musician

musical equipment

musical instruments

In order to have a PC for music, you need a soundcard. Most PCs today have one. Even an old Pentium Windows PC with a 16 bit $20 used soundcard would be more of a studio than most of the musicians that ever lived had. 

So, just about any old PC or MAC will do. And people are literally throwing these away. A sound card can be built in to a PC, or added, depending on the PC. Think of the sound card and PC as kind of a stereo or a stereo component or a tape deck. It can be all of those things and plugs in relatively the same way.

You likely will need a microphone to use with your sound card. Radio Shack  (www.radioshack.com)  has a pretty good selection of decent mics that will do what is needed for most. If you need a pro mike, go to a pro music store. 

To play back, you need a line or speaker out. You may have both. A line out is the same as a line or phones out, found on almost any tape deck. 

The line out can be connected to a line in on an amplified signal source such as a stereo, a Boom Box, or just plain old PC Speakers with a built in amp (like an Auxiliary In or a Line In).

Now, most Sound Cards use the dreaded Mini-Jack that doomed the Sholtz Rockman to obsolescence. Soon, we will be offering a Musicians Cabling selection. For now, Radio Shack has all the converters and adaptors you need. Just draw out what you need. before you go to the store.

Connect the line out of the sound card, to the line in of a stereo or PC Speakers (Use Speaker Out for Amplified Speakers if you have one). 

Then if you have a instrument that has a Volume, Headphones or Line Out, turn down the volume on the device and then run a cord from the instrument out to the Line In of the Soundcard.

After turning down the Mic Volume on your Sound Card, it is safe to connect your microphone to the MIC Input (always turn down the volume of the amplified sound source before connecting anything to it!). 

Then you can adjust the levels of all devices by using the software mixer your soundcard came with or the Volume Control (Basic Software from Windows). Check your sound card instructions or the manufacturers web site for information and tech support.