USB/Firewire or am I the problem?

[sandler]

First of all, a big thanks to this site and it's contributors. It provides a sea of knowledge.

Well I wrote a fairly long winded question last night, but it never was posted. I've tried using the audiobuddy, audigy 2ZS soundcard (notebook), and various other little tweaks to get a good guitar signal...uncompromised. All attemps have failed and were expecially depressing on the heavy distortion tracks. In addition, the bass suffers.

I am using a laptop w/ 1.25 GB of Ram (Pentium 4 3.2 GHZ) I recently purchased a V-AMP2 (runs and hides under table) and cannot get a realistic or similar sound to what I'm hearing through headphones on track. This is not the first time I've been let down. I've tried to direct line many different guitars/amps....to no avail.

My question is this, would firewire w/ mixing board cure this problem or even make it less of an issue? Now, I know how much many of you absolutely hate Behringer, but I'm wondering. If I pick up their new firewire device and a small mixer will it help at all? I have a limited budget so I'm looking at either a Behringer combo or something that is similar but more limited from other manufacturers.

btw, the audiobuddy pooped out on me after about two months of use so I'm not exactly thrilled with M-Audio.

 

[apl]

I hate to be so frank, but chances are your recording techniques are more of a problem than equipment. The differences in most equipment, include what you list, is very subtle.

Recording distorted electric guitar is trickier than it would appear. Your ear hears something totally different than what the mic does. You might wanna try recording direct. I use a Digitech RP50 and a Line 6 Spider amp and get workable results.

 

[sandler]

no problem

Nothing wrong with being honest apl. I am currently direct lining everything and realize the struggle of getting the desired sound on track. The most visible problem, which I can see, is a constant, thick, waveform with little to no variation. Even when I edit out background noise, hiss, and pop...it's still ridiculously poor quality. I'm just wondering if the signal would be sent better, NOTICEABLY better, through firewire w/ mixer. It would also give me a chance to adjust levels before I fail at recording distorted guitar once again.

I'm not a big fan of software efx, but maybe that's the way to go?

 

[apl]

I am currently direct lining everything and realize the struggle of getting the desired sound on track. The most visible problem, which I can see, is a constant, thick, waveform with little to no variation.

Distorted guitars are very heavily compressed, so that's what it'll probably look like. Are you overloading your inputs? If you're running direct, you should hear the guitar as you're recording. Are you happy with that sound?

Maybve you could tell us a little about your setup.

 

[sandler]

good question

My setup just changed as of 5am this morning. I've engaged myself in a rather brutal and extensive research project on this issue and others...to the near point of compulsive disorder.

After looking at diagrams on how to properly setup equipment, I admit, I probably had some things wrong. Most importantly, the frequency setups and output settings such as mids, highs, lows, efx, and gain. Add to that a mixture of questionable adapters and I think we've pinpointed several problems.

My line in is never stable. That is the main reason I picked up the firewire hardware. It's either crackly or the volume jumps inconsistently. Also, I realize that I'm eventually going to want to mic an amp, connect my keyboard, and fine tune my bass sound. For these reasons I picked up a mixer. I don't sing well, but simply having the option to connect my Shure to a mixer and tweak the sound interests me.

I've been working with computer recording for only six months and figured it's time to get some hardware which provides tighter control. When I get the equipment properly setup, I'll post some feedback.

Thanks for the response apl. I've been checkng back often. This board has become a second home.

 

[apl]

What kind of soundcard are you using? What equipment are you running the guitar through?

 

[sandler]

I was running guitar and vocals through audiobuddy to audigy 2ZS Notebook Soundcard. I still received a somewhat poor crackly signal/recording similar to my factory installed soundcard (headphone monitoring sounded completely different). Recently, I tried running the V-AMP 2 through both the audiobuddy and soundcard and the results were still disappointing. Like I said earlier, the audiobuddy is pooping out on me. It works when it wants, and is actually nice to use for vocals/bass.

I'm in the process of changing the setup, but won't be able to do so for a couple days.

 

[Zeeb]

You might want to try a VST plug-in for a guitar amp/effects simulator. If you use VSTs, then you have the guitar recorded clean and you can change it later. I like the Warp VST for guitar, but there are lots of others. Or try a regular distortion pedal. Reverb and all is in software anyway. You have enough processing power to go entirely software with a 3.2 Ghz P4.

And I have a Bass V-AMP that's ok to use to practice with a drum machine, but recording.... I think it is mostly for playing live. I believe if you set it up for recording by pressing the B and D buttons(configuration), it puts out the processed stuff to the amp and clean to the recorder or other options. There is some stuff about recording in the manual.

I also doubt a cheap firewire or USB sound card could beat a PCMCIA audigy 2ZS with ASIO 2.0 drivers. That's like having a PCI card. What software are you recording with? 3.2 Ghz P4 and a 2ZS.....should run smooth as all hell or get your money back.

 

[sandler]

thanks zeeb

Alot of good info there Zeeb.

I chose firewire because I trust it more. I do some video stuff also and have had a lot of luck with it. My line in on both the factory soundcard and the audigy has been less than reliable.

I'm using audition 1.5 for recording. The program has been goof for vocals, bass, and keyboard (with the exception of the crackling). Something along the chain fails miserably with guitar.

I guess my main question is this: Is it possible to get a bright deep sound going through a DI? Or should I plan on mic-ing for now on?

 

[sandler]

Just an update

Not that many care, but I thought I'd post an update because a few have similar concerns.

After contacting a recording tech who I believe can be trusted, I went ahead with my order of the firewire card and mixer. He told me that for gaming the audigy is a great card. Furthermore, for preamping a mic the audiobuddy works very well. However, for computer recording the combination of both wasn't a very good setup.

He recommended either a USB or firewire interface (while using a mixer for drum machine/keyboard/bass....which would be sufficient for entry level recording).

Well I haven't been back for awhile because I'm having a blast. The results are significantly better. Plugging my V-AMP 2 directly into the soundcard (bypassing the mixer) nearly solves all previous problems with sound. My bass and keyboard tracks sound alot brighter and livelier.

Thanks to all who responded. I appreciate it.

 

[apl]

So what did ya get?

 

[sandler]

I picked up the FCA202 and the UB1002FX. Both are Behringer products (my budget is tight and I'm just beginning). They both work very well for what I'm trying to do so I am happy with both purchases. One big difference is the ability to monitor in several different ways. That alone helped out tremendously. With that said, I also can hear improvements in sound transfer from device to device.

 

[dgatwood]

I also doubt a cheap firewire or USB sound card could beat a PCMCIA audigy 2ZS with ASIO 2.0 drivers. That's like having a PCI card.

Technically, it's CardBus, which means it isn't -like- a PCI card, it -is- a PCI card, just in a different form factor.

That said, it's also a SoundBlaster---a glorified gamer card---which basically nullifies any advantage that a direct hardware bus might provide.

I'm not at all surprised that moving to a better audio interface made a huge difference. While I'm not saying you shouldn't complain about the poor quality of your card---it very likely is defective---you'll probably be a lot happier having something a bit better to work with.

Just my $0.02.