Hi, am a bit of a home recording novice with limited budget and experience. Was hoping to run the line out from my amplifier through a usb guitar lead to record into mixcraft. Unfortunately the signal is too loud and no amount of tweaking the volume on my guitar or gain on my amp can bring it low enough to record. As its currently my only way of recording distortion and my budget is tight, do I need a di? Ive seen a behringer pm400di for less than 20 quid. Is it worth a punt? Thanks guys! J.
do I need a di box?
- Thread starter cpt howdy
- Start date
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
A DI won't help with the "USB guitar lead". Line level is generally a fair bit higher than instrument level. A proper USB audio interface would probably accommodate your line out just fine, and it would allow you to mic the amp should you want to.
Howdy Howdy,
Please come back with the make and model of the guitar amp and the same for the USB guitar interface lead. "Line out" on a guitar amp can be achieved in several ways and at widely varying levels.
As a noob on post one I strongly urge you now to start learning some simple electronics theory and practice. You see, your level problem could be solved in less than an hour with a solder iron, a potentiometer and a couple of jack sockets.
Yes! Of course, DEFINATELY get a decent interface* but no matter what you get, as/if you progress in recording you will always find a situation where there is not a stock, hardware answer to something you want to do. Then of course, things break.
*Top reccy at ~£100. Steinberg UR22, Focusrite 2i4. For second hand. M-Audio Fast track pro, Tascam US 122/144.
Dave.
Please come back with the make and model of the guitar amp and the same for the USB guitar interface lead. "Line out" on a guitar amp can be achieved in several ways and at widely varying levels.
As a noob on post one I strongly urge you now to start learning some simple electronics theory and practice. You see, your level problem could be solved in less than an hour with a solder iron, a potentiometer and a couple of jack sockets.
Yes! Of course, DEFINATELY get a decent interface* but no matter what you get, as/if you progress in recording you will always find a situation where there is not a stock, hardware answer to something you want to do. Then of course, things break.
*Top reccy at ~£100. Steinberg UR22, Focusrite 2i4. For second hand. M-Audio Fast track pro, Tascam US 122/144.
Dave.
Thanks everyone... I know I need an audio interface, maybe xmas! In the meantime: suppose I dusted down my old yamaha 4track, fed the emulated line out frm the mg50dfx amp into one track, and used some RCA stereo cables and fed in to the line in. Would this reduce the level as a kwikfix? Thanks again, J.
The yammy might be as feeble as the gitplugthang. The amp puts out +4dBu, studio level and it might be happier wit -10dBV, "domestic" voltages. Still, give it a go, might work and you can't break anything.
You still just need a "pot in a tin"!
Dave.
In terms of basics, what value does my guitar,, amp, dynamic mic output at, and what range will my sound card accept? Thanks so much for all your help up to now, and for the hardware recommendations... What a great site! J.
Impossible to say! But here some ball park estimates...
Guitar, passive, humbucker MIGHT put out 2volts rms (+6dBV,+8dBu) when thrashed but generally a Strat say will kick only 30mV or so "normal" playing and that is -40dBV.
Guitar active: 9 volt battery, 3Vrms tops but at a much lower source impedance and thus tone will not (should not!) be affected by cables or volume pot position.
The amp? As I said the specc' gives +4dBu, about a volt but under what conditions is not mentioned. One must guess "normal" settings where you get an acceptable level and tone?
Mic, dynamic: The old warhorse Shures are about 1.2mV/Pascal . Which is pretty feeble, modern Neo dymos are 6dB better. If close to gob and screaming nuts off, that will likely be chucking out 10-20mV (-40 to -34dBV) .
Sound card: Which sound card? The inline USB jobbie? -10dBV ish I guess since +4 fooks it! The card in the PC/laptop? Neg 10 again. N.B. SOME laptops are rather good, my HP i3 1170g is one such but I never use the internal sound, I have a couple of rather good interfaces kicking around you see!
Be aware that it seems many of the later interfaces seem to have traded overload capacity, i.e. headroom for low noise and higher gain. This compromise is unavoidable at the 1 to 200 £ mark and is to be commended as it is MUCH cheaper to make/buy attenuators than very low noise amplifiers!
Dave.
Thanks Dave. Managed to try out the 4track idea this afternoon, and with the fader set to 1 succeeded in recording some pretty good lead guitar with no clipping! Thaks for the advice and the information. I'll look into upgrading to a real audio interface later in the year as you and countless others have suggested! J.