Audio Interface VS Preamp?

hardtop

hardtop

Jan 31, 2013
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Queen City of the Plains
#1
Guys,
Need some help here. First, I'm very low tech. I play passive pickups into tube amps. I don't really know anything about recording and only office based computer use.
I've been using my practice amp, in conjunction with my computer, to allow me to play along with tunes on my machine. Its a really pain in the butt running 1/4" cables all over the room, but when I plug the bass straight in to the laptop the signal is too low to hear myself play along. I was thinking I just needed a little pre-amp to plug the bass into before it goes to the machine. However, I thought maybe I should pony up the cash for a small interface for recording, just in case, you know, I want to lay something down that sounds better than me putting my phone on the desk near my amp. My concern is, I want it to be easy to use to play along with songs, even if i never use it for recording, I need to be able to plug in, hit play on my media player, and be able to hear both the bass and the mp3 or whatever. I dont mind fiddling with it a little, reading instruction manuals etc, but I don't want to have to open multiple different programs and port files into different formats and all the noise.
Can someone steer me in the right directions?
 
#4
hardtop said:
Guys,
Need some help here. First, I'm very low tech. I play passive pickups into tube amps. I don't really know anything about recording and only office based computer use.
I've been using my practice amp, in conjunction with my computer, to allow me to play along with tunes on my machine. Its a really pain in the butt running 1/4" cables all over the room, but when I plug the bass straight in to the laptop the signal is too low to hear myself play along. I was thinking I just needed a little pre-amp to plug the bass into before it goes to the machine. However, I thought maybe I should pony up the cash for a small interface for recording, just in case, you know, I want to lay something down that sounds better than me putting my phone on the desk near my amp. My concern is, I want it to be easy to use to play along with songs, even if i never use it for recording, I need to be able to plug in, hit play on my media player, and be able to hear both the bass and the mp3 or whatever. I dont mind fiddling with it a little, reading instruction manuals etc, but I don't want to have to open multiple different programs and port files into different formats and all the noise.
Can someone steer me in the right directions?
Click to expand...

Are you on a Mac Or PC ?
A simple interface with a hi z instrument input which most have like USB Focusrite should be easy. If you want to plug straight in. Or you your can use DI on amp or the above mentioned Ampeg SCR DI which is a great option for more tone shaping. You play music in iTunes or Spotify or your media player of choice and you'll hear your bass from the direct monitor on your interface.

Actually if you're not wanting to record the Ampeg scr also has an aux input and headphone jack so you could run a line out from computer for audio from your media player and then plug bass and headphones into AMPEG SCR and Boom you're in business
 
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#8
well guys, I could use come more help. I bought a low budget interface and it doesnt do what i need it to do, or at least not easily. If I plug the phones into the AI i can hear my bass... but i cannot hear the song I am playing on my media player. When I unplug the phones, i cant hear my bass through the computer speakers. the AI is connected to and powered by the computer via USB cable. What should I do here.
 
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