Instruction Manual

1198 Beginner’s Guide to Cakewalk Software
To record, for example, an electric guitar into the computer, you plug one
end of your guitar cable into your guitar, and plug the other end into the Line
input of your sound card. Then you would click the Record button in your
Cakewalk software, start playing your instrument, and then click the Stop
button (or press the Spacebar). The Line input has a little icon next to it,
which is very hard to recognize, so it usually helps to look at the
documentation that came with your sound card or computer. A guitar cable
has a plug on it that is 1/4 inch wide (diameter), and the Line input on low-
priced sound cards is 1/8 inch wide. You need to connect your guitar cable
to a 1/8 inch adapter in order to plug it into most sound cards. These
adapters are inexpensive and are available at most electronics supply
stores.
If you want to record an acoustic instrument or vocal, you would use a
microphone. You connect the microphone’s cable to the adapter and plug
the adapter into the Mic input of the sound card. You can get a better
sound, however, by plugging the microphone cable into a preamp, or a
mixer with a preamp, and plugging the outputs of the mixer or preamp into
the Line input of the sound card, instead of the Mic input. You would then
need an adapter to connect the two outputs (left and right) of the mixer or
preamp to the 1/8 inch Line input. Ask the store where you buy your
preamp or mixer what kind of adapter you need to connect to a sound card
that has 1/8 inch inputs.
Professional-quality sound cards do not use 1/8 inch inputs, so you do not
need one of these adapters to use a professional-grade sound card.
To play back the music, you need to connect powered speakers or
headphones to the output of the sound card, which on new computers is
usually painted green. Then you click the Rewind button (or press w) in
your Cakewalk software, and then click the Play button (or press the
Spacebar) to play back what you recorded.
Music software uses two different formats to play and record sound—MIDI
and Audio. Knowing the differences between the two formats is essential
for using most music software. However, some Cakewalk programs, such
as Guitar Tracks Pro, do not use MIDI.
For more information, see:
1/4” to 1/8” adapter