Recording Issue

Discussion in 'Guitar Gear Talk Forum' started by Double Click, Mar 11, 2007.

  1. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    I have a PC with a Creative SB Live. When I plug in my pedals direct, the tone ends up very trebly and lacking in bass and mids. No amount of eqing helps. The same settings through the Hi-Fi sounds great. Why does this happen? Its making it impossible for me to record with good tone :(


    Gear I use -- Tulsi Guitar-->AMT British Sound -->Digitech DigiDelay-->Computer/Speakers
     
  2. laneymaney

    laneymaney Banned

    i have the same setup....but u know my recordings...awful...guess its the Creative SB Live
     
  3. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    U have a Brit Sound???

    Its not the SB Live.... I've heard some great recordings from ppl using it. There is some eq in being done by the card. I went through all the options in Audio HQ, but couldnt find anything that might be causing it.
     
  4. laneymaney

    laneymaney Banned

    ive updated my card like a week back and theres this recording EQ that came with the update...u might wanna check that out.
     
  5. nebuchadnezzar

    nebuchadnezzar G34r G33k

    Does the DigiDelay have a mixer out with cab sim ? How is the recording with just the British Sound..IIRC AMTs have built in cab modelling and ability to DI, which should record pretty well.
     
  6. laneymaney

    laneymaney Banned

  7. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    The Brit Sound has a cab sim built in. Using the Digitechs cab sim in series creates a shitty sound. The brit sound alone also sounds lousy through the comp.

    The funny thing is, When I use the Hi-fi / surround system direct, it sounds beautiful, but I cant get anywhere close to that tone when going through the sound card, even when all the eq and enivronmental sound options are bypassed!!

    @laney will try the update.
     
  8. nebuchadnezzar

    nebuchadnezzar G34r G33k

    :think::think:
     
  9. thehundredthone

    thehundredthone Well-Known Member

    Because you need true bypass.

    Google the kx project. That's what I use. 5ms latency too :)

    Set up your own DSP and you're good to go. I'll post a screenie if you need.
     
  10. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Dude....the pedals are not good for recording direct mainly bcos the output is unbalanced. You need a DI to actually convert the unbalanced signals to balanced signals in order to get good results from a mixer or from a recording console when you go direct. When you buy a sound card, you should always check if it accepts only balanced inputs or if it accepts unbalanced inputs. Check this out. There are two ways to do it now....Mic your Amp or pass your pedal through a guitar processor and use the cabinet sim from there. The cabinet sims in these pedals are not really good...
     
  11. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    ^^ Then why does it sound great when going directly to the hi-fi speakers??

    Cant mic the amp cause
    1. I dont have an amp :eek::
    2. I dont have a good mic :eek:: :eek::

    Now, if I run the pedals through another cab sim, wont it end up sounding like shit? (that happened the last time I tried it)


    Somebody link me to an article on how DI boxes work. (no time to google... college in 15 min)


    @thundertone - Thank you. Will chk it out.
     
  12. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Dude, if you are talking about teh tone on your soundclick page for that AC/DC song, it is pretty good. I dont see any problem with it.

    The AMT pedals sound best (to my ears) when they are plugged direct to a flat EQ amp+speaker system.

    So in our case, either there is some internal EQing happening in your Creative card, or you have installed some software, which does some sort of automatic amp emulation when you record on your PC.

    Do you remember the demo that I made of differences in tone you can get by using the guitar-in port compared to line-in port.
    If the difference you get from soundcard vs hi-fi is similar, then mebbe what I said above holds true.

    There is one more possibility: you might have set you hi-fi system to have more bass and mids. :p: And thats why it sounds so different.




    Dude, do one thing: plug your AMT to someone's marshall, plug it into the guitar-in port, then plug it into line-in. and compare the tones.
     
  13. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    PS: you didnt tell where exactly do you plug your guitar cable into? ... on comp.

    The signal would be too weak for line-in, or microphone.
    You require some sort of booster.

    Usually, the microphone port has a built-in 20dB booster (that you need to manually turn on), which works quite satisfactorily.

    Mebbe in your case, you have a pre-amp sort of thingie in your comp, that is altering the tone.
     
  14. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    I already tried plugging into guitar amps.. both line in and guitar in. I still feel it sounds best through the hi-fi.

    The tone on that recording is nowhere near what the Brit Sound sounds in person.

    I've tried both the line-in and the mic in on the sound card. Neither helped. The Hi-fi is set for a flat eq.

    I have found that keeping the output level on the Brit Sound near minimum solves the problem to a certain extent.... Again, this is something I dont have to do when running direct to the Hi-Fi.
     
  15. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Hi Fi speakers are meant to make the Sound as good as possible when you listen to it. Not necessarily to show you what's been recorded. For that purpose, people use Studio Monitors. They wont try to be impressive, instead will show what's there trying to reduce the distance between the actual mix and what you actually hear in the speaker....Other way to do it, repeatedly experiment with your EQ in your Hi Fi System or your Comp to minimize this difference and use only this setup....Once this is sorted out, then work on your Pedal EQ to get a good tone. If you adjust your stereo system to get a good tone here, you are cheating yourself....
     
  16. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    The eq on the hi-fi is set flat.

    Arent studio monitors and hi-fi's essentially the same? Monitors just propagate sound in a narrower field than normal speakers... right?


    My problem is, I get an AWESOME tone when the pedals are connected directly to the hi-fi.. However when I connect it through the soundcard, it sounds very different.

    Lowering the o/p level on the pedals seems to correct the problem to a certain degree... So I'm starting to think its got something to do with the way the SB Live samples the i/p. Maybe the levels were pushing the card too far.
     
  17. Nouman011

    Nouman011 New Member

    Try adjusting the input levels on the card? Does the SB live allow that?
     
  18. thehundredthone

    thehundredthone Well-Known Member

    ^ There's only 1 line in, and yes the level can be reduced.

    @DC: I don't think the pedals can really "push the card" as such. Try and use a low pass filter and see if it makes a difference. Instrument speakers are a different creature as compared to high-fidelity speakers.
     
  19. billysidhu

    billysidhu New Member

    Rather than wasting money on a good miking rig, why not invest in something like the line 6 tone port. I have the tone port ux2, it's amazing. I use it coupled with Cubase SX 3, as my main sequencer, amazing combo. The toneport can record guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards... pretty much anything you need to get a decent song down. It's modelling is pretty darn nice. Customizable your tone all you want.
     
  20. tallkien

    tallkien DIY GURU


    Hi guys,

    I'm terribly sorry for bumping this thread but I think Alpha might just have hit the nail on the head here one way or the other. I mic'ed the amp and I was getting the same Super bright preamped output using audacity as everybody else... but not on Linux. It turns out that 20db microphone boost is "OFF" by default on Linux and consequently the recording is absolutely fine. In windows I have a feeling it might be "ON" and if so I'd like to know how to turn it off. If someone else can confirm or refute this for me that'll be great. When I turned it on in Linux my recording sounded just like it did on windows...like poo

    That switch is easy enough to find on Linux, does anybody know where it might be on WinXP?

    thanks
     

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