How to Plug | Connect Guitar into Computer

If you are a guitar player and want to record music in computer in budget then recording your guitar by plugging it directly to computer instead of recording it in the professional studio might be lots cheaper. You cannot directly plug in your guitar to computer because guitar’s cables have a 1/4″ plug where as computer sound cards, in general use a 1/8″ plug. Thus, you need a converter between your guitar and the computer.
You can plug-in guitar into computer using two methods.
1. Using PCI sound card such as M-audio sound-card.
2. Using USB audio interface device.
In this post, I will be covering up on using USB audio interface, as they are portable in nature and easy to install. You will first need to buy an USB audio interface (list of some audio interface given below). Then simple plug the audio interface into the computer via USB port and you are ready to start recording. Some USB audio interface may need installation. The output quality from them are decent and can be improved through some mixing/mastering skills.

USB Audio Interface recommendations

Behringer Guitar Link UCG102 : Simple USB audio interface to connect guitar into computer or iPad. Costs around 34$. There are some complains that out-put sound is not satisfactory.
Alesis io2 Express : Costs from 70-100$. You can plug-in guitar as well as mic. The review of this is generally positive and sound is pretty good as well.
M-Audio Fast Track : It is one of the popular audio interface by M-audio. You can plug-in guitar and mic. Out-put sound is satisfactory and has generally received positive review.
Line 6 POD Studio UX2 with POD Farm : Cost arouns 200$, most of the review on it are positive as well.

or you can search the list of available audio interface on Musicians Friend website according your need and budget.