I use a Behringer Eurorack 802 mixer to connect all my equipment to the direct input of the soundcard on my pc. It was 50.00 on musicians friend and it is a very nice little mixer. The EU 502 is nice too. The only thing they don't have on them is a power switch. I just turn off my power strip when i'm done anyway so it's no big deal to me. Anyway, you would still need the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter to hook the mixer to your pc. The soundcard is simple to install and it comes with easy to follow instructions. Once done with the install of the soundcard your pc should already run that soundcard all the time. If it doesn't you just go to your control panel and go under your sound options and there is a tab there where you select the soundcard as a default. Then you are good to go.