Poor quality through usb soundcard and preamp

[Sim Y]

I have my (active) semi-acoustic guitar plugged into the line in of a Behringer mic800 preamp, the output is plugged into a Behringer uca222 USB souncard and the uca222 is plugged into the usb port of my computer. I've tried using cool edit pro and other DAW's to record but the sound seems poor quality with quite a bit of background hiss.

What seems strange is the fact that it records the same level and quality even if I have everything on the mic800 down to zero and my guitar output volume on zero too. The battery light is not on on the guitar but when I plug the guitar directly into the aux of a hifi and play directly through the hifi and speakers, it is on and as clear as a bell, I tried with phantom power on just in case that would work, but no.

Is there any chance my crappy laptop soundcard is overriding my usb one?
I did have some problems with midi at first because of the spdif interface.

Please help...

HP DV9000 laptop
AMD Turion 2GHz X2
3GB RAM
Connexant High Definition SmartAudio 221
Behringer mic800
Behringer uca222

 

[Jeff_D]

Little more info, and I think we can figure this out. What type of cables do you have connected from each piece of gear to the next?

Also, you don't mention a DI box... do you have one?

Also again... do you have a microphone? That might help us to test/narrow things down if you can mic it up your guitar with the same preamp and usb interface...

 

[Sim Y]

I'm not too sure about the specs of my cables but from my guitar i have balanced quarter inch trs plugs into the mic800 then same again out to phono rca into the uca222 then usb into the computer.

I don't have a DI box, I wasn't aware of them until I just looked them up!

I do have a mic, it's just a cheap dynamic, that I have tried to use for simple vocals but it produces the same results as the guitar.

 

[commanda]

I have seen sockets on guitars wired up as Tip = signal & Ring = ground (my First Act Lola electric.) Use a balanced TRS lead into something that doesn't match, and it doesn't work. Try a proper TS mono unbalanced guitar lead.

This may or may not be your problem, but it caught me out.

Amanda

 

[Sim Y]

thanks Amanda, but I just checked and it is the same balanced setup that i tried directly into my hifi and it plays fine through the speakers. Thanks anyway, though I'm open to try anything

 

[Jeff_D]

Amanda has a good point- if you have a normal tip/sleeve guitar cable, try it so we can rule it out. With a trs cable, if the lead plugged into the guitar is touching the sleeve and the other end into the preamp is touching the ring, then that would create a problem.

Also, I'm not sure how your preamp is wired, but it may be that the gain knob on the preamp only affects the mic input. I really doubt that the output signal coming out of your guitar is line level- its probably much lower then line level, which might lead to to crank the output level just to get anything out of it. To be honest with you, I almost never plug an instrument directly into my mixer/preamp the way you are trying, so I'm not sure. if thats the case or not. If this is the problem, then I beleive the solution would be a DI box (If you are anywhere around Cincinnati, OH, I have one you can borrow to try ). I don't even own an electric acoustic, so I'm really just trying to *think* my way through this

If you have a mic, it would be good to stick a mic in front of your guitar, plugged into the preamp and routed into the usb interface- that way we can rule out the interface and preamp...