Electric guitars on Ubuntu 13.04

I decided to learn how to play the guitar when I saw that Coursera was offering a beginner's course by Thaddeus Hogarth from Berklee College of Music. I bought an electric guitar and decided to use the laptop as the amplifier rather than purchasing an actual one. It took me close to 4 hours to set up the electric guitar, guitar effects app (Rakarrack), guitar tuner app (FMIT) and recording app (Audacity) on Ubuntu 13.04. I am using a USB to PC Guitar Link to connect the guitar to the laptop.

Guitar Link USB Connector

Setting it up is not straightforward. I could not get the audio to work for most of the time. I wanted to share the steps I took to help noobs like me set up an electric guitar on Ubuntu with minimum hassle and without using the Terminal.

Step 1: Install the following apps from the Ubuntu Software Center

• Rakarrack - Comes highly recommended from most of the users
• Audacity - Comes highly recommended from most of the users
• FMIT - Many users recommended Lingot and GtkGuiTune but Lingot did not recognize the USB Audio Input and GtkGuiTune refused to open in Ubuntu 13.04
• QJackCtl - Required to use Rakarrak and FMIT

Step 2: It would be advisable to turn off the internal mic of the laptop or remove any external mics of the PC or laptop.

To turn off the internal mic, go to the Sound Settings --> Input --> Internal Microphone and select OFF next to Input Volume

Select the Guitar USB input. In this case it says Microphone - PCM2902 Audio Codec and confirm the Input and Output Volume is ON

Step 3: Open QJackCtl and configure the input (this step is important as it sets up the USB guitar link as the input and your headphones or speaker as the output)

Select Setup...

In the Input Device option click > and then select  the Guitar USB Input (USB Audio CODEC - hw:1 in this case)

In the Output Device option click > and then select the laptop or PC sound card (HDA Intel PCH - hw:0 in this case)

Click OK to save the changes and return to the QJackCtl app.

Step 4: Start JACK connection by clicking Start and open Rakarrack

Step 5: Establish connection between Rakarrack and the system audio by clicking on Connect in QJackCtl

Establish the same connections as shown above. To learn how to do the same you can check this video.

Step 6: Set up Audacity to accept Rakarrack as the input. For this go to Edit --> Preferences --> Devices and ensure the following settings are selected and click OK

• Interface Host = JACK Audio Connection Kit
• Playback Device = system
• Recording Device = rakarrack
• Recording Channels = 1 (Mono)

You can now test recording by clicking the record button.

That's it! You can now use your laptop to record and playback your guitar.

If you do not wish to use Rakarrack and just use the laptop or PC for playback, do the following. The following steps includes setting up the guitar tuner FMIT too.

Step 7: Make sure Rakarrack and Audacity are closed but QJackCtl has to remain open. Now open FMIT.

Now you will have to setup a connection between the guitar USB input and the computer's output.

As before set up the connections as above. You will now be able to tune the guitar using FMIT and play the guitar without effects from Rakarrack.

Happy jamming!