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Hey guys, finally getting back into the guitar playing thing and messing around with songwriting again. I just got a Schecter C1 which seems really nice, along with a cheap USB interface for my PC. I don't have an amp right this second, but I figure I can just play through my PC speakers. My interface came with Pro Tools First and/or Ableton. Are those programs decent for noodling around, or is there something better I want to get instead? For now mostly just interested in playing and getting back in the groove, but I'll eventually want to try recording stuff too.
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Oct 5, 2020 23:54
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Effects is basically what I was asking about. I just kind of assumed there would be some sort of program or something that could do that until I get an amp.
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Oct 6, 2020 19:25
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I got my Scarlett working too although it was a PITA. I swear I had to register for like 5 different things and then when I first hooked it up the USB donk donk sound went crazy. It's going pretty good now though. Haven't tried recording anything yet though, just noodling around on my guitar for now.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:36
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Not a recording question specifically, but I like to play through my interface through amp sims, and they are super noisy playing any metal with gain. I don't understand this stuff good enough to describe it, but it sort of sounds like feedback I'd say. Although I don't think it's that because plugging in headphones doesn't fix it(I assume that would stop it but I dunno). I can also turn a noise gate up, and that'll make it silent when I'm not playing, but I can hear the "static" through my playing a lot of the time. So far I've tried updating my Scarlett interfaces drivers, as well as messing with different sample rates and buffer sizes. The only thing I can think of right now might be the weird way I have my monitors hooked up. I don't have a 1/4" speaker cable to run to each speaker yet, so my speakers have those red and white unbalanced cables going into a single 1/8th " jack which is plugged into a 1/4" adapter plugged into one of the outputs in the back. Maybe once I get my speaker cables and can hook them up properly that will help. I figure some noise is inevitable with gain but this seems excessive. It also happens on both of my guitar cables, so I'm not sure if both of those are bad.
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Jun 6, 2021 03:46
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I've got a drum plug in Spanish suggested me, but I also need a bass plug in, I'm not sure the term. Bass synthesizer? I don't have a real bass so I need to use a plug in to do it is what I'm saying. Are there any decent free ones or ones under 30ish bucks? I can buy a better one in a few weeks, I just wanted one to mess with for now. I want to try recording some of my music I've got tabbed out in guitar pro. If I can export the guitar pro midi file into the plug in so I don't have to remake my bass lines from scratch, that would be awesome.
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Jun 27, 2021 17:40
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I wanted it to sound like a bass guitar. I think I might just fork over the cash for EZ bass if I like the trial. I could also try a pitch shifter, do pitch shifter plug ins work pretty well?
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Jun 28, 2021 01:13
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I have reaper, I'll check it out. Perhaps my money will be better spent on a good drum plug-in instead. Is EZ Drummer pretty decent? e: Also thinking about just buying a cheap bass. Is there any tricks or whatever I may not know about recording bass or is it just plug into my interface and go? Most of my bass lines are pretty basic, I like to think I could play them with a little practice. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Jun 28, 2021 |
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Jun 28, 2021 22:08
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Do I need any of that stuff for my guitar recording? Or can I get a plug in to do the compression stuff? I know DIs are good when you use an amp so you can get a dry signal, but wasn't sure if it's really needed if I'm using only plug-ins. Also I just tried that bass plug-in the other guy posted, exported my GP pro track as a .midi into reaper and it was super easy and definitely sounds good enough to use for now. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Jun 29, 2021 |
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Jun 29, 2021 00:38
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Agreed posted:I use a compressor pedal as a "preamp" when recording with guitar - levels are pretty important with my current recording setup, and that gives me some control over that while giving me favorable impedance going into my interface. DDD sounds like you're getting into recording man I hope you love it too Yeah, I would really like to, it's something I've always wanted to do but never really had the resources before. I'm still feeling pretty intimidated by it though, I have no clue what I'm doing. Also I have a scarlett solo 3rd gen for my interface fwiw.
