bass guitar with audigy 2 platinum io

[Guest]

Hi all,

I have an old electric bass guitar laying around. I'd like to figure out how to use it with an audigy 2 platinum IO hub and 5.1 klipsch ultra media speakers. I just wanna screw around but i'm a complete noob in this area.

I have also a shitty old amp and just a normal jack. I tried googling for info but i can't really find anything helpfull.

Can i use my 5.1 klipsch with the audigy2 instead of the old amp?

If it's possible how can i do it? If i just plug the jack from the electric bass guitar to the IO lineIN 1 or 2 nothing happens lol.

Sorry i'm a total noob if anyone can give any info or help out a newbie i'd appreciate it

 

[mcgruff]

You'll need a pre-amp. A "bare" signal won't sound very good though. A real guitar/bass amp affects the sound in all kinds of ways - the speaker cones themselves play a big part. I'd mic up the amp if you're recording.

Be very careful with the volume if you are monitoring audio recordings on the PC. The dynamic range will be much bigger than you're used to and it's not hard to blow out the speakers with a big bass boom.

 

[kelemvor4]

This setup will work fine, I "play" a fender squier 4 string through my pc via an audigy 2 zs. It ends up being more convenient than lugging out the amp. The only problem you will notice is caused (I believe) by an impedance mismatch between the soundcard and the guitar. The result in the mismatch is that the volume/tone knobs on guitars are very scratchy, and the volume on the guitar needs to be turned pretty much all the way up to sound decent (you can control the volume via the knob on the audigy or the software based volume controls.

I suspect your problem is that you either have "line in 2" muted in your playback controls, or it is not "selected" in recording controls (it's not the default!). Here's some pics:

 

[nukemaster]

When plugged into the mic it WILL work....my brother does it...it sounds ok to play but not too good to record...if you want it to sound right you will need to go bass -> pre-amp-line in....but to just play with it and stuff....get a 3.5mm to 1/4-inch mic adapter and you should be ok....at least to play...

Make sure your mic in is set real low too....i mean like 5 percent at first....thats a nice set of speakers that you dont wanna blow...

EDIT..... ohh i was soooo beat to it....good post kelemvor4..

 

[ara]

hmmm, i did this for a while, but i didn't like the sound:

hooked up my bass to my amp, which has a headphone out, then hooked the headphone out to the line in. the sound was terrible but i didn't want to risk a direct connection to my sound card, the headphone level is more to the voltage levels of line-in.

the bass signal is weaker right? so what about active (pre-amplified) basses'? can they be hooked directly to line in?

Ara