S
seagull
New member
Hi there,
I’m trying to build my first studio at the moment, and have most of my purchases worked out, but recording guitar is proving to be a sticking point. I apologise in advance for the length of this post, and any stupid questions. All my knowledge is gathered from many hours of forum-reading, so it is patchy.
My first question is about – have a guess - latency (more specifically, wanting to hear my playing with effects while tracking with as close to no latency as possible, using some form of direct monitoring). I don’t need to hear the perfect tone, but I would like a rough approximation, just to get the right feel while preferably recording a dry signal. I’ve looked into a number of options and they’re starting to make my noob head spin a little. Please let me know if any of these are blind alleys:
1) An audio interface with direct monitoring and onboard DSP. It seems as though effects/processing on these are quite limited, mostly EQ, compression etc., and I’m not sure if they’ll all allow me to record a dry signal (so I can manipulate my tone from scratch in a software sim). Any input appreciated if you play guitar and have an interface like this, especially if you don’t always go for a clean tone. Are these effects enough for tracking in your experience?
2) Using a hardware amp sim – if I could monitor directly from the sim and have the option of recording dry at the same time - although I don’t know if this is possible with many (or any) of them.
3) Using a DI box to split the signal so I can record direct into my interface whilst listening to my (real) amp. I know some people split their signal so they can mic their amp as well and mix the two – I’m really just wanting to hear the amp’s effects, not record them. Before any purists get upset, I’ll try micing up the amp at some point as well! I have read that splitting the signal can weaken it somehow though – is this something that could be a problem? And if so, could I link an output on an audio interface to my amp and monitor that way?
4) Same as above, splitting the signal but using a mixer to do it, creating a mix that I can hear through my headphones while I record dry. But I’m still somewhat confused by all the different uses of mixers and I don’t know if guitar effects can be added in this way – from what I gather so far it doesn’t really seem to be what most mixers are primarily geared towards, so I’m not sure if this would be barking up the wrong tree.
So those are the latency vs. effects worries. My other concern is that, with the kind of music I play (often quite an abrasive guitar tone with a lot of high-end – on a Squier Strat for what it’s worth), I don’t know if plugging my instrument directly into a Hi-Z input is really going to be adequate, having seen a lot of complaints about clipping on a number of Focusrite interfaces I was looking at. Would a DI box cut through these issues, or would this be another potential source of latency (esp if using a hardware amp sim or mixer at the same time. Or do these remove the need for a DI box? Argh!)
Thanks if you’ve read this far! If anyone could tell me which of these options they think is best – or if there’s another way entirely, that would be great. My budget is not precise – a few hundred £’s, so basically mid-range products, if you have any recommendations.
I’m trying to build my first studio at the moment, and have most of my purchases worked out, but recording guitar is proving to be a sticking point. I apologise in advance for the length of this post, and any stupid questions. All my knowledge is gathered from many hours of forum-reading, so it is patchy.
My first question is about – have a guess - latency (more specifically, wanting to hear my playing with effects while tracking with as close to no latency as possible, using some form of direct monitoring). I don’t need to hear the perfect tone, but I would like a rough approximation, just to get the right feel while preferably recording a dry signal. I’ve looked into a number of options and they’re starting to make my noob head spin a little. Please let me know if any of these are blind alleys:
1) An audio interface with direct monitoring and onboard DSP. It seems as though effects/processing on these are quite limited, mostly EQ, compression etc., and I’m not sure if they’ll all allow me to record a dry signal (so I can manipulate my tone from scratch in a software sim). Any input appreciated if you play guitar and have an interface like this, especially if you don’t always go for a clean tone. Are these effects enough for tracking in your experience?
2) Using a hardware amp sim – if I could monitor directly from the sim and have the option of recording dry at the same time - although I don’t know if this is possible with many (or any) of them.
3) Using a DI box to split the signal so I can record direct into my interface whilst listening to my (real) amp. I know some people split their signal so they can mic their amp as well and mix the two – I’m really just wanting to hear the amp’s effects, not record them. Before any purists get upset, I’ll try micing up the amp at some point as well! I have read that splitting the signal can weaken it somehow though – is this something that could be a problem? And if so, could I link an output on an audio interface to my amp and monitor that way?
4) Same as above, splitting the signal but using a mixer to do it, creating a mix that I can hear through my headphones while I record dry. But I’m still somewhat confused by all the different uses of mixers and I don’t know if guitar effects can be added in this way – from what I gather so far it doesn’t really seem to be what most mixers are primarily geared towards, so I’m not sure if this would be barking up the wrong tree.
So those are the latency vs. effects worries. My other concern is that, with the kind of music I play (often quite an abrasive guitar tone with a lot of high-end – on a Squier Strat for what it’s worth), I don’t know if plugging my instrument directly into a Hi-Z input is really going to be adequate, having seen a lot of complaints about clipping on a number of Focusrite interfaces I was looking at. Would a DI box cut through these issues, or would this be another potential source of latency (esp if using a hardware amp sim or mixer at the same time. Or do these remove the need for a DI box? Argh!)
Thanks if you’ve read this far! If anyone could tell me which of these options they think is best – or if there’s another way entirely, that would be great. My budget is not precise – a few hundred £’s, so basically mid-range products, if you have any recommendations.
