Reply To: A bit of trouble with my guitar

A Line In differs as I was saying before because it is a “line level” input. Ideally, all sound processing on a PC should be handled digitally, but it’s not always and not on all computers. Mic inputs require some sort of preamping of the signal at the very least. A line input “expects” the signal to already have it. A line input should go straight to the soundcard.

One comparison we can try is to plug into the regular guitar input with an instrument — ok, fine — sounds like a normal guitar. Then go around and plug into the amp’s Line In or Power Amp In (same thing on some amps). I’m talking figuratively here because of the slight chance of a moderate shock if there’s something screwy with the amp, so I’m not literally suggesting we do it! Anyhow, we’d be lucky to hear anything at all. Of course, PCs are not guitar amps but the principle is essentially the same. Still, plug into a line in on a PC, we may have to crank all volume controls to hear any kind of decent signal. Some PCs have things like background noise cancelation and whatnot on the mic input that may preceed the digital processing of the input sound — perhaps a “dimmer” or a mute switch. These, being such basic electrical duties, need not be handled by the digital processing.

I had to go wade through that long and painful other thread to decypher who said what. I believe it was your brother in arms over there who got mixed up (as many do with Podium’s unique Mix meter function) over CPU percentage vs. Mix (podium’s own internal processing, files, loading, etc.) So I stand corrected. In your case, however, we were asking repeatedly for your PC specs in trying to assist you. Next, I was supposedly patronizing you or something. Note in this thread how the OP provided tons of details and we identified the issue immediately.

Finally, I’ve always dreamed of a day when we could merely plug any regular electronic instrument into a PC and just GO! without all this junk strung inbetween. But, of course, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?