Question about setup

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musicman9434

New member
Hi all!

I have a Mexican Fender Strat hss. The pickups are extremely noisy especially the humbucker. I don't use an amp these days to record so I am using Guitar Rig4 for my amping, and I use headphones only. Where I live I kinda have too.....sucks but thats where Im at with that. Anyway, I had a couple of questions about my hardware setup....I am going from the guitar to a Rapco passive DI, then out of the lowz output to my Presonus TubePre mic/xlr in (I think the preamp is a DI as well but it seems if I go straight in because of the higher output of those pickups its too much signal.) From there I take the line out and go into the line in on my mbox2 (running pro tools le 8). SO....is this best configuration for what I have? I have been reading about DI boxes and I didn't realize how important they are...mine is pretty cheap, and there is a ground lift 1/4 inch jack. All the ones I have been reading about have buttons not jacks....so I have never understood how to connect/use this feature.....what do you guys think?
 
There can't possibly be a ground loop unless you're connecting the DI to two different destinations. The ground lift is there for the fairly common practice of plugging into the recording chain AND an amp to listen through, though it might help in any instance where you are splitting the signal at the DI and you end up with ground loop hum.

You don't have ground loop hum, but you haven't really described the noise at all. Is it a buzz, a hum, a hiss? Does it change in level when you turn the knobs on the guitar, or move the guitar around in the room, or touch the strings/bridge, or touch the pole-pieces on the pickups (without touching the strings), or change cables, or...???

Without any of that information, there is no diagnosis. I can say, though, that a typical passive guitar signal can be expected to sit a little bit lower than nominal line level. The DI steps that down by quite a hefty amount, requiring far more gain from the preamp to get it back up to line level than you might otherwise need. If there is noise being picked up somewhere between the DI and the pre - including the preamp's self noise - you'll end up turning that up along with the actual signal you want to hear. As much as it is standard practice, and generally convenient, I have begun to advise against passive DI for this sort of thing. Most of the time you'll get better results by buffering the signal (a non-true-bypass pedal from Boss, DOD, etc...) and running it into a line input.

...but some of what you've said sounds like you may have a wiring issue internal to the guitar itself, or at least need some shielding. More info, please!
 
Well, it just seems to give off a ton of hiss when it (meaning the signal) comes out of Guitar Rig4 in Pro Tools. It is inherent noise produced when the amp is amping I get that from having amps for years....it just seems to be 'rather excessive, especially when there is allot of distortion or overdrive....I always just chalked it up to a really noisy humbucker, like "Well that's what you get for not buying an American Srtat!" lol So lately I have been reading up on various stuff and I kinda got back into this again....is it a configuration thing? Is it a "cheap pickup" thing? Or software related.....you can kinda make yourself nuts with this stuff! lol
 
A noisy pickup usually sounds more like 60 (or 50) cycle hum or buzzing. Broadband, white, or hissing noise sounds more like thermal noise or something, like that thing I mentioned with the self-noise of the preamp.

Having not heard it, I will refer you to my third paragraph above. You are taking a signal which isn't really loud enough to begin with, turning it down, adding noise, and then turning it all back up. If you stop turning the thing down (with the passive DI), you'll still be adding noise, but you won't have to turn it all back up, so the noise will be lower in comparison to the desired guitar signal. Dig?

Do you have a Boss, DOD, Digitech, etc pedal? Plug your guitar into it, and the output to a Line Input on your interface. The pedal needs a battery or power supply, but doesn't have to be on. See if that helps. If it's much worse somehow... We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
 
Yea not only do I not have one I have actually never heard of one of those (non true bypass pedal)...I would have to get one right?
 
Well, really any pedal that doesn't specifically say "True Bypass" on it is most likely non-true-bypass. It's kind of a selling point, and the manufacturer will let you know if it's actually TB. Most Boss, DOD, Digitech, Behringer, and other "big name" pedals will work.

Are you saying you have no pedals at all? Do you know anybody you could borrow something from, just for the sake of science?
 
Ok just so that I'm clear....cause I went to guitar center and yea they had heard of a true bypass but not a NON true bypass....so you mean any stomp/rack pedal right? I have a pawn shop across from me. I'm sure they would have something.

OH YEA....by the way, I have just discovered delay compensation. I have PT le 8. I't doesn't have ADC so I looked up how to do it manually and using the TimeAdjuster plug-in. It works, but I have a quick question. Seems rather obvious but I just want to be sure before I go potentially wasting more time. So all the tracks need to be delayed by the same amount as the track with the most dealy correct? So if one track is lets say delayed by 10 samples and the rest are at zero then the rest of the tracks need to be set to 10 samples in TimeAdjuster on each of the other tracks right? But what if I have multiple tracks with delay and the track with 10 samples is the highest. So lets say out of my 4 tracks, track 1 is at 10. Track 2 is at 0, track 3 is at 2 samples delay and track 4 is at 8 samples delay. So that means that track 2 needs to be set at 10 samples in TimeAdjuster track 3 needs to be set at 8 so that the total delay is 10 samples and track 4 set to 2 samples in TimeAdjuster right?
 
My guess is you are getting noise from all those devices in line. Have you tried just plugging the guitar directly into the M box (I assume is has an instrument input). If it doesn't go DI to it.
 
Yea I have tried going straight to the box and it has removed allot of the hiss. Still haven't tried the stomp box suggestion yet though.
 
musicman9434 said:
Yea I have tried going straight to the box and it has removed allot of the hiss. Still haven't tried the stomp box suggestion yet though.
Click to expand...

Don't, you don't need to. Just go straight to the mbox. If you're gonna use sims, the less shit in your chain, the better.
 
So, guys, to sum up...

He tried the "Instrument" input. A lot of these add gain, and in his case it was too much, causing it to clip.

So he tried a passive DI, which attenuated the signal, and added noise which was amplified when he gained it back up.

So now I'm suggesting he try a unity-gain buffer into a Line Input in order to show his guitar a high impedance and sort of split the difference gain-wise.

Since he's already tried your suggestions do you mind if he just tries mine? I guess I didn't expect that it would require any kind of purchase. Who the fuck doesn't have pedals?

As for delay compensation: My DAW does that for me. If yours doesn't, you need a to find a new one!
 
ashcat_lt said:
So, guys, to sum up...

He tried the "Instrument" input. A lot of these add gain, and in his case it was too much, causing it to clip.

So he tried a passive DI, which attenuated the signal, and added noise which was amplified when he gained it back up.

So now I'm suggesting he try a unity-gain buffer into a Line Input in order to show his guitar a high impedance and sort of split the difference gain-wise.

Since he's already tried your suggestions do you mind if he just tries mine? I guess I didn't expect that it would require any kind of purchase. Who the fuck doesn't have pedals?

As for delay compensation: My DAW does that for me. If yours doesn't, you need a to find a new one!
Click to expand...

No need for butthurt. Relax. The mbox has a dedicated DI input. Plugging something like a guitar straight into it is what that input is for. Calm down.
 
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