Connecting guitars to PC - experiences?

I have one by a company called playpro. The title is interactive guitar. Didnt need a device, Just a soundcard. The software works just as described. It gives me an assesment of skill for timing and accuracy. It also teaches theory and technique if needed. One cool thing about it is the '50 famous feels' cd which contains audio tracks in differing genres of music from metal to country all sans guitar. it came with a mixer and effects rack so you can record yourself onto the existing tracks and play engineer with em. I am pretty sure they make one for Bass and Keyboards. I got it quite awhile ago though and it may not be available. Thought you might like to know about it though since it was Older technology and still was able to do what you want (as far as training). I love being able to see exactly how my timing is and seeing mistakes that I didnt actually know I made concerning accuracy.

 Will you be using the device you buy for semi-pro recording, like for a demo or something?

Thanks to you both. The reason I am looking at these devices is that my notebook's sound card doesn't have pre-amp function, and with my amp connect I hear more noise than actual sound. Also, I want to mix in the guitar and vocals when playing together with others.
Recording is mainly for training and some 'home recording'. Demo's is something for later.

mystic fred wrote: having used a huge 4 track tape recorder in the past and ending up with all the tape on the floor on one occasion i'm now experimenting with tascam/beringer  digital units at the moment - when i get time i'll try it. a tascam cassette deck i tried worked ok but the sound quality was awful. .the biggest problem with guitar software is latency - having been plagued with it on some programs i'll see if i can get anywhere with this one, though a notebook has limited memory for editing.

Notebooks are just portable PCs. Mine is limited in that the sound card is crappy, but I've got 1 GB of memory.

Anyway, what units are you trying at the moment?

Flyingsod wrote: I don't understand the latency issues. I mean if you can get a digital multi effect on your rack with no latency issues you's think a modern pc could crunch numbers fast enough to throw at least a few effects on the signal without adding 10ms of delay. It's silly.

Yeah, the PC can crunch the numbers - but it's dependend on the developers of the operating system, the drivers and the applications you use which numbers they have to crunch. You'd be surprised as to how much the processor in your PC is used to do useless things, or things not related directly to what you want it to do. If only my customers allowed it, I could show you some software engineering nightmares in this area.

Audacity is the poor man's protools.  Quite useful, though.  

Looking into more options now - thanks so far. Any more input is welcome!

Certif1ed wrote: Try the Line6 guitarport - I think it's dedicated to doing what you're trying to achieve.   I use the Toneport UX2, and latency is a non-issue, if you monitor through the device.   And it sounds fantastic!

UX2 is the successor of this one? http://www.feedback.nl/?id=55&b=TPUX1

Just found out that UX1 is more or less a single instrument version, and UX2 is two instrument. Is it compatible with Cubase and the likes, or are you stuck with the included software when you use it?

That's good news. I also found the M-Audio Jam-Master, which is a lot cheaper, but depends also fully on the software for volume and tone control. Think I'll keep my hands off of that one.

Flyingsod wrote: Heres some on sale at musicians friend if you havent seen their new april clearence section yet. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/clearance/navigation/computer-hardware-recording-cards-audio-interfaces?N=100001+304891+500111

Nice site, been there before, but they don't ship outside the US. Thanks anyway