Reference Guide

1558 Beginner’s guide to Cakewalk software
Audio
Electric guitar direct-in
You can connect an electric guitar directly to your sound card using a 1/4 inch mono to 1/8 inch
stereo adapter. The following diagram shows this setup:
Figure 458. Electric guitar direct in
The 1/8 inch plug should be plugged into the sound card’s Line input, although plugging into the Mic
input will also work. If you use the Line input, make sure you have selected Line-In on the Windows
Record Control dialog box (Windows Mixer). If you use the Mic input, select Microphone. To open
the Windows Mixer—double-click the Speaker icon that’s on your Windows taskbar to open the
Play Control dialog box. In the Play Control dialog box, use the Options > Properties command,
select Recording (under Adjust volume for), make sure Line-In and Microphone are checked,
and click OK. In the Record Control dialog box, click the Select check box in either the Line-In or
Microphone column, make sure the sliders are in the upper half of their range, and click OK. If you
don’t see the Speaker icon on your taskbar, you can open the Windows Mixer by using the Control
Panel > Hardware and Sound > Volume Control (Windows 7) command.
Electric guitar through effects rack
You can also plug an electric guitar into an effects rack, then send the output of the rack to the sound
card’s input, as shown in the following diagram:
1/4 inch instrument cable
To sound card microphone input (mono)
1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adapter