help with clipping.

[artorias]

Hello everyone. I'm completely new to the recording aspect of music and am lost. I recently purchased a scarlett 2i2 and am running reaper. my problem is 8 have the gain all the way down on the input of the interface and have it set to instrument And still get full clipping and auto mute on reaper. I am playing through a music man jpxi-7 string with mogami cable. Can someone please help point me in the right direction?

 

[Armistice]

Windows / Mac? (I believe there's something in Win that may need adjusting but someone else will have to tell you, I've never needed to... )

And is there anything between your guitar and the interface except your cable... ie. no stomps etc.?

 

[ecc83]

That guitar sports some pretty serious looking humbuckers and names like "Liquid Fire! give me the impression of serious welly!

The first run of the 2i2 interface had woefully poor headroom on the instrument input and you might have a "NOS" sample or second hand? The headroom was improved on later versions but I don't think it is that generous even now?

Now I KNOW this is heresy (stop reading Greg!) but does the clipping stop if you back off the guitar's volume? If so just do that!

Ok! I know many guitarists dislike running other than flat out and feel this tends toward "tone suck", loss of HF but for home recording you can use a very short cable as a rule and a sub 3mtr lead is not likely to "suck". Two other options? Run thru' a buffered pedal (NOT a daft "true" bypass lump!) with an output control. Or make a high impedance attenuator to fit very close, 300mm cable, to the AI.

The Focusrite 2i2 is a decent enough AI but it DOES have its issues, can never see why it gets SUCH good rep all the time?

Dave.

 

[artorias]

Ecc83. Problem solved. my inexperience made me over look the factor that it has some pretty hot pickups in it. I guess a higher end guitar and a beginner AI doesnt mesh well. I backed off the volume a little bit and it fixed it. Thanks for the help.

 

[ecc83]

Ecc83. Problem solved. my inexperience made me over look the factor that it has some pretty hot pickups in it. I guess a higher end guitar and a beginner AI doesnt mesh well. I backed off the volume a little bit and it fixed it. Thanks for the help.

Glad you are sorted. Still peeves me greatly though! There is really no need to give a HZ input that much gain and as a consequence, pitiful headroom!

Dave.

 

[ashcat_lt]

Glad you are sorted. Still peeves me greatly though! There is really no need to give a HZ input that much gain and as a consequence, pitiful headroom!

Dave.

Running at 24 bit, there's no good reason not to run most guitars flat unity! If you plug into a buffered pedal first, you can flip the switch to Line, which will be about 10db down. Then you should have plenty of headroom. If that makes your amp sims sound weak, look for the input gain on the plug or insert JS Volume before the sim.

 

[ecc83]

Running at 24 bit, there's no good reason not to run most guitars flat unity! If you plug into a buffered pedal first, you can flip the switch to Line, which will be about 10db down. Then you should have plenty of headroom. If that makes your amp sims sound weak, look for the input gain on the plug or insert JS Volume before the sim.

I suspect the problem lies more with marketing than design? They are terrified that someone with the wimpiest Strat copy will not be able to blow past 0dBu . The result is of course even modestly decent pickups can clip.

Dave.

 

[ashcat_lt]

I suspect the problem lies more with marketing than design? They are terrified that someone with the wimpiest Strat copy will not be able to blow past 0dBu . The result is of course even modestly decent pickups can clip.

Dave.

Yep, I'm sure that's the case. It's stupid, but... It's complicated somewhat by the fact that the folks who write amp sims refuse to give us any meaningful information re: their input calibration. I know I've mentioned it before, but they're still not helping and it still bugs me.

OTOH - If you're going into a dirtyish amp sim, the little bit of opamp clipping you get from hitting the interface too hard doesn't actually make much noticeable difference. After all, isn't most of the point of such hot pickups to distort something?