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Jun 29, 2021 04:31
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Yeah, I'm using the trial of Neural Gojira right now and I really like it. I'm using Reaper for a DAW since it's cheap and has good reviews. So, do I really need a preamp anytime soon or is it just a "nice to have" sort of thing? Because I still need to figure out what I'm going to do as far as virtualizing bass/drums/piano in the short term since those are all pretty necessary for the stuff I have written.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:09
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Quick question before I get too deep into all of this - A lot of times I feel like my metal tone usually doesn't sound that good(especially fast palm muted picking on my low strings), regardless of plug-in or presets, which I'd think most of the stuff in Neural Gojira should be top notch(and it is much better than my cheap amp sims). Could it just be these cheap M audio monitors are garbage? I think they are 3.5" fwiw and they were only like 100 or so dollars for the pair. Also this is just playing through them at a good room volume, I haven't tried much recording/editing/mastering yet to see how it sounds that way.
Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 30, 2021 |
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Jun 30, 2021 00:12
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My only headphones are those Hyper X ones I bought for gaming a long time ago, are they worth a poo poo? I'll dig them out of storage later and try. Anyway, I tested things out a bit, and it sounds a lot better if I roll back about 5 feet away from the computer. I dunno if it's still some of that leftover EMI from my PC messing with my tone, or just the room acoustics are better being further away from the speakers, who knows. e: tried the hyper x headphones. If I plug them direct into the headphone hookup to my interface, it's super quiet, I have to turn the gain and Monitor volume all the way up and I still don't hear it very loud. If I plug my headphones into my monitors, it sounds absolutely awful. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jun 30, 2021 |
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Jun 30, 2021 00:40
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In a day or two I'll record a few different riffs and post in here and see what you guys think. If it sounds like you'd expect the plug in to sound, it's probably my monitors/positioning/acoustics are just a bit lovely, but if it sounds bad to you guys that might indicate it's noise or something in my signal.
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Jun 30, 2021 02:14
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Weird question, when I use headphones is it better to plug into my interface or my monitors? I just got my new pair in and wanted to see if one way is better than another.
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Aug 3, 2021 23:31
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I have a Scarlett Solo interface, and some pretty cheap M Audio monitors. So I guess it's really preference then?
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Aug 4, 2021 00:03
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While I'm asking questions, how do people usually record in terms of how they set their sound up? I notice a lot of people use headphones. Are they listening to everything, their guitar they are recording, drum track, bass(if it's already tracked) in their headphones? Or do they somehow rig up the drums/metronome to come in through their earphones and guitar through their monitors? I kind of feel like the last one might work good, if there is a way to do that. Before I bought these headphones, I messed around with EZ Drummer some yesterday, but I have having a tough time getting my guitar sound balanced with the sound of the drums so I could hear both clearly. Haven't tried it with headphones yet, I imagine it would be easier than with monitors at least. My living room is pretty echo-y so I bet the sounds tend to blend more than they normally would when I play through monitors.
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Aug 4, 2021 00:19
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Couple of quick questions - A. What is bouncing? B. Do I need to worry spec wise before I get too deep into this stuff? Intel Core i7-7700 @ 3.60ghz, 1060 GTX 3gb, and I think 16GB of ram. Also isn't my Scarlett my sound card? My harddrive is also one of those NVME thingys. Am I gonna be good for a while on the PC front?
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Sep 20, 2021 23:58
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I have a couple of songs I've written with a piano in it(guitar pro) and want to try recording it at some point. So I need a virtual instrument. Is EZ Keys a good choice or are there decent cheaper ones out there I can use that sound decent? Do I want to get one that does it all as standalone mostly, or should I get a midi sequencer of some sort to actually write it out and just use the plug in for the sound samples? I'm new to all this. I know I should be able to just export the midi from guitar pro but I imagine they might need tweaking.
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Sep 22, 2021 01:41
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I've been practicing tracking a bit lately, but I've been sending over the files to my goon bud to do the mixing on this little thing we are working on. However, I want to give it a shot myself with other stuff as I've been talking about for a couple months now. I wanted to ask, is there a basics guide for mixing metal out there anywhere? There's a ton of stuff if you search of course, but it feels similar to looking up music theory in that a lot of it either assumes you already know a little bit, or it doesn't give enough context. I need something just to help me get started from the very beginning. If there are actual good courses I don't mind paying a bit of money either. I would be recording and mixing guitar and bass, but the drums will be digital, probably using EZ Drummers libraries.
