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Kingofpain678

Kingofpain678

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ok so heres my crappy recording chain...
mixer > compressor > EQ > noise gate > V-amp (for effects and modeling) > interface

its all ins and outs, no side chains, no inserts, no effects loops...

and my problem is ive been basically been recording in mono even though im using both my left and right inputs on my interface my EQ and v-amp are both mono. so at the end of my signal chain is the vamp which has only one input, yet two outputs....

so heres my question. would it be better to run my signal as mixer > Compressor > gate > interface. and put the EQ and V-AMP in the effects loop on my mixer to keep my signal in true stereo? or is there a better way to do it?

i appreciate any help i might get with this problem as it has been really bugging me for a while now.
 
Kingofpain678 said:
so heres my question. would it be better to run my signal as mixer > Compressor > gate > interface. and put the EQ and V-AMP in the effects loop on my mixer to keep my signal in true stereo?
Click to expand...

Take a step back.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that's a neat thing to keep in mind when recording, i.e. remove as much as you can from the recording path between source and destination. The benefits are less noise, cleaner sound and (with luck) more satisfying results.

I started digital recording with an Isis sound card. This had eight inputs, but they were line level. So I coupled a mixer to these inputs, and plugged mikes, guitars, whatever, into the mixer. When I got my firewire interface, it had preamps, so I was able to plug mikes directly into the interface. But for quite a while I persisted with the mixer,even when there was no need to, because I was so used to doing it that way. But, in truth, the interface's preamps were better than the mixer's, and all I was doing was sacrificing quality and adding noise . . . out of habit.

So . . . the general rule would be: connect directly from the source to the interface if you can.

From what you describe, it sounds like you are recording guitar (because you use compressor, noise gate and V-amp).

If you are recording a guitar, the guitar produces a mono signal, and the only source of stereo is from the V-amp and the effects it produces. Think about going from guitar (mono) to V-amp (stereo) into two channels of the interface. If the compressor and noisegate are vital to the guitar sound, then put the gate before the compressor (the compressor will elevate low level sounds (including noise) and make a gate less efective.

If you are recording vocals, or miked instruments, see if you can dispense with mixer, gate and compressor, and go straight in to the interface.
 
ah but with my setup right now its more than a bit less convenient to have to unplug and plug everything back in everytime i wanna switch to recording guitar from recording vocals. especially since im not only using one room as a control room and studio room but recording heavily distorted guitars which can get pretty annoying in a recording without using a gate. and on top of that, im getting satisfactory results with the way im recording now (at least to my ears and my so called "clients" ears). the only reason i ask this question is because i thought it would be a good idea to take one guitar signal, split it, and send it to two different amps, i would then mic each amp up and pan them hard right and hard left and as you know this would be somewhat annoying to do since they would be mixed down to mono anyways which would make tweaking each track (left and right) impossible. even if this isnt a good idea i still want to be able to pan tracks as their being recorded using my mixer.

and again thanks for any help i get
 
Well you are never going to get a true stereo recording from a mono source (re: One guitar) .....

Why not do 2 seperate guitar tracks , one panned right and one panned left and maybe EQ each track a bit differently so it doesn"t have the same guitar sound comeing out the left and right ??

just a thought .....
 
Kingofpain678 said:
...v-amp are both mono. so at the end of my signal chain is the vamp which has only one input, yet two outputs.....
Click to expand...

If the V-Amp has a stereo chorus or ping pong delay, then it can put out a stereo signal. How are you tracking the v-amp in your daw?? One mono track? one stereo track? two mono tracks? You should be doing one stereo track or two mono tracks, and if you do two mono tracks, be sure to hard pan them left and right.

