Setting up our USB Guitar Cable with Garageband ’11 couldn’t be easier…

Before launching Garageband, first plug the USB Guitar Cable into a spare USB port on your Mac. We recommend you plug directly into a port on the Mac rather than a USB hub.

You should see the blue LED illuminate on the Guitar Cable’s USB connector.

Plug the cable into your guitar.

Now launch Garageband. Select New Project and then choose the Electric Guitaroption.

From the next option you can name your project. Once the project has loaded, you should see this message:

Click Yes to select “Generic USB Audio Device” (i.e. the USB Guitar Cable).

IMPORTANT! By default, Garageband will automatically select this device for both input and output. To actually hear your guitar you must change the output to a different device!

To do this, go to the the Garageband menu, select Preferences and click theAudio/Midi tab. Change the default from Generic USB Audio Device to the device you’d like to use on your Mac. For instance, Built-in Output to use the Mac’s onboard speaker:

This message will appear:

Click Yes.

Now you should be able to play and hear your guitar. If you can’t hear anything, make sure the Monitor On icon is selected. You can check it here…

…or by clicking on the amp in the right hand side window. You can also change the Noise Gate threshold here to reduce any buzz you might be experiencing, especially if you’re using single coil pickups:

If you experience latency problems (where the sound you hear is fractionally after you hit the strings), a good tip is to hit record, wait a few seconds and then press stop. Try playing again and the latency should be gone!

Note: For instructions for earlier versions of Garageband, see our post here.

We won’t be adding any new posts to this blog. Instead, head on over to the blog on our UK website for all the latest, exciting developments in the crazy world of cables and adapters!

Hopefully it will go smoothly, but please bear with us if we experience any problems over the next few days.

MikeO

Handy hard drive docking & standalone cloning station!

Cloning stations are the ideal gadget for system builders, integrators, technicians and IT departments. This neat little device also acts as an external hard drive for 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA hard disks as well as handy cloning station. It allows you to easily create bit by bit clones (including OS and Partitions) from original drives onto target HDDs. It is the easiest way to upgrade to larger capacity hard drives.

The great standalone cloner allows drives to be cloned without a computer. That ease of use is great for IT techs and upgraders. A useful docking function means blank drives up to 2TB can be connected to a computer via eSATA (3Gbps) or USB 2.0 (480Mbps). Recovering data and backing up files can be done simply, without much effort or the need for installation. The dual bay design allows two hard drives to be connected at the same time so data can be copied between multiple drives of different types as 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA drives are supported natively.

As well as being PC and Mac compatible this handy device also comes with a power cable, USB cable and eSATA cable included.

Read more about this USB 2.0 & eSATA hard drive docking and cloning station.

SPDIF Digital/Toslink Audio Converter

This SPDIF Digital/Toslink Audio Converter is a neat little device that solves many of the incompatibility problems with analogue and digital equipment. As people, especially those of us who are AV and home cinema enthusiasts regularly upgrade equipment, compatibility between new devices and older, different audio devices can often arise. This converter offers bi-directional conversion so that legacy audio equipment can continue to be used with newer audio devices.

Incompatibility between connectors is a frequent problem most people find when building up their home entertainment systems piece by piece. Usually people replace out-dated equipment as they can afford it, often though the availability of a new shiny device tempts us into parting with our cash. However when you get it home and try connecting it to the rest of your kit you can often find problems.

This cool converter allows digital audio to be inputted through a Coaxial or optical port and digital audio to be an output through Coaxial or optical ports. It gives complete flexibility during installs. Both optical and coaxial cables can also be connected at the same time to save you fiddling about, however only one can be active at a time.

With an integrated digital interpolator filter and Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC), this SPDIF Digital/Toslink Audio Converter supports uncompressed digital stereo audio input. It also comes with a 5v DC multi country power supply.

See more about this LINDY SPDIF Digital/Toslink Audio Converter.

Perfect for officers and work stations!

This cool little 4 Port in-desk USB hub is a really smart office device. It fits neatly into your desk’s cable grommet cut-out to give you easy access to USB ports and help keep your desks clutter down to a minimum.

The main body of the hub detaches from the outer ring so it is easy to set up. Its cross shaped design means a desks grommet can still be used for cable management. It’s perfect for use with USB storage devices positioned near desks such as printers and scanners.

Fits neatly into a desk!

It’s always handy to have extra USB ports, but hubs often take up too much space and make desks untidy. This in-desk hub solves this problem by making use of the cable grommet already installed in a desk so you get additional ports without additional clutter.

This bus-powered in-desk hub can take up to four USB connections and supports high, full and low speed devices. It fits into a standard grommet cut-out and connects to a computer via an integrated cable.

Read more about the 4 port in-desk hub.

To view an up to date version of this post & make comments visit- http://www.lindy.co.uk/blog/2009/12/22/lindy-usb-guitar-cable-realtek-hd-chipset-and-guitar-rig/

As a follow on from some feedback regarding using the LINDY USB Guitar Cable with Guitar Rig on PC, I thought I’d quickly post the ASIO settings I used to get good results. I used an Acer Aspire notebook with onboard RealTek HD audio chipset.

