I just plug in and bash away. As far as I can see, there are a few different options that involve spending more or less money, but they all seem to revolve around an interface of one type or another.
- - An XLR or phantom powered microphone in front of my amp would capture more of the sound I'm familiar with, but would need some sort of audio interface. Are there USB condenser or dynamic mics that can go directly into the computer?
- - DI to an audio interface box. The same as above, otherwise? My Wal of course has a balanced XLR output built in (which I've never used), but the other two are good old quarter-inch.
- - Guitar interface, like an M-Audio box that USBs into the computer? Presumably you could plug a mic into it as well?
I have Audacity on the computer and that works quite well for the recording side of things, but I'm open to ideas there too.