hey i looked at a thing called N-Track and it looked awesome but how does the sound get recorded? do i have to use a microphone or sumthin?

<_< either you need a mic for recording or you use the line-out of your guitar amp to the line-in into your pc.

im sorry that im not that smart when it comes to computers, but explain the line in line out thing. (and try not to make fun of me :()

:blink: ok... i will try not to make fun ;)

Its the connectors of your sound card, next to the ones where you plug in your headphones or whatever you use for hearing sound on the pc.
Normally the connectors are color marked: blue for line-in, red for mic-in, green for line-out

Like this:
The orange and black connectors are most of the time for sourround sound systems for the shaker or other things and can be ignored for recording.

So you can connect to both in lines; mic-in and line-in, normally you should use mic-in for sources like mics with low output, but if your guitar amp or pedals you use are to silent in the line-in you can try the mic-in too.
The mic-in has a boost most of the times, that you can enable in your soundcard mixer.
In the mixer you can also control the settings for both input loudness and outputloudness, like show here:
I highjacked this part of a website;


The Windows Mixer controls the volume levels of your sound card inputs, and it also can mute any input or output.

The Windows Mixer looks like this:

When you open the Windows Mixer it may be labeled Play Control or Recording Control. We want to see the Recording Controls.

To view the Recording Controls:

1. Click the Options menu and select Properties.
2. The Properties dialog appears.

3. In the Adjust Volume For section of the Properties dialog, select the Recording radio button.
4. In the Show the Following Volume Controls section, the Line-in and Microphone options should be checked. If they are not, check them.
5. Click OK.
6. The Recording Controls now appear in the Windows Mixer.
7. Check the input you want to use, either Line In or Microphone.

Selecting an input:

Unless you are using a microphone, you should use the Line In. If you are using a Microphone, use the Microphone input. Make sure you are selecting the input that you are connected to. If you are unsure which input to select, consult your sound card's
documentation


I hope that helps you out a little; but i would advise, read all the help files for the n-track programm (it will save you time!) and if you have other questions this can help also:

N-Track FAQ

Recording is a big field, i cannt explain everything for you, but i will help where i can without making fun, its alot technique stuff involved and programms are always differnt and so on, just expiriment and try things out untill you are satisfieded with the result.
This is how i did my songs.

that helped so much thanks a lot, but now i have it all set up but im barely gettin any sound?? and i put my line out in mic in and line out.

What are your Play Control volume settings?

they are all maxed out.

From what you are trying to get the sound out?

i've got the the line out from my guitar in the line-in and i've also tried puttin it in the mic in slot but that didn't help much.

isn't there any pedal inbetween those two?

what do you mean like a distortion pedal?

well yes... like distortion

oh no, i have a pedal but i just wanted to make sur it works before i put it in so as of now i have no pedal in between them.

Well you need some kind of pedal between your guitar and computer... Guitar -> pedal -> computer .. Or guitar->amp->Computer.

oh well i had: guitar<<amp<<computer and i was just using the distortion on my amp.

what kind of outputs your amp has?

i was just using a cord that plugged into 2 holes that said "aux in" then iwas pluggin the other end into the soundcard.

well, you should look word "out" not "in"

ok well how do i get sound, do i need a certain cord or what?

now I had to be there to figure it out...

so was the whole aux in thing completely wrong or what?

Well if you want to have sound out from your amp--- you'll need to connect the cord to any output source.

ok but if i were to use a distortion pedal instead of an amp how would i connect my pedal to my computer.

guitar- pedal->computer

what kind of cord would i use because the only thing that would fit in my soundcard would have to be the size of a headphone jack.

go buy a cord that fits.

so do they make cords that will fit in a guitar on one end and then fit in a headphone jack on the other?

you would suprise what they can make... ask your local music instrument dealer.

ok thanks a lot for your help

What guitar-amp do you have?
Then i could tell you wich output to use...
Plugging your guitar into the pc without any amp before it wouldnt give you much sound because the guitar has a very high impedance, even compared to a mic.

Normaly you would connect to the line out from the amp so:
line-out (guitar-amp) -> line-in (pc)

yeah but that's exactly how im set up i have my guitar plugged into my amp and my amp plugged into my computer. And i have a ESP LTD KH-202 signature series
with a Fender Frontman 25R amp.

Try to use your headphone out from the amp and connect this to the pc, should give you a nice tone too!
If that fails too, you could try to use the effects send, if the amp has one, but that sounds way differnt then your amp...

ill try that and give ya an answer if it works or not tomorrow.

well it didn't work, but i guess i need to find a cord with two headphone jacks at either end.

I just bought one to day. It has that small plug at one end and two big ones (stereo) at the other.

that's kinda what i have but at on end there's a headphone jack and at the other there are two smaller jacks that don't have the same dewsign as the headphone one does so it wont fit in my soundcard.

Also where did you get that cord at?

from my local music instrument dealer.