Recording Interface or Pickups for better Sound?

T

Tynted

New member
Hello there,

I'm very new to recording and everything, so sorry if this is a common question or in the wrong section. Preliminary searches didn't really find me anything, though. Anyway, to begin, here's my setup and usages. First, I play almost entirely metal or rock, and I use a Line 6 Guitar Port (not the XT or GX, just the standard) to connect my guitars to my computer. I use the onboard audio on my motherboard for my sound processing (which does a damn good job on video game sound, I would say; unsure about guitar sound processing.) I use Guitar Rig 5 for my guitar tones. For my main guitar I use an ESP LTD EC-200QM with LH-301 passive pups.

Now, onto the main point of my post: I am unhappy with the sound quality I get when recording with Guitar Rig. I like to do song covers (just for fun to show friends) where I just play along with the song, but oftentimes the result of my recorded guitar comes out muddy sounding and has a lot of noise along with it. It's worse than what I hear when the sound is processed live (presumably because it's compressed) and it makes it really hard to make my covers actually sound good.

So, I'm unsure as to what would help me cure this problem the best. My guitar has some rather shitty pickups in it, but they don't sound THAT bad (not that good either) when I play 'em live through my speakers. So, would changing the pickups in my guitar to, say, Duncan Distortion and a SH-2 Jazz help this sound issue?

OR, should I go with a better audio interface? The Line 6 POD UX1 and UX2 are pretty popular I've seen. Or is my problem that I need to record with a better recording program (such as FL Studio with Guitar Rig 5 as a Plug-In) and do some optimization to my recording process? I am a college student on a tight budget, so I want the biggest bang for my buck on whatever I choose to upgrade.

Sorry for my somewhat long-winded post, but I wanted to cover all my bases to avoid lots of questions. Thanks a bunch for responses and help in advance!!
 
For a start, you need to understand how your computer is working. When you use the Guitarport, it becomes the input sound device for your computer. Your built-in soundcard is probably the output sound device (speakers/headphones hooked to it). Getting a different interface, (Pod, or a real audio interface) is unlikely to make your sound noticeably better.
The best electric guitar tones are going to come from a guitar plugged into an amp (then mic the amp, or use it's DI output, if you must).
I've never used GuitarRig for recording, but I know others think the sounds when its used as a plugin are ok.
 
I don't fully understand your recording process. Are you using Guitar Rig just by itself outside of a DAW? The successful use of guitar sim software, just like with a real amp, simply comes down to the user. A good player with good ear for the tone they want could get great tracks with either method. The good thing about sims is that they typically don't care that much what kind of pickups you use or if your strings are old. Their sound is mathematically going to be a certain way, and while you have some control, things like pickups don't affect the end result with a sim like they would with a real amp. A humbucker sounds like a humbucker through a sim. The difference between say a Classic 57 and some hot metal job won't be really noticeable. So if your tracks are bad, it's probably your own fault. If you want to mix your own guitar tracks into an existing song, I'd think it would be best to bring the original track into a DAW and record your guitar tracks along to it using a sim as a plug-in. Then mix accordingly. It will probably never sound like you are "in the mix" with the rest of the band, but it shouldn't be "muddy".
 
Hi Greg,

EDIT: Yes, I'm using Guitar Rig by itself outside of a DAW to record guitar tracks alone, Greg.

So, for my recording process currently, I use Guitar Rig 5 alone. It has a "Tapedeck" in the interface, which records my guitar sound. I can either choose the sound to be recorded raw (with no effects applied, so it basically sounds like a clean guitar.) The purpose of this is so you can go back and see how something sounds with different effects applied to it. I don't use this method, however.

I use the Post Tapedeck, which records my sound with all effects that I'm using. Now, as far as my recorded sound goes, my recordings literally just sound worse than they do when they come out live. For instance, if I were to play one simple note and record it, it would sound pretty good when I PLAY it. However, when I play back the recorded note, it sounds much more compressed and "muddy" to me. I recently did a dual cover of a song with a friend and recorded this way, and it sounded pretty damn good when we both played it with the song, but when I took the recorded audio and paired it up with the song and edited it in Sony Vegas, we sounded like complete shit.

Now, this Tapedeck feature is not meant for HQ audio recording, I know that. It's meant for quickly taking down ideas and saving them or creating backing tracks real quick. So, I'm now wondering this: Should I play around with the settings of my amp selections in guitar rig more to get a much better sounding tone out of it as well as the Tapedeck itself? Or will a full-fledged DAW like FL Studio more likely help my recording issue? There are very few settings in Guitar Rig for adjusting the tapedeck's recording, I believe, although I will investigate this further.

Thanks again for your replies!
 
i would stay away from guitar rig. i have had a lot better results with things like pod farm from line 6 even the software that comes free with there products are better than any guitar rig software free or pro that i have used.

see if you are allowed to use the pod farm software with your guitar port you may find you get better results.
 
Guitar Rig 5 does not have incredibly nice tones. Same with Amplitube 3. You can fork out all the money for the vintage amp setups, but for my money, saving up for real guitars and amps would give you more options over the longer term.

Lot's of noise and tones that I had difficulty removing from the sound.

Guitar Rig 5 and Amplitube 3's main advantage is how it presents as an audio-visual tool for guitarists who want to look at various recording configurations involving amps, cabinets and mikes. A really nice interface for effects processing and visualising the recording process.

Have been using this to get the guitar live into the mix:

ABLETON Live Lite

That could be worth a look.....
 
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