buzzman Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Hi people I need some help setting up my studio, so i can record guitars and vocals.... I have a midi/audio interface, a guitar and a preamp with midi out. Do i need any more hardware, or am i good to go??? I've heard that cubase isn't any good for recording??? I've heard ableton or Protools should do the trick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I use Audacity for recording stuff, it works well and is free and open source (I try to use as much open source softs as possible), but Ableton also works well. I just use the mic input on the laptop, its all I got for now, and for what I use it for it works fine, but Im sure a real audio interface will sound better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I've never used Cubase, but there isn't any reason it shouldn't work. Tons of people use it for audio recording. You didn't mention a microphone; what do you have? Also what audio interface do you have? And what kind of sound are you trying to get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 I've never used Cubase, but there isn't any reason it shouldn't work. Tons of people use it for audio recording. You didn't mention a microphone; what do you have? Also what audio interface do you have? And what kind of sound are you trying to get?I just heard that it should record with a iregular delay or something, but guess that isn't true then I don't have a microphone yet, so I'll just start with recording guitars My audio/midi is this one: So all i need is a midi cable from the guitar preamp to my audio/midi interface???? And then im good to go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosty Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I just heard that it should record with a iregular delay or something, but guess that isn't true then I don't have a microphone yet, so I'll just start with recording guitars My audio/midi is this one: So all i need is a midi cable from the guitar preamp to my audio/midi interface???? And then im good to go? ive used cubase to record vocals & guitar. for the vocals i used a a mic & ran it through my xio-synth. the sound was really good. for the guitar i used a zoom fx peddle connect to the computer via usb. i dont think using a midi cable will work because midi cable's dont carry sound, they just carry data. (from my understanding) the only way i see you can record ur guitar is throught the RCA inputs on the m-audio. unless your guitar pre-amp can connect direct to the computer via usb or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supergroover Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 i recommend to read the whole site of sound on sound before you start recording here you can find many interesting articles about recording guitar and vocals. guitar ==> preamp ==> audiocard (=computer) then make sure the incoming signal isnt too high. better to boost later then to have distortion to begin with. cubase should be fine to use for recording. If you become a star you might want to use something else. But for starting out its easy and good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Do you not have an amp, just a preamp? If that's all you have, then go out of the preamp into one of the 1/4" unbalanced inputs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jikkenteki Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 I've recorded tons of audio on cubase with no problem, who ever told you it isn't good for audio either doesn't know what doing or doesn't know what they are talking about. The audiophile USB shown isn't ideal for recording guitar unless you have an outboard preamp and amp simulator which you'd run through your 1/4" input(s) Alternately you can use a software based one, but recording will sound like a bee until you run it through the software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 I've recorded tons of audio on cubase with no problem, who ever told you it isn't good for audio either doesn't know what doing or doesn't know what they are talking about. The audiophile USB shown isn't ideal for recording guitar unless you have an outboard preamp and amp simulator which you'd run through your 1/4" input(s) Alternately you can use a software based one, but recording will sound like a bee until you run it through the software. Absolutely. If you are running a guitar preamp straight into a DAW without an amp simulator, it won't sound that good. Have a listen to the album recording of Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings". That guitar was a mix of direct and amped signals, and sounds thin (but not as thin as if it were direct only). But the better approach would be to get a full amp head and cabinet, or power amp and cabinet to complete your preamp. Or borrow or rent one. What kind of preamp do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 This is confusing To be honest i don't really know if it's an amp or what it is... It's my friend who owns the guitar and the other equipment.. But anyways, it's called a line 6 pod. Link here Edit: Maybe this will help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiritual Carnage Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 This is confusing To be honest i don't really know if it's an amp or what it is... It's my friend who owns the guitar and the other equipment.. But anyways, it's called a line 6 pod. Link here Edit: Maybe this will help Guitar->pod input, pod output left/right->soundcard 1/4 left/right unbalanced inputs. Don't bother with the midi ins/outs when recording. They are for synchronizing modulation speeds and such and don't carry audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 Guitar->pod input, pod output left/right->soundcard 1/4 left/right unbalanced inputs. Don't bother with the midi ins/outs when recording. They are for synchronizing modulation speeds and such and don't carry audio. Thanks alot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Ah, yes. The POD is an amp simulator/modeler, intended for recording guitars direct without the crappy sound. It does have a preamp in it, but it's not really considered a "guitar preamp" specifically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jikkenteki Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Well look at it this way. The standard way to record electric guitar has always been guitar to preamp to amp to speak to mic to tape/digital. Simply put, your basic guitar amp contains two parts, first is the preamp. The preamp manipulates the sound coming from your guitar to give you the tone you want via things like eq, distortion, etc. Then the sound passes into the "amp" proper which basically supplies the volume (it is an amplifier after all) which then passes into your speakers (sometimes one's preamp/amp can be a separate unit (often called a head) from your speakers (often call a cabinet). Your speakers also radically color your guitar's tone. Once you have this all the way you want it, you mic it (which is another art unto itself) and record. Take any one of these steps out and it sounds like crap. Now the problem with this for home recording is that this tends to be expensive and loud and the acoustic environment at your home probably isn't all that great. Direct recording can overcome some of these issues, but with some major adjustments needed to recover a vaguely realistic tone. With direct recording you have to bypass the "amp" stage as sending a few hundred watts of power into your mixer or audio interface is not something you want to do. You can record like this directly from the preamp but it will give you that famous direct "buzzing bees" sound. In recent years a number of alternate products have hit the market that "model" the sound of amplifiers and their speaker cabinets to give you a proper sound. Sansamp was once of the first I recall seeing back in the day. The line 6 pod above is another example. There is a massive range in sound quality in these units and a lot of the more realisticaly priced units for most people aren't really worth it sound-wise in my opinion, especially when distortion comes into play. On the plus side a lot of them can be purchased fairly cheaply used and if you are doing electronic music a realistic amp sound might not be what you want (think of a lot of Trent Reznor's guitar tones in NIN, utterly unrealistic from an amp tone point of view, but works in that context). My own current system now removes all of that and I use entirely software based modeling. Many audio interfaces now have direct guitar inputs which I run into Cubase and then run through either Native Instruments Guitar Rig software, or one of IK Multimedia's Amplitude series plug ins. Computer modeling has gotten to the point where I see most of these amp modeling hardware units are kind of useless (at least the ones I have owned, some of which were well regarded), although I'm sure they will continue long into the future due to the more analog minded guitar purists out there who must have knobs and a hardware unit. Now the only problem with this is that your Audiophile USB doesn't have a proper guitar input. That said with the price of many direct recording units, you could just as easily get another audio interface that does work for direct guitar recording for the same price if not less. For example something like THIS or any other similar product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzzman Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Wow, thanks a lot for the instructions Jikkentekki! I'm gonna look out for a new interface, i can see your point The E-mu looks pretty nice... and affordable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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