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Guitar 1/4" to 1/8" into mac audio-in?

stevietheb

stevietheb

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Is anyone doing this? Is the signal weak? Latency issues?

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get the guitar in the machine.

thanks!
 
a few things to consider. your guitar is a 1/4" MONO out, your Mac is an 1/8" STEREO in. your sound is gonna be coming in only on one side into GB. i suggest you pickup a splitter cable, or ideally, a little mixer. a preamp wouldn't hurt either, unless your guitar has active pickups. you should take a trip to the local music store and tell them what you're looking to do.
 
Re: Guitar 1/4" to 1/8" into mac audio-in?

Originally posted by stevietheb
Is anyone doing this? Is the signal weak? Latency issues?

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get the guitar in the machine.

thanks!
Click to expand...

Using a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, the signal is weak, but not completely unuseable.

To get decent quality, you'll want some kind of pre-amp (Radio Shack should have a cheap, small mixer). Also, you'll want a long guitar cord if you have a CRT monitor. Having humbucking pickups help, but they aren't 100% in noise rejection.

And, no, there's no latency issues.
 
Thats what I'm doing, 1/4" to 1/8", no problems here. I'm using a 1/4" mono to 1/8" mono adapter, and it seams to be fine. If you can find one, a mono to stereo would be ideal.

I'm also using my mic the same way, but include an xlr to 1/4" as well.

Good luck.
 
I think that's what I'll do--try the radioshack solution and see if that fits my needs. If it doesn't, then move up to a preamp with some nice connections and controls, or a cheapo mixer.

Thanks
 
bluetooth plug?

what about a bluetooth plug? does one exist? i love my bluetooth mouse, keyboard, headset, phone etc. a guitar plug would be so cool to just strut around while garageband does its amp stuff and whatever else.
 
Re: Re: Guitar 1/4" to 1/8" into mac audio-in?

Originally posted by crazytom
Also, you'll want a long guitar cord if you have a CRT monitor. Having humbucking pickups help, but they aren't 100% in noise rejection.
Click to expand...

You could experiment with the angle of the guitar to the monitors, I can usually find a sweet spot where the rfresh rate noise nearly dies off completely.
 
BLUETOOTH

hahahhahahahaha...I'll have to look into that! I can throw some headphones, and strut all over my apartment doing my best impressions of Eddie Van Halen, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend et al. hahhahaha
 
I got the little Radioshack adapter. It works ok--you could get pretty acceptable results using this. I also tried putting some effects pedals in between the guitar and the computer--my Ibanez Tube Screamer made for a pretty good sound.
 
I got a Radio Shack adapter that has a 1/4" mono plug for my guitar and a 1/8" stereo jack, and bought a 16' shielded cable with 1/8" stereo plugs on each end. That way I don't have a heavy guitar cord to drag around and plug into the rather fragile jack on my PB. All for under $15, and it works great.

Plug in headphones, launch the freeware app LineIn, and my PB is now my practice amp as well!

Here's the adapter:
Inline Stereo Adapter
 
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