Guitar with USB port for direct PC connection

[stm]

This may not be exactly DIY, but is certainly of interest for the people around here...

A full sized stratocaster-type guitar with USB port that includes audio processing software with combos and effects, as weel as recording software. It says it also works as a regular electric guitar.  All for $99.  If it is and does what it says, it can be a nice starter kit for a kid or a quiet practice tool.

Check here:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/avcards/8c43/

Now into DIY, it may not be too hard to buy and adapt one of those small USB audio cards and have it fixed inside your axe for true direct recording.

[rockgardenlove]

Eh...I'm not a fan of this sort of stuff.

A regular old guitar is better.  This seems totally unusable for anything except for practicing in your bedroom.  A normal starter guitar you will grow out of, but you can at least keep it around for a back up or so. 

Plus this digital stuff usually sounds terrible.

[TELEFUNKON]

it`s a BEHRINGER!

[Paul Marossy]

it`s a BEHRINGER!

It's amazing what $100 will get you these days.

[MartyMart]

it`s a BEHRINGER!

It's amazing what $100 will get you these days.

It's amazing what £15 will get you these days too !

[fikri]

it`s a BEHRINGER!

It's amazing what $100 will get you these days.

It's amazing what £15 will get you these days too !

It's amazing what Rp.1.000.000,- will get you these days (too !) 

[DDD]

1/2 OFFTOP:
Average fee in Bangladesh is 8 (eight !!!) Euro-cents per hour, in China - 10 (ten !) Euro-cents per hour... any questions?

[TELEFUNKON]

how much is shipping such an axe across the globe in single quantity ?

[d95err]

A full sized stratocaster-type guitar with USB port that includes audio processing software with combos and effects, as weel as recording software. It says it also works as a regular electric guitar.  All for $99.  If it is and does what it says, it can be a nice starter kit for a kid or a quiet practice tool.

Get something like this instead:

http://www.soundtech.com/lightsnake/index.asp

Sort of a very hitech version of Tillman's FET preamp cable. Much better than shoving hitech stuff into your guitar, IMHO.

[MartyMart]

Get something like this instead:

http://www.soundtech.com/lightsnake/index.asp

Sort of a very hitech version of Tillman's FET preamp cable. Much better than shoving hitech stuff into your guitar, IMHO.

That's quite a neat idea eh !

MM

[Rafa]

In my opinion that S%U(C$K·S
All you get is a cheap digital sound through a laptop speaker???
In my opnion they put a Maudio or tascam USB in terface (the ones for recording) inside the guitar which is useless because the Maudio one has much more features
Rafa

[Mark Hammer]

I have my misgivings about such an instrument being a "recording" guitar, since it precludes using outboard analog effects before the signal hits the USB port.  On the other hand, there is a wealth of cheap (often free) and powerful software out there which permits someone on a VERY limited budget to play with things (or rather approximations of things) they could never hope to afford.  Not to mention the fact that the instrument is headphone-capable.

But here's what I'm wondering.  Does a USB output permit the unit to plug into to some sort of digital wireless transmitter?  If so, then that's one hell of an advantage as far as going wireless is concerned....as long as the tone one is faithfully transmitting at high resolution is one worth transmitting faithfully.

[Meanderthal]

Hmmm...

All the wireless usb stuff is the wrong way round... for now.

[Gilles C]

They use 16bit/48KHz sampling rate, which is the same as audio CDs, no problem there.

You can even combine it to this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G3FNVM/ref=pd_cp_e_title/103-4532085-5606234 to practice guitar with vinyls instead of CDs...

But you have to use a tube amp to warm the signal when you listen to it. 

Unless you prefer the sound of vinyls to CDs, then you have to stick to analog all the way.

Gilles

[waldo041]

this could help. either out of a tube amps preamp out or to run some effects inline before the computer.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-5/qid=1166464966/ref=sr_1_5/602-5430114-1777404?ie=UTF8&asin=B000FT4Z3Y


peace,
waldo

[StephenGiles]

They use 16bit/48KHz sampling rate, which is the same as audio CDs, no problem there.

You can even combine it to this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G3FNVM/ref=pd_cp_e_title/103-4532085-5606234 to practice guitar with vinyls instead of CDs...

But you have to use a tube amp to warm the signal when you listen to it. 

Unless you prefer the sound of vinyls to CDs, then you have to stick to analog all the way.

Gilles

I thought CD sampling rate was 44100???

[Gilles C]

   My mind slipped after reading the specs... 

where they say "The cable automatically detects what system you are working on and sets itself accordingly.  On PCs it will default to 48 on an Apple it will usually be 44."

Of course you're right.

Just for info, from http://www.transom.org/tools/basics/200207.digitalbasics.html

"44.1k, (44.1 thousand samples per second) 48k, and 96k are the most common sample rates. 44.1k is the standard used for CDs, 48k is common in video. 96k is becoming more common among audiophiles, but as with high bit-depths, recording the extra samples takes up much more hard-disc space, and often requires multiple digital cables to handle the extra headroom. One generally does not want to use sample rates below 44.1k, because of the "Nyquist Frequency" a formula that indicates that the audio bandwidth of a sampled signal is restricted to half the sampling frequency. So in order to cover the approximately 20khz range of human hearing, the equipment must sample at more than 40,000 (40k) samples per second."

Sorry...

Gilles

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I have no objections.
First, how can it be worse than the average non-USB $100 guitar? (and, you can use it as an ordinary guitar if you want).
Second, anything that connects to something else has to be (potentially) a Good Thing.

What I want to know,is whether the coded audio stream comes across as one mixed channel, or are the strings separate? A USB HEX pickup...... THAT would be useful.