I am looking for a way to get a good electric guitar signal into my mobile rig: Echo Indigo IO => Dell Inspiron 5100 loaded w/ Amplitube. (BTW, this setup works great for me when I swap the Indigo for a EDIROL UA-5 w/ hi-Z input.)

Some folks say get DI (direct inject) box or get a pre-amp or get both. Ideally, I need something that is battery operated so that I don't need an AC outlet. So far the Tech21 Sansamp XDI looks the most promising. Other possibilities include the Behringer Ultra DI-100. Has anybody out there already solved this problem? Peace.

You do not want SansAmp into Amplitube. SansAmp with only itself is good. I use Ultra-DI with many amp simulation! It works very well for me. You may be surprised to know many popular album are done with this box!

Preamp will not help you, but if it has a DI it may.

You want to have an item to make hi-z into lo-z. The signal looks like this.

Guitar->FX->DI->Preamp->Echo->Host->FX->Amplitube->FX->Mix-> Output

This is the perfect signal to try for with what you want to do

Good luck! Very careful of tuning and itonation! This matters more with digital simulation than real amp!

The Samsamp XDI is just an active direct box (no internal sounds) so it's fine for getting your signal into the echo I/O. I tried it at one point however and thought it was a bit too bright sounding for a direct box.

I use a passive Whirlwid DI into my Behrenger UB502 Preamp into my Echo I/O and lappy. You said you need portable so I would look for an Battery powered Active DI such as the Behrenger DI100 and see if that works well without a preamp.