Does the girl need a preamp?

fritsthegirl

fritsthegirl

Taste of home
OK, after dissing newbs for buying too much stuff, I'm about to ask a question about I think I need to buy next to make what I've bought work better. :facepalm: I haven't bought anything I didn't need or want. I'm just not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the wiring, or missing the right bit of equipment.

I have an electric guitar and a fender amp with a usb connection, and some software called Amplitube. I think this software basically duplicates the amp's modelling settings, but via the computer.

I haven't really played around with it because whenever I try to listen to the amp via the computer I get the highly annoying sound of my laptop's battery supply in there. I can record OK, and the sound seems to be clean, but the latency and noise is pretty bad. Too bad to use. I use Asio4all in Reaper, have the input set to the amp, the output to the interface.

I'm back to using the Behringer Xenyx interface instead of the personus Audiobox I inherited from Jonny, simply because the behringer has an input connection, and the Audio box doesn't. So I've got the line in on that thing running to the headphone socket in the amp. Both are plugged in via usb, but I guess that's obvious since I'm able to select them in reaper.

Mostly I'll be doing my proper guitar recordings by micing the amp, which is why I bought the amp in the first place. But I'd quite like to figure out if there is way to record the amp via the computer. Without all the hissing and humming.

Is a preamp what I need? Is all that noise just something inherent on a usb interface when you're picking up a signal from an amp? Or is it because I'm using a laptop?

Sorry if it's a messy question. Hopefully I've given enough detail as to what the problem is.

Faithfully yours, Newb.
 
No, a preamp is not what you need. Run the headphone output of the amp to the Instrument input of the Presonus. Keep the volume low on the amp, and the input volume on the Presonus low as well, turn up to find the right level. (This is assuming you don't have a mic that you can just plunk in front of the amp speaker and record with.) Unplug the wallwart power supply of your laptop and run on battery - this should eliminate the noise from it.
Plug your headphones into the Presonus, or monitors if you use those, and adjust the mixer knob on the Presonus to balance between the already-recorded tracks and the guitar input you are adding to the recording.

You can run a clean signal from the amp, then use Amplitube in Reaper to adjust/FX the sound, but better to get the sound you want from the amp and forget Amplitube.
 
Hey,
Sounds like your mismatching ins and outs.
When you use the amp's USB connection you have issues with noise, right?
I'd stop here and try to find/fix the problem.
Have you tried running the laptop on battery alone, completely unplugging the power transformer?


Your alternative effort was to run the amplifiers headphone output into a line input, right?
That could work but it's probably not going to work well. Does the amp have a line output rather than headphone?

Personally I'd either run the guitar directly into the audio box instrument input and use amplitube,
OR
Put a mic in front of the amp.
 
I am kind of confused with what you are asking. I am pretty sure you are trying to mic up your amp though. Your signal chain should be guitar amp>mic>Presonus>Computer. You can get latency free monitoring by blending the input and the playback.
 
JG96 said:
I am kind of confused with what you are asking. I am pretty sure you are trying to mic up your amp though. Your signal chain should be guitar amp>mic>Presonus>Computer. You can get latency free monitoring by blending the input and the playback.
Click to expand...

Aye, I'm not surprised by the way I asked the question. :D I can get micing up the amp running perfectly. and I love that most of all. At times I need to keep the room quiet though, but I would still like to record through the amp.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hey,
Sounds like your mismatching ins and outs.
Click to expand...
Probably...:D
Steenamaroo said:
Have you tried running the laptop on battery alone, completely unplugging the power transformer?
Click to expand...
Yes I have, and the noise disappears completely. Problem is my laptop runs for about 10min before it runs out of juice. So that ain't much playing time.
Steenamaroo said:
Your alternative effort was to run the amplifiers headphone output into a line input, right?
That could work but it's probably not going to work well.
Click to expand...
That's what I've tried but does not give good results at all.
Steenamaroo said:
Does the amp have a line output rather than headphone?
Click to expand...
I don't think so, it has a plug that has the acronym FTSW, but I'm pretty sure that's for a footswitch. And then it has an Aux plug, but I tried that, and it was the same. I don't even know what half this stuff means. I somewhat methodically plug stuff in and out and just hope it doesn't blow anything up. I tried pretty much every combination here I think.

