I know this may seem like a run of the mill , i don't know what to do, you do it for me question ! but I assure you , its not . I've tried out almost everything else that i can think of. I recently purchased an Electric guitar (Pluto, cheap thing basically just to learn a bit) and i thought ill be a smartass and not buy the amp. Use my computer and a software amp to amplify the signal and yay .. saved 5 grand. But now it seems that the wretched thing just does not wish to work. I am using Amplitube 2 to amplify my guitar signal. I have tried using almost all kinds of cords , from both ends mono (connected to pink mic port) to both ends stereo (connected to blue line in port) , used passive adapters, but i dont get any sound in all but one case, wherein i use stereo cables and adapters and use the Line in port on my computer. Now here's the first question, i thought that the guitar provides mono output , so why am i only getting a working system going for a stereo cord. Secondly , even though i do get sound, it is heavily distorted, there is a crackling noise and the whole thing seems to be plagued by latency. I am getting desperate here , but i seriously don't want to buy a crappy amp as i don't have a lot of money to spare now are there any alternatives that anyone is aware of? EDIT : Ok , i read around and can see that the only real alternative that i have is getting an amp or an audio interface. Another reason i wanted to avoid an amp is because i wanted to be able to use the effect processing tools available with amplitube, so, new idea , what if i buy an ok amp and then run the ouput fro the amp through my computers mic or line in , then run that output through amplitube and use whatever effects i need. I am getting Kustom Sound 20 for like 1800 Rs here (I know nobody is a fan of Kustom sound neither am I , but i gotta buy something , my shiny new guitar is just sitting there!) Or if my previous idea is any good , i can go for the vox pocket amps and then run that output through my Computer. What say guys ?
great fallacies lie herein. if you are dead set on using your computer, buy an audio interface. basic ones from m-audio, line 6 and even behringer go for pretty cheap. an audio interface is fairly useful otherwise too. by doing either of the things you described above, you'll still be plagued with latency, and i'm quite sure that you'll have more noise than you did till now.
Re : flood Thanks for the response ! Actually , after i made this post i tried running the input through Audacity and was surprised to see that it makes 100% clear recordings, but when i tried to do a software playthrough, there was a significant Lag involved. So , it seems i will have to buy an interface. You mentioned that they are 'cheap' , its such a relative term , can you define cheap ? How much would a basic model go for ? Coz all the interfaces I saw were like 5k or something (which i consider anything but cheap )
Dude buy a 5.5 to 3.5 female to male converter/jack available at electronic shop for around Rs 25...then plug this into the microphone port in ur comp's soundcard at the back.go to programs/acces../entertainment/volume contrl and go to recording and select microphone/advances and select boost and set the vol and boost to max.now go to playback and make sure that microphone is not muted.now u;ll be able to hear ur guitar via the speakers. Download guitar pro and start playing(disadvantge is that no other program can use the sound driver when guitar pro is running). adjust the volume and boost so that there is no distortion. NOTE: the latency that u are experiencing or may experience is because ur CPU is not powerful enough. These softwares such as guitar pro and amplitude are CPU hungry.
5k for an interface is dirt cheap by any standards. i spent around 10k for my *very* basic presonus firebox. 30% discount on the actual price. ($300 for firebox + presonus comp16 as a free gift, the $ was around 52 back then).
Re @ Crusader : I tried the jack thing , but Mono jacks are not working for some reason and stereo jacks are giving noise or delay. Also, I doubt that my computer could be the problem, its a gaming rig with an i5 processor which i have overclocked and optimized . @ultrabot I was thinking of buying that thing myself, called up SB musicals y'day and they say that the toneports are out of stock , do u know any other shops that have good online purchasing options ? @ flood : See .... i said cheap is a relative term... no way i can spend that much on an interface right now Anyways thanks for the advice though. I searched around y'day and came across something called a Direct Injection box to increase the signal level and balance it, these things it seems can be used to help my predicament , thoughts anyone ?
If the signal is from dynamic device such as electromagnetic pick up then u'll need the boost...if there is distortion then reduce it...
stereo jack introducing delay??dude c'mon its passive device...just run the software hit ctrl+alt+del and check the CPU usage...
For reducing delay install the ASIO4all Driver and select it as the driver in whatever software you are using. One other thing about latency is that you can get almost 0 latency with direct monitoring. That is if you have the line-input level in your windows mixer unmuted. But you won't get that if you are routing the signal through a software. Basically direct monitoring happens before the AD conversions.
It is a passive device i agree , but my sound card may not be up to notch when processing real time input and passing it to the system (Wild guess). @ Ambush I didnt try the ASIO drivers, will do that tonight
standard sound cards have no onboard ASIO support which is necessary to kill latency, irrespective of whether you're running a PIII 750 MHz or i7 980. either use the ASIO4all software or move to an interface, which is also a neat thing to have around for a while. if you have budget constraints, try the software solution out.
And if you want to use a mic to record the sound of your amp (Shure SM57/58 is oft-recommended) you can get the Line 6 POD Studio UX1, UX2 etc.
Solved [Almost] Well , thanks for the tip on the ASIO drivers ambush , i finally got my guitar to play out a clean riff There is still the problem with disabling the MS wavesynth , anybody got any clues to how that can be accomplished conveniently ? The current method i am using involves doing a restart everytime i want the drivers to work.
