Live instruments - do you use them?

auan · Post by **auan** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:13 pm

You'd only use a DI box if you were connecting your guitar straight into the soundcard. If your amp has a line out, you'd be fine plugging that into the soundcard. If your amp only has a speaker out, don't plug that into the soundcard, because if you don't blow it up, you'll only get a horrific toppy sound out of it. Whats the amp?

tempest · Post by **tempest** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:00 pm

Tis a Line 6 Spider II 120 watt... lots of effects.. ok so no DI box thats a given that im not directly inputting my instrument *slaps forehead*

Sorry about the image size, but how would i go about from the direct out from my guitar amp which is like 1/4 inch normal jack or whatever it is, into a RCA or one of these inputs on the card

auan · Post by **auan** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:57 am

tempest wrote:Line 6 Spider II 120

Awesome little amp. I do live sound engineering for metal bands at one of the venues round here (don't ask), and a guitarist didn't have car space to bring his stack. So we managed to borrow a Spider and plug it straight into the desk and with a little EQ the sound was terrific.

Anyway, you just need a cable with RCA and jack connectors, which you can get from Maplin in the UK and Radio Shack in the US, no idea where in Australia, but will cost pennies. Then you just plug it into one of the RCA inputs and record in mono.

Edit: btw you wanna consider getting a cheap mixer one day as well for plugging stuff into your computer. Then when you accidentally crank the amp and hit a power chord, the mixer will blow up and not the soundcard/motherboard/entire computer. Also gives you a bit of hands-on gain/EQ control at the recording stage, and will give you a stereo signal into the computer, and let you plug more stuff in without digging around the back of the pc.

tempest · Post by **tempest** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:33 am

You're a legend mate, really helpful feedback.

I love my spider, had it for years, used to play in metal bands (again, dont ask lol)

Yep i think i could find one of them cables if i searched around, too easy

Regarding the mixer, I have considered it, but im on a pretty tight budget and didn't want to fork out for a cheap beringer only to find it doesn't do its job properly and have to upgrade. Monitors are deff my next purchase after the soundcard, i was saving for them before but ended up spending my cash on a midi controller. Not to mention how damn keen i am to get some turntables.... got a spare 10 grand to lend us?

auan · Post by **auan** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:04 am

Nah it's not a priority for you yet but fuck behringer.

westernsynthetics · Post by **westernsynthetics** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:45 am

hey temp,

I record my guitar by micing up the amp....i find its the best way to preserve the sound of my marshall....if u listen to run to the dust (pon de myspaz) you can still hear the crackly amp sounds...i have had some people say to me that I sampled it and that they dont beleive that i recorded it. Because I was ghoing for a Tubby type dub skank sound. I could really only aceive this by recording my amp sound.

Heres an idea that im yet to try.

Get Guitar Rig or Amplitube.

Run yer guitar thru your hardware pedals into your soundcard line in.

Run a line out into your guitar amp...be careful with levels

mic up your amp then record in mono

this way you preserve the sound of your amp while usisng your myriad of software effects.

I have never tried this...so mabye avaid this at first Tempest since yer startin out on the guitar recording ting.

westernsynthetics · Post by **westernsynthetics** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:48 am

Auan wrote:Nah it's not a priority for you yet but fuck behringer.

tempest · Post by **tempest** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:27 am

Nice work WS, that is a nice sound you got. I have a couple old sm-58's lying around so that sounds like a great idea. I have guitar rig also.

Cheers for the help lads

auan · Post by **auan** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:38 am

westernsynthetics wrote:Heres an idea that im yet to try.

Get Guitar Rig or Amplitube.

Run yer guitar thru your hardware pedals into your soundcard line in.

Run a line out into your guitar amp...be careful with levels

mic up your amp then record in mono

this way you preserve the sound of your amp while usisng your myriad of software effects.

I have never tried this...so mabye avaid this at first Tempest since yer startin out on the guitar recording ting.

Just to derail the thread completely...

I been thinking about doing something like this, but in reverse. Taking sounds from a soft synth (namely Massive) and running them out the box to my myriad of guitar effects, through my floor amp sim (don't own an amp) and back into the computer.

But...

Your amp and my pedals are expecting Hi-Z inputs from a guitar, but our soundcards are going to output signals at line level, which I think would overload the guitar kit. I don't know much about line levels or owt, just enough to know that you're fucked if you get it wrong.

What I reckon we need is something like a DI box in reverse, or one of the products linked to at the bottom of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-amp

Discuss.

Live instruments - do you use them?

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