question about recording guitar....

  • Thread starter Thread starter MightyPOOsticK
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MightyPOOsticK

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Ok heres what I have:

sb live soundcard
guitar(of course =P)
fender frontman amp
shure pg57 microphone
little adapter thingy (goes from big plug to little headphone plug)*
digitech rp100

Well I've been recording my playing and whatnot and the sound quality is horrible. I set the microphone up to the amp and the microphone runs to my microphone input jack. When I play it pretty much sounds like a big wall of fuzz (even with lowish ditortion on my pedal). I tried using my crappy computer microphone and I thought it sounded better than the pg57 mic. Is there someway I can configure my set up to get a better sound quality? Any suggestions will be helpful.

Thank you.

btw On the mic im using a XLR to 1/4 adapter then I use another adapter to plug into my sound card. Does that effect my sound much?

*I'm a moron.
 
So your taking the SM57 straight into the SB live. Have you tried the RP100 into the SB? You might get much better results than the SM57. The SB Live is consumer gaming card not a recording card. If you can swing it get something like an Echo Mia. That would be a good starting point but at one time I was where you are now and I've ended up with a mixer, delta 1010, preamps, mic's etc etc...It never ends!

MightyPOOsticK do some searches here and spend some time reading through previous post's. There is a wealth of information on this BBS.

Happy reading! :)
 
If the adapter is not an impedence matching adapter, that's part of your problem. That's why your computer mic is sounding better than the Shure.

You need a pre-amp to plug your mic into and skip the adapter. Plug the out of the pre- into your line-in jack on the soundcard.
 
I tried plugging going from my rp100 to the adapter (1/4 inch to 3.5 mm) to my line in. It sounded horrible, wasn't loud at all, and sound only came out on the left side (no it not panned left either). If I get a pre-amp what exactly will it do? I would still have to run it thru the adapter to my soundcard. Thanks very much for the help.

-Paul
 
Sennheiser is right. Impedance problem.

You'll need some type of preamp/mixer for the mic and a line-out to your soundcard, or a new soundcard that uses impedance matching adapters.

BTW, the preamp will give you a louder, cleaner signal. (oversimplified, but that's what it will do for you ;))
 
Sounds to me like you are plugging in a mono plug into a stereo jack. That's why you're only getting sound on the left channel with no panning.

In communitaions an adapter or other insertion into a signal chain in the RF range will generally lower your gain by 3db. I don't think it will effect audio very much if the cords are short.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with what an RP100 is. Maybe someone else can shed some light?
 
The RP 100 is a guitar effects processor. You won't have a lot of luck using that with a mic unless you're after some kind of lo fi effect. A mic preamp of any kind would be an immediate improvement for you. And Sennheiser is more than likely correct in your panning issue.
 
you shouldn't use your MIC IN ever. simply because the preamp is terrible.

a pre-amp is just something that boosts a microphone's (or anything else i suppose) signal, so you can hear it.

so get a pre-amp for your mic. then:
mic into preamp.
preamp out to line in on soundcard.
(you may have to get an adapter to take the L and R outs to one single out, so you can plug it into your computer if you have, for example, a mixer for use as a preamp.)

mics record in MONO! all of em! you can't record in stereo without TWO or MORE mics!

so, you'll have one track of guitar on your system after you follow that, and it should be panned right down the middle. Or, if you missed something in your chain somewhere with all this stereo mono stuff...perhaps you'll have a stereo track, still panned right down the middle. whatever the case - it'll be on your computer by now.haha.

a trick we all use in recording is to record at elast 2 distorted guitar tracks, and pan them close to hard left, and the same to the right. This makes your guitars SOUND like they were recorded a lot better! yet, in reality they were not. try it out, and you'll know what i mean.
 
Wow thank you so much for the replies. It obviously looks like im gonna need a pre-amp. Any suggestions on good pre-amps that aren't too terribly hard on the pocket? Thanks alot.
 
depends what you want to spend. in all reality, the LOWEST THING IN YOUR CHAIN sets the quality.
now after you get a preamp, the lowest thing in your chain i'd say would be your soundcard.

read this thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69266

so, if you are keeping your SB, no need for a hi end preamp at all. however, take a loot at ebay, there are some probably for really cheap. i mean, you can even get the cheapest beringer mixer for about 70 bucks now i think, new.

so you just gotta make some decisions...
mixer or JUST preamp?
will i ever be upgrading to better mics/soundcard/etc.?
do i want to invest this much money?
will i ever be recording more then one instrument at once?
will i want FULL CONTROL over each instrument i've recorded after its been recorded, yet still record simultaneously?

lol, good luck.
 
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