Kingofpain678 said:
ah but with my setup right now its more than a bit less convenient to have to unplug and plug everything back in everytime i wanna switch to recording guitar from recording vocals. especially since im not only using one room as a control room and studio room but recording heavily distorted guitars which can get pretty annoying in a recording without using a gate. and on top of that, im getting satisfactory results with the way im recording now (at least to my ears and my so called "clients" ears). the only reason i ask this question is because i thought it would be a good idea to take one guitar signal, split it, and send it to two different amps, i would then mic each amp up and pan them hard right and hard left and as you know this would be somewhat annoying to do since they would be mixed down to mono anyways which would make tweaking each track (left and right) impossible. even if this isnt a good idea i still want to be able to pan tracks as their being recorded using my mixer.

and again thanks for any help i get
Click to expand...

Are you running your vocals through the v-amp also??? Probably something you don't want to do. The v-amp is meant for guitars, not vocals.

I don't completely understand your signal chain. Are you saying that you want to mic two guitar amps> mixer> compression/eq/etc/ V-amp and then interface??? That seems weird. I think you have two better options. 1) Guitar>V-amp> two Guitar amps> two mics> mixer>Interface to a stereo track, or, 2) Guitar>V-Amp>Interface to a stereo track. Do all your eq'ing, compression, etc in your DAW rather than before the interface.


Personally, I use a Digitech modeler and option #2. Very easy, sounds great.
 
Oh, and +1 for what Minion said.... even if you get a stereo signal from your v-amp, it's better to record two separate takes on your guitar.
 
well im not actually using the v-amp for modeling anymore, i only use it for effects, it has a preamp bypass switch which basically means that the only way the signal is affected is if i have chorus, delay or any of the other effects on. my plan is to split the output of my guitar and send each signal to two different amps then i plan to mic each one up and while pan one amp hard left and the other amp hard right this way i can get two different sounds to work with in only one take.

and like i said before, while the v-amp has stereo output it only has mono input.
 
if youre worried about plugging and unplugging stuff all of the time, couldnt u just use a patch panel no make it less of a hassle?
 
i was waiting for it lol. im just looking for a simple answer though. i really dont feel like going out and buying a patch bay and learning to use it or pulling my desk out and unplugging everything and what not every time i wanna record something different.

im just wondering if plugging the v amp and eq into the effects input on my mixer is the best way to get a stereo recording using the equipment i already have...
 
What Gecko said. Shorten the signal chain. I like the idea of driving some amps with the output of the VAMP, and mic'ing them up. I drive amps with modelers frequently. Lose the noise gate, and use amps that don't hum.Add compression and EQ *in the box*. All that hardware up front makes tons of noise, unless it is top of the line gear, which I doubt in this case. The VAMP isn't a bad guitar preamp, really, but you can only take so much gear in the signal chain. Add all those effects afterwards, once you have a clean, digital signal. Good luck-Richie

P.S.- watch for phase issues if those two amps are in the same room. And try using a clean amp, like a PA.
 
my interface is an emu 1212m and im using mixcraft.

im also have an older version of sonar but i prefer mixcraft due to its simplicity
 
Try this: Run your V amp L/R to the IN L and R on the 1212m. In the PatchMix DSP: send each input to their respective positions (L/R). If you have spdif or adat out on any other outboard piece of equipment, you can use that as your second input.
Remember adat (in this case) gives you essentially four stereo pairs to work with. Unfortunately, you're probably relegated to only one pair as you would need a piece of equipment capable of outputting 8 channels. The only patchbay I have found with this capability is about $800.

gotta go
 

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Sorry, but my step-daughter was calling on skype, so I had to give up my wife's computer.
Anyway if you can afford a small piece of equipment that has spdif, that would probably do the trick. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck with what you have now and doin what the other guys have said.
 
idk there seems to be a mis-understanding. i must have worded it wrong, i always do that :(

but its ok. ill figure it out...
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse things. I thought the idea was to keep you from from having to go behind the comp every time you needed to change your input source.
I'm out. My fault.
 
no i appreciate the help, i really do. im happy that people take time out of their day to answer questions that i have.

i think its just that im not asking the right way (which is my downfall and which is usually what gets me kicked off of forums). i think i just need to be more clear with what i need help with... and for that i apologize.

thank you for your help though :D


although i do have one more question.... can anyone explain to me exactly what ADAT is and how it works??
 
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