So for the Audio & Sound portion of ds106, we will be using Audacity as our audio tool. After all of the installation blah blah who cares stuff, I thought it might be interesting to create a recording to see how Audacity works. But not just any recording, like a “testing 1 2 3 test test” into a microphone. As it happens, many moons ago I used to noodle around on the guitar (like everyone else)… why not see if I could record that?

Phase 1: Plug cord into guitar

Phase 2: Plug guitar into effects/pre-amp thingy

Phase 3: ???

Phase 4: Profit

More seriously, Phase 3 depicts an adapter from the preamp line out’s big plug to the laptop microphone port’s little plug.

Click here to listen to the result. You’ll quickly notice a few things: (1) The recording worked!, (2) I need to change the strings and tune the guitar, and (3) it’s been years since I’ve played, and I wasn’t that good to begin with.

But in spite of (2) and (3), I’m curious to see if I can take advantage of this in some way for the audio portion of the course. You can do a lot with three chords and heavy distortion.