external sound cards

[3Styler]

if i want to record guitar onto computer, i should buy a sound card right? well will the sound card act as a pre-amp and do i connect guitar straight to the sound card or will it work through my amp or do i have to also buy a pre-amp? can someone please tell me all i need to know about recording and sound cards? am i also right in thinking that the same sound card will improve the music quality on my computer aswell?

[j2buttonsw]

Yes, you will need a sound card on your computer otherwise no sound gets processed. I must say that it is very unlikely that your PC doesn't have a soundcard but it could happen. Depending on how serious you are about recording will determine the amount you spend on it. A soundblaster audigy card is pretty cheap now and has very good ASIO drivers (which will reduce latency: the delay in the sound coming in, being processed and coming out again). There are better cards available. A better sound card will improve the overall treatment of sound so sound sounds better with a better card (I once had a cheap sound card and everything had reverb on it: drove me mad). There are different ways to record guitars: I often will plug an electric guitar into a sound processor (Behringer vAmp) then straight into the sound card line in. You can mic your electric guitar amp where you can plug a mic directly into the sound card. I use a mixer (Behringer UB802) which has phantom power for my condensor mics and gives one more control over the sound from mics and line in sound sources.

[3Styler]

ok but can you what a preamp actually does and whether i need it, or if a external soundcard is sufficient?