Help, I need somebody's help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Burgos
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Burgos

New member
First, please forgive whatever wrongs I'm committing by posting here and not there. I'm new to threads and forums and I see from my searches, people get agitated for some reason. I just need help with my absurdly simply set up.

Garageband/Audiobox USB audio interface/vocals and acoustic guitar

I can record vocals just fine so I fell my set up is correct...input and output through the interface, headphones work, volumes are appropriate...but I cannot get GB to record my acoustic guitar and it's driving me insane. When plugged in, I hear hums and intermittent crackles but when I play I don't hear it in the cans. I don't see a wave forming when I record and when I stop, there's nothing. It won't give me anything and I'm stumped. I can use a microphone and record that way but I want to go direct. Can anyone out there help me, please??

Thanks
 
Im a little stumped myself. You say an acoustic guitar, but you dont want to mic it? Does it have a pickup or a mic built in?
 
1) The guitar plays as it should hooked to an amplifier with the same cord?
2) If yes, then when plugged into the interface and the gain all the way up, anything on the clip light?

Im assuming a 2X2 interface, but they are all about the same.
 
It is a 2 x2 and I never had the interface turned all the way up...is that normal, to put it all the way on 11? I just did and now it actually recorded...I see the wave pattern on the track but playback is intermittent and it's distorted and choppy.
 
Is the gain on the guitar turned up?

Does the guitar play through an amp as it should? (as mdainsd asked)
 
jigfresh said:
Is the gain on the guitar turned up?

Does the guitar play through an amp as it should? (as mdainsd asked)
Click to expand...

Sorry, yes, it does. Here's a new wrinkle. I just tried my wife's laptop...it's an old Macbook running OS X - 10.6.8 and using the old Garageband 6.0.5. I plugged in the same interface, using the same cables and guitar records perfectly. Vocals didn't come through in stereo but I would assume there's some setting to tweak or something. In any event, if it works on the old laptop with the old GB, the culprit must be the new iMac or the new GB. Which, I find so hard to swallow since this computer is quite expensive and Apple is supposed to make everything easy.
 
"Vocals didn't come through in stereo" - I know it's not what you're worried about at the moment, but a normal microphone won't give you "stereo" vocals, so there's something else here you're not understanding.

And, perhaps try miking your guitar instead of using the pickup - second thing you don't want to hear right now.

The culprit won't be the computer, the culprit will probably be you doing something that's not working or correct - that's the way it usually works out. Start your problem solving from that point of view and things get easier.

Does your interface understand that you're sending it a line signal, rather than a mic signal?

Does your Garage Band understand that it's meant to be talking to your interface - ie. in whatever sound source settings you have do you see the name and model of your interface, and not something else?

Have you tried both channels of your interface, assuming it has more than one?

Have you tried a different lead from your guitar?
 
Yeah. He didnt say what OS his machine has, His wife's is 10.6 so its Snow Leopard. Thats what I have on my MBP and when running GB Im using GB 11.
 
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