Steenamaroo said:
Personally I'd either run the guitar directly into the audio box instrument input and use amplitube,
OR
Put a mic in front of the amp.
Click to expand...

That makes sense to me, if it's just for practice and I can roughly get the sound I want with amplitude, by plugging the guitar straight into the interface and using software. I haven't really played around with Amplitude because I have an aversion to learning new software if I think I can turn real dials and stuff instead. But if that's going to work, I'll get my head around it. Hadn't tried that yet. I can mic the amp up when I can make noise and I'm ready to record. That's cool with me. Cheers for the help.
 
fritsthegirl said:
Probably...:D

Yes I have, and the noise disappears completely. Problem is my laptop runs for about 10min before it runs out of juice. So that ain't much playing time.
Click to expand...
Ah yeah, that's a shame.
Unfortunately this kind of thing is pretty common with laptops and USB interfaces.
The only solution I ever found was to manually mains ground the laptop chassis, but I'm not recommending that to you.

fritsthegirl said:
That makes sense to me, if it's just for practice and I can roughly get the sound I want with amplitude, by plugging the guitar straight into the interface and using software. I haven't really played around with Amplitude because I have an aversion to learning new software if I think I can turn real dials and stuff instead. But if that's going to work, I'll get my head around it. Hadn't tried that yet. I can mic the amp up when I can make noise and I'm ready to record. That's cool with me.
Click to expand...

That's probably the simplest solution.
 
mjbphotos said:
Unplug the wallwart power supply of your laptop and run on battery - this should eliminate the noise from it.
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed it does, but only for a few minutes. I'm using a pretty old laptop who's power supply is less than OK. I need to upgrade to a PC, but then I spent all my money on that bass and amp. :) I agree micing it is the best way though and it sounds good, I like it a lot. I think I need to figure out this Amplitude thing for the times I can't record with the mic.
 
Steenamaroo said:
The only solution I ever found was to manually mains ground the laptop chassis, but I'm not recommending that to you.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, I would not do that ever. My electrical know how stops at being able to wire up a plug end. Everything else I'm shit scared of. :o

I'm assuming a PC would not have the same problem at all? But is that correct?
 
you should pick up a powered usb hub. laptops don't have enough current capacity to power interfaces correctly plus the extra ground filtering. Like a Tripp Lite 2014
 
Like Steen said - run the guitar direct to the interface and use amplitube while monitoring through headphones or monitors, or mic the amp. Any other way is unnecessary headache.
 
if it still hums, you can open up the hub and lift the computer's ground since it and the computer's 5V is not used. (usb is a twisted balanced pair )

on firewire is interface-6wire to 4 wire cord then 4 wire to 6 wire adaptor (two pairs)
 
My laptop power supply is noisy too but only on my amp line out which is weird. My vocal preamp is silent. My laptop is only good for about an hour on battery. I agree - for silent recording use the line in on the interface. I'm assuming it's got enough volume for an electric to record. My vocal preamp has what you call a direct input (DI) which is specifically for guitars. The line on it is apparently more for synths and stuff with a higher signal.
 
I'm just telling what has worked in the past (for me) take it or leave it if you wish...

but I forgot to mention: you could also get a usb isolator which is a data transformer and a isolated dc-dc converter.

those are common industrial enviroments but I see people making them cheaper now (used to be $200).
 
moresound said:
Time to purchase a new laptop battery, me thinks.
Click to expand...

^^^this

if your local battery store is anything like mine, you should be able to get a pretty sweet battery. When mine went bad on my HP laptop a few years back, I was able to get a battery that lasted twice as long as my old one did in its prime.
 
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