Hi all, recently I was gifted a guitar and I want to start learning to play it.
I donāt have any gears or tools that relate to guitar learning (other than the guitar itself), but I do have a MacBook Air M1 and I want to use it as an amp for the guitar.
I did watch a video on this and the guy used a MacBook converter port and a Mono-to-USB-A and it worked.
Have anyone tried this or do I need to use other methods. Appreciate all comments and suggestions!!
You need an audio interface.
Look up things like the 2i2 etc
Then youāll need some software to emulate a guitar amo6/speaker like neural dsp or bias fx2 etc
On a mac, you have Garageband, which is all the software you need (at least to start). In addition to the audio interface, you will need headphones or monitors of some sort.
Iām fairly sure you can do it with something equivalent to the old Rocksmith cable, which is just a cable with some electronics in it BUT Iād also recommend an interface as above because itās better quality, youāre future proofing yourself and you have much more control over levels etc
You can indeed buy a jack to usb c cable, it should work. You can find them starting from something like 10$/EUR, but I have no idea of the quality.
An audio interface (Focusrite are the most popular but you also pay for the brand, Behringer are great price/quality) is a safer bet quality wise and gives you more control over volume levels. However, a cable can get you started, and you loose less money if after a couple of weeks this whole guitar thing doesnāt seem to be for you. Thatās up to you to decide.
Concerning software, GarageBand will do just fine. Itās fairly easy to navigate, and itās pretty much plug and play. I use an interface with a MacBook and GarageBand, and even I managed to get all of it working quicklyš
Strictly speaking, the jack to USB cables are audio interfaces.
They are just very cheap, limited, and, often, not very good ones. The main issues Iāve experienced have been latency and occasional drop-outs, and a bit of background noise.
But many of them are actually OK and people have had good experiences with them.
I will note that the electronics to create an audio interface are cheap, off-the-shelf items. The difference in audio quality between a $40 jack to USB audio interface built into a cable and a $1000 audio interface is often negligible.
I will also point out that many of these cheap cables can give you a higher quality recording than was achievable in any recording studio in the 1960ās and 70s.
What you will lack with such a cable, and where the real difference between such a cable and a more expensive audio interface lies, is capabilities such as gain adjustment, level meters, the ability to connect a microphone, multiple inputs, and (in some interfaces) MIDI.
And an important thing that is missing from these cables is output capability: these cables are input only where as most audio interfaces are both input and output.
Why is this important? Because using different audio devices at the same time can be problematic, especially if you are using pro-audio software like Reaper, Ardour, or Garageband.
And if you are using (for instance) one of these cables for input, and your laptop speakers for output, then you are trying to use two different audio interfaces.
There are ways around it, but itās best avoided. The best setup is a single āproperā audio interface where you have monitor speakers connected to the audio interface output and the guitar (or mic, etc.) connected to the input.
I also recommend the Behringer UMC series, especially the UMC204HD, mainly because itās slightly better than the equivalent Focusrite. But itās also cheaper.
Cheers,
Keith
Iām one of the folks with good experience. I recently bought a new one so I didnāt need to deal with the typeC adapter. The cost on these is about 1/10 of the Scarlett.
older gen (amazon us) - lots like this show up in a search. Favor higher bit depth (24) and higher sample rates (96kHz) to get a cable that is likely designed with some attention to performance. You donāt need to use the max perfomance when you record.
newer gen (amazon US) - this looked like really good specs, so I took a chance and got it. So far it is fine (had 1 week, in use 2 times). I needed to reduce the default gain to 50% or it was really noisy. Still plenty of level coming into Garage Band. The marketing text tells me they do not understand what they are selling, so just try to read past the silliness.
I have a little more detail here: Really need amp for beginner - #9 by sequences
I started with a rocksmith cable, itās still an audio interface.
A āproperā one is so much better though.
What sort of guitar?
Thanks for the suggestions 
but I think Iām sticking with cables with built-in interface for now because Iām still a uni student in Vietnam so these tools are out of my budget.
that is still an audio interface.
Iām planning to by the āGUITAR 2 USB Audio Interfacesā by Behringer which has an interface built in, so they are kind of similar.
Also I just start so if the sound is decent and there is no delay, It will work for me.
Ye my bad, Iām new to guitar culture in general so these terms and stuffs are out of my knowledge.
I think I was trying to say that I think I will stuck with the built-in cable instead of a proper one due to my budget.
a budget you didnt mention.
Thanks for the infos and suggestions!
Iām just starting, so quality of sound wonāt affect me that much (I canāt really hear the difference). And as Iām still in learning stage, I havenāt had the need to have multiple inputs/outputs yet, the guitar as the input and a headphone as the output will do it for me.
Also since I use GarageBand on Mac, I can adjust the sound to a level that a beginner like me can be happy about.