Need help setting up guitar to Focusrite Saffire 6 USB

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan.
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Dan.

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I'm a complete noob when it comes to this stuff; I'm just beginning to record music and my brother bought the Focusrite Saffire 6 USB a while back.

I want to use it to record guitar, piano and eventually vocals to GarageBand. Using the Midi USB I am able to plug it into my keyboard and into my MacBook and record anything how I want perfectly, so that isn't a problem. It's recording the guitar. I have a standard cable connecting the guitar to the first hole, and then both the USB slot and the MIDI slot for the keyboard connected to my MacBook. I installed the disc online and also the disc that comes with the bass amp. In GarageBand it seems like it recognizes that I have the guitar plugged in, but I can't get a sound and it records nothing, and on the Focusrite the USB symbol is lit up but not the MIDI In, if that means anything.

Do I somehow have to tell GarageBand that I want to switch from keyboard to guitar? I'm assuming I'm supposed to be using the guitar as a Software Instrument and not Electric Guitar, because the Electric Guitar one sounds bad, there's a lot of feedback, etc.

Can anyone help me out, and remember I'm new to this stuff so I don't even know what DAW is or any of that.

Thanks
 
I got it working. The problem was I didn't install the plugin part off of the disc. Now my problem is is that the guitar sounds like crap. Any tips on how to get it to sound decent for starters?
 
Go to KVR.com and search for free Macintosh compatible guitar amp simulators. You do this by entering the 'Search' area and filling out the drop-down form. My cursory search produced results from companies like LePou Plugins, Ignite Amps and Aura Plug so there are many out there. If you can't figure out how to get into the 'Search' just enter those three names in the 'Developer' blank. Good Luck!
 
Thanks for the reply ssscientist.

The bad luck and problems for me are nonstop now. First of all, the only consistent thing working through the Focusrite to GarageBand is my Yamaha keyboard using a Midi chord or whatever. That always works.

Now here's a weird issue. For both my microphone and guitar I'm using through the Midi, I got them both to work perfectly once in GarageBand (on different days for each), and then after that one time neither have worked again since. The thing that was preventing the mic from working in the first place was that I didn't have the 48V switch on (noob mistakes like these are common for me because my brother bought all of this equipment and I'm just learning it now because I want to record music).

I don't understand this though. How can I have them both working (on a different day for each), and then not having changed anything, the next day neither the mic nor guitar would work? I didn't change anything. Can anyone help?
 
Good!

Stick with it and don't get discouraged --- similar (or not so similar) problems will crop up from time to time. Take time to REALLY solve them. Don't just stop when you've found a 'workaround'...
 
Yeah, I agree. Sometimes it's frustrating, but it's all worth it when you get to make music.
 
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