Effects

D

Dj17

New member
I want record electric guitar using my computer. Anybody knows how to get a wide variety of effects (especially different types of distortion)? Where do I have to look? Software? Soundcards?

I have no clue. I'm a rookie.

I'm buying a new soundcard soon, anyway. Chances are I'm getting an Audiophile 2496. That's what I can afford at the store, and it's supposed to be good.

So? What are ways to get effects out of this one?
 
You could spend a hefty penny and get Amplitube, or Guitar Rig.
These are software guitar amp/effects modelers.
 
i dont' think the sound card itself is gonna satisfy you interms of effects. it will be important though as now you will have that low latency WDM and ASIO to work with. You could run your gutiar into a vamp by behringer or a POD by line 6 and then use the line outs of those to go into the soundcard to be recorded. There really is no cheap solution if you want good sounding stuff. To be honest the best way i have found is to mic a good amp plain and simple. beats the heck out of DI"ing an electric guiar and adding fake distortion.
 
I got 2 distortion pedals (BOSS Metal Zone MT-2 and BOSS Power Driver PW-2). So... if I plug my guitar in one them and plug their line outs in the preamp (DMP3), it's going to sound alright? And is there any problem I could encounter with that setup?

(3.2 GHz, 1.5Gb of Ram, Asus P4800-C motherboard and Audiophile 2496 soundcard)

Where's my weakest link?? The soundcard, probably...
 
either way...

From what I've gathered, the lack of moving air in real space with speakers will be your weakest link (although I could be wrong). I can't say much, I mostly record my guitar direct just like you mentioned (first to my weak-ass korg pedal, from there direct to my mixer serving as gain control/preamp, direct to L-in on the audiophile)... but it sounds weak, literally. Even running through a broken old off-brand amp and micing it in my tiny, unconditioned bedroom-sized studio space sounds better and fuller (but also louder... no guitar wailing in the house after the kids go to bed ;) ). But the setup you described should work fine, and using a separate pre might give you better input gain control than I get with just my little korg pedal. Plus there are a lot of software effects and amp/cab modellers out there... I've found for direct just the tiniest bit of reverb can help the sound a lot, although the distortion or other effects if any come from the pedal rather than software. Still not great, but it sounds okay for simple composition. Really, it can be done either way, but software will impose a greater load on your CPU and memory, especially if you're monitoring the effects live. Plus the good sounding software is generally really expensive.

As a side note, a buddy told me I could just as easily plug the guitar (or bass in his example) directly into the mixer (I use 'bypass' on the effects pedal half the time anyway)? Is this because my mixer is amplifying the signal, or could I just run a 1/4" to RCA from the guitar directly to my soundcard with the same result? hmmm maybe I'll try when I get home...
 
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