Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Hello all. I am a brand new singer in a band which hasn't found its sound yet. We are a bunch of tech geeks, and I have started playing around with Ubuntu Studio and Jack Rack. My question here is what is the best way, on a small budget, to use the laptop as an effects box.

I think what I am looking for is a USB sound card with XLR input and line output. I have my own mic, mixer and amp already. I was thinking the right way to do it is to stick my laptop in between the mic and mixer (don't know if I need a preamp for that or not).

Thanks alot for your time. I appreciate any feedback you can give me.

Just as a heads up I have been looking at the M-Audio Fast Track Pro and the Tascam US144. Any real world information on these would be greatly appreciated.

FYI:I do have a firewire port, but not sure how well it works in Ubuntu.

I was thinking the right way to do it is to stick my laptop in between the mic and mixer (don't know if I need a preamp for that or not).

I'd think you would run the mic into the mixer and come out of an aux send to the laptop and back to the mixer. That way, your laptop won't be coloring the dry signal of the vocals, only the effects. Also set the effects "mix" on your laptop fully on effect and none of the dry signal. If the effects are colored in anyway by your soundcard it won't matter as long as the dry vocal isn't. Just my thoughts as I have never done that with a laptop, but have run live sound for a while.

>?!?!>!?!?

Guitar Rig 2 or 3

OR

Amplitude, I believe it is called..

Got the Tascam 122L and it works fine for me. Haven't tried the M-Audio one, but it's said that it's just as good.