Is it possible to plug my guitar into my Mac Pro?

[mistasparkaru]

Hello all,

I have never done anything like this before so sorry if this sounds silly, all I really want to do is plug my electric guitar straight into my mic in and have the mac pretend to be an amp and effects pedals.....is this possible?

J

 

[LurchNC]

Hello all,

I have never done anything like this before so sorry if this sounds silly, all I really want to do is plug my electric guitar straight into my mic in and have the mac pretend to be an amp and effects pedals.....is this possible?

J

I would suggest not plugging directly into your mic port. You really should use an interface or a direct box.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kya4-PBqqgw

 

[OS X Dude]

Yeah, you will really need an audio interface to get anything like a decent tone. I use a Focusrite 2i2 and it's amazing for the money, and also comes with a suite of plugins that will be more than enough to get you going.

You could look on eBay for a decent used one. Only thing you want to think about is how many inputs it has to keep you covered for the future - today you might only want an interface with two inputs as you're only trying to hook your guitar up, but in the future you may want to record live drums and therefore benefit from as many as eight.

 

[GoCubsGo]

You could do it, I've done it. The sound is okay at best. As others say, you'd want some sort of interface. I have a Behringer UB802. That may be overkill for what you need. It is overkill for me but I got a killer deal on that, a free mic and another mic. I think I spent $100 for everything including the necessary cables. This was a good 3 years ago though.

With or without the interface, you can then use digital effects through Garage Band. One thing to consider is that new Macs available today seem to be doing away with the line in port. I believe the newer Mac Minis and MacBook Pros either combined it with the line out or they don't have it. Because of that, you would need a USB interface. If you want to buy and know that you'll be okay in the future, you may want to look into a nice USB interface. That's up to you, of course.

 

[ChrisA]

Hello all,

I have never done anything like this before so sorry if this sounds silly, all I really want to do is plug my electric guitar straight into my mic in and have the mac pretend to be an amp and effects pedals.....is this possible?

J

If your Mac Book has an line-in/mic input jack it will work, to a degree. Garage Band or Logic or "Amplitude" or other someware will do a decent guitar amp simulation. You will get better results if you buy an audio interfece with a "High Z" (high impedance) input that s made for guitars.

I think the new Mac Pros have a combo headset/mic combo jack and you can't just plug in a guitar. You need at the very least a cheap passive adaptor.

Same on the output side. You can better sound over some good studio monitors and a good audio interface.

Prices for the interface start at $60 for the Lexicon "Alpha". I think for your use that is the lowest price "good" interface. For recording of vocals I'd move up to one that sells for $150 and has Phantonm power for the mic.

 

[polaris20]

Just buy an audio interface like the Presonus 22VSL, which has combo 1/4"+XLR jacks, and run it in GarageBand or Logic. I use Logic with its own amp modeling as well as GuitarRig 5 Pro, and its quite impressive.

 

[mahmudd29]

if it is possible, that's gonna be a Blast for me surely..... Wonderful it would be. !!

 

[b06tmm]

I have one of these and it works very well.

 

[Macman45]

Use the interface, but be careful with the iMacs built in speakers.....keep the output down, although they are protected you might want to consider a couple of more powerful speakers.