First of all, download and install the latest ASIO4ALL drivers from here:

www.asio4all.com

Once installed, launch Guitar Rig and access the audio settings from the File > Audio and MIDI Settings menu.

You’ll see a screen like this:

Set the Sample Rate to 44100 and then click the ‘ASIO Config’ button.

You should see a window like this:

I used trial and error to arrive at the above settings and achieved pretty good results with fast latency response and decent sound quality.

I’ll try and do a bit more testing over the next few weeks with different audio chipsets and settings.

Easily keep your notebook cool!

This new Adjustable Notebook Cooler puts an end to your laptops and notebooks warped disc drives, dry soldered joints and even melting casings. These and many more problems that occur from hot running laptops can be solved easily.

This cooler fits most 7” to 15” laptops and has a single, quiet fan that cools your computer. Further passive cooling and heat dissipation is assisted by allowing air can also freely flow beneath the machine as well. The cooler’s unique, fold-away design means it can easily be situated under the part of the machine where cooling is most needed. It is still small and compact enough to fit into a laptop bag.

Heat can be very bad for notebooks and with laptops becoming more powerful the amount of heat they generate is increasing. This can have a serious impact on their performance and the lifetime of the machine if it is not dealt with. Newer notebooks are cheaper and lighter than ever and more plastic is increasingly being used to make them. This contributes to the problem.

The LINDY Adjustable Notebook Cooler is bus powered by an integrated USB Cable and has rubber pads to hold the laptop securely when it is in use. A tilt feature provides additional comfort. The design features a single 2300 RPM fan with a quite operation of less than 20dBA.

See more about the LINDY Adjustable Notebook Cooler.

Great range of gifts & gadgets!

We have a wide and varied range of gadgets and essentials that are perfect stocking fillers for this Christmas. Our devices range from devices to get the most out of your new laptops, computers, iPods, TVs and Blu-rays to keeping those new iPhones and monitors looking like new.

Listen to music from an iPod through old car stereos by using a LINDY FM Audio transmitter. Connect it to the 3.5mm jack of any audio device and tune to a free station. It wirelessly transmits music to any FM equipped music player or car stereo. It can be quickly accessed using the three memory presets and has an illuminated LCD display with time and temperature functions.

The LINDY USB 2.0 Multi-card Reader Pro makes transferring data from memory cards easy. You can also back up and edit SIM card data so you don’t lose valuable contact details again. It versatility supports over 80 different memory card formats including high capacity SDHC and Micro-SD.

Isn’t it annoying when you try to listen to music and background noise interrupts your listening enjoyment. The LINDY Active Noise Cancelling Headphones use inverse phase active technology to deliver a16dB noise reduction so ambient noise is reduced to provide superior sound quality. The soft cushioning ear pads make them comfortable to wear for long periods. They also come with a handy in-flight adapter, 1.2m detachable cable and a 6.3mm audio adapter.

Our multi award winning LINDY 6 Way Mains Conditioner Power Strip is designed for hi-fi and home cinema systems. It has six sockets with surge protection and mains conditioning while the two metre screened mains cable helps reduce radiated noise that adversely affects audio and video quality making it the perfect gift for home cinema enthusiasts.

Keep that new Plasma, monitor or iPhone clean by using a LINDY Screen Cleaning Kit with Brush. This compact, all-in-one kit contains everything required for cleaning TVs, monitors, CDs, DVDs, keyboards & more. Use the cleaning solution, integrated micro-fibre pad and handy soft retracting brush to safely remove dust and dirt from your valuable devices.

There is much more to see in our Christmas gifts and gadgets range by clicking here.

We are delighted to announce that our acclaimed 6 Way Mains Conditioner has won a prestigious What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision Award. The power strip was named the Best Mains Conditioner at the What Hi-Fi Awards 2009. It also achieved 6^th place in the Readers’ Award where the public votes their favourite product of the year.

Multi Award Winning Conditioner

The annual What Hi-Fi Awards have been recognised and trusted around the world for almost 30 years. They provide a roll-call of the hottest home-entertainment products, the awards have even been credited with making or breaking a manufacturer’s product. Designed for hi-fi and home cinema systems, the LINDY 6 Way Mains Conditioner Power Strip provides six sockets with surge protection and mains conditioning, which helps to reduce electronic interference that can adversely affect the quality of audio and video signals.

Although we didn’t win the Readers’ award our Mains Conditioner did face competition from products such as Spotify and the iPhone so we don’t feel so bad. Recognition from What Hi-Fi’s readers that our mains conditioner has made a difference to their home-entertainment systems is high praise indeed.

Awarded 5 Stars in it's What Hi-Fi review!

In its original review of the LINDY mains conditioner back in December 2008, What Hi-Fi noted that “even hardened sceptics would struggle not to notice an improvement…from this fabulous product”. Since then the conditioner, has been subjected to a “blind test” by three What Hi-Fi readers, in which one reader commented, “Anyone who wouldn’t spend that (to buy the LINDY Mains Conditioner) ought to have their kit taken away from them”.

Read more about the LINDY 6 Way Mains Conditioner Power Strip.