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Oct 5, 2021 03:55
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I just got an Axe Fx 2 from some wheeling and dealing, and can someone tell me the easiest way to hook this up to my PC? I googled and most people just hook it to usb, and plug their monitors to the axe-fx and use it as their interface/sound card. Which would normally be all well and good. However I'm concerned if I do that, it's going to basically be on the whole time I'm at the computer(and all night because my PC speakers are my backup alarm clock), although I can leave it off all day while I'm at work. If this isn't bad for it, then I'll do it that way. However, I have a Scarlett Solo which has one microphone input and one 1/4" input. Right now I have the Axe FX going to the PC as USB, and then the L channel output into my scarlett's 1/4 jack. This seems to work, although I have to turn on direct monitor to hear my guitar. Is it okay to just use the one channel out since guitar is basically a mono signal anyway? Since the Scarlett is still my soundcard, my normal audio still comes through that and still comes out as L/R stero, so it's only my guitar input that's going out the one channel from the Axe Fx into my Scarlett. Or is there some advantage to just using the Axe FX as an interface, with each channel going out to each of my L and R monitors. I wonder if I could run an XLR cable from balanced L to my input 1 on my scarlett, then get an XLR to balanced 1/4" cable to run from the right channel into my Scarlett Solo's 2nd 1/4 input, then I'd be utilizing both channels. Anything wrong with this? Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 25, 2021 23:52
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I just use the USB because I think I need to to use the Axe Edit program. Anyway, I think I figured out a roundabout solution in the future. I was planning on upgrading these monitors I have now pretty soon anyway, I can hook my new monitors up straight to the Axe Fx and use the Axe as an interface like normal when doing guitar/recording/etc. And I'll leave my old monitors plugged up to the Scarlett, and when I'm done doing guitar stuff, I can just turn the Axe Fx off and my sound should just switch back to my Scarlett for normal computer things like watching youtube or whatever, in which case these current monitors work fine. Until then I might just use the Axe as a normal interface, I don't think it'll hurt it to be on ~12 hours a day for a couple weeks at least.
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Oct 28, 2021 00:35
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I think https://urm.academy/ has a facebook group similar to how Riffhard has, there's a lot of overlap there with those 2 groups. I haven't dipped my toes too far in to URM yet, but I know the Riffhard group is about as good as you can ask for as far as randos go, and I'd bet money the URM stuff is just as good. Although there might be some sort of monthly sub or there might not be to get into the facebook group. It's pretty rock and metal focused like Riffhard though, I think.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:27
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FWIW when I had regular unbalanced cables in the output of my scarlett, I didn't really notice any difference at all compared to when I used the TRS cables. I thought it might would help with noise, but I guess those cables are so short that they don't contribute much to that.
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Nov 8, 2021 04:41
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pokie posted:I tried setting the gain just above -inf, and it made no difference in the noise. I also tried a bunch of dip switch configurations, moving them around the house, and even turning off wifi. This was a few posts back, and I just bought the LP6's, and the hiss isn't that loud at all. Only really noticeable in a quiet room and within a few feet. I wonder if they are defective? e: I also have a noisy house to the point that using single coils on a guitar is almost a no go.
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Jan 16, 2022 22:57
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So if you guys remember, I'm the guy whose been in the guitar thread on and off bitching about RF noise, and also my guitar tone sounding like poo poo through whatever amp sim/eq setting/pick up height/whatever you can think of. Bad enough I avoid playing plugged in and wind up getting upset a lot of time when I do. Well, now that I have an amp sim on my laptop as well, I figured it would be easy to go test out things in my bedroom, which is fairly large for a bedroom, but it's a slight rectangle shape instead of my living room which is open ended on one side with a sort of open hall? hard to explain. Anyway, I didn't want to move a bunch of stuff, so I just took my old lovely monitors and interface in there and hooked to my laptop. There was still some RF, but I also didn't have my power conditioner and was set up against the wall closest to the living room. It was still less, like only needing half as much noise gate. And it sounded good on a cleaner single coil setting, so big improvement still even if there's still RF. Anyway, it sounded a gently caress ton better. I'm guessing the shape of my living room must just really gently caress up my acoustics. Also my bed is a big foam mattress so I reckon that's probably absorbing some echo better than my couch/rug in the living room. I reckon I'm going to set up shop in my bedroom now. Since it's slightly longer one way vs the other, isn't it better if I point my monitors/desk so they are facing down a long side? Or does it really matter since it's not a gigantic difference? I was limited in my setup for the test, and had it against the living room wall, facing across the short side of the room toward a window. I need to figure out where I'm going to put everything. Is it better to face a wall or a window btw? Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Jan 17, 2022 |
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Jan 17, 2022 02:36
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In fact, I did my best to recreat my room to as scale as I could. I have a bed, and a dresser to shift around. The desk I'm taking in there is fairly small, it should just be able to fit against the bathroom wall if I wanted to for instance. How would you guys arrange this poo poo for best sounds? I'm thinking desk against the window. More room to move around, I can load up foam and stuff against the dresser wall to catch reflections, and I'll be as far away from the RF source as possible. Or maybe I'd want to set up against the bathroom so the bed is behind me? Since it's quite a large chunk of dense foam. I accidentally drew my bed wrong in the diagram, it's against the window wall, and was behind me during my test when I set my laptop and monitors up on the dresser, and I suspect that's why it sounded a lot better. But maybe it's position doesn't matter too much. 
Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Jan 17, 2022 |
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Jan 17, 2022 02:45
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 Ignore the living room it's still a wreck from moving all my stuff into my bedroom. I stole this from work today, you guys reckon it'll help in the room, even if just to cut down on echo? And any ideas on how to best utilize it? I was going to just glue the strips down the length of the big pieces to help break sound up more, but I was also considering glueing it to poster board and hanging it so it's about an inch off the wall, but I'm not sure if all that even really matters because it's just random foam and not high end sound panels. It is pretty high density though, one of the bigger sheets weighs a couple lbs at the least. One side of the foam is closed, the rest is mostly open cell fwiw. Should I cut the strips up so they are more irregular instead of just running down the length of each large sheet? I could also skip the poster board and just put a couple small pieces of foam on back which would lift it off the wall about an inch or so if the poster board doesn't make any difference sound wise, the foam is fairly stiff on it's own. I have a pretty good idea of where I want to put these(mostly behind my desk/monitors, and on the wall opposite where they are pointing). I can invest in real panels to fill the rest of the room at a later point. Not trying to have a professional studio, just doing little things to make playing sound better in here, and eventually mixing.
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Jan 23, 2022 02:24
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updating my mobo and cpu in my pc soon. Depending on how much money I have, I might go with an i5 12400, or if I'm a bit more flush, an i5 12600 which has more cores and threads and stuff. Would either of those cpus work well if I get into mixing and recording to the point where I have a DAW session full of tracks? My i7 7700 works well enough now, but I also rarely have more than a few tracks so far, and it's getting old anyway. Also isn't it your cpu for the most part that governs how low you can get your buffer size(so better latency) and how high you can get your sample rate?
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Feb 23, 2022 02:17
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I'm asking this here because it involves recording, even though it's a technical question. I want to plug my keyboard into my PC. But I'm running out of USB spots. Are those hubs lovely in regard to latency? Here is what I have that needs to be plugged in: Mouse Keyboard Audio Interface for recording and playing guitar Digital Piano Webcam PS5 controller Is there anything I need to know or consider? I figure make sure my interface and piano get a normal spot straight to the motherboard, will the other stuff be affected too negatively? I have 4 USB spots on my mobo, and one on the front of my case.
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Apr 13, 2023 22:27
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Hey guys. I got tired of buying guitars and noodling and having nothing to show for it. My friend and I decided to do a cover of Guardians of Asgaard that we are going to work on, we've already learned enough to record the first section. However, I don't know much about recording and mixing and all that. I'll probably have a ton of questions, but I have two for now mostly regarding drums. We are both using Reaper and will be using VSTs for drums and bass. I'm going to record one guitar part and set up the drum track, and he will do the other guitar part and set up the bass track. I'll send him what I got and he's going to do any final mixing on it. A. We are just recording guitars and using VSTs for drums/bass. I have Easy Drummer 3. What's it called where for your drums, you have the main "drum track" but it's broke down into several sub-tracks with each piece of kit having it's own track so you can adjust them individually? Because I don't know the terms it makes it hard to search, I feel like there's probably youtube guides on how to do this. B. I'm guessing once I get the drums all mapped out I can do some sort of thing where I tell Reaper to convert the midi track into a .wav file, then I can just send him the .wavs to load up? He doesn't have easy drummer so whatever midi I have will probably be all messed up if he loads up with whatever drum software he has. The .wav thing seems like it will work fine, I know you won't be able to fine tune as much, but I reckon he can still do regular mixing on the .wav files and since this is just for fun it would probably be good enough? I hope those questions make sense!
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Apr 9, 2024 22:18
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