Recording guitar at home

[BeardFaceMan]

Been trying to do this but I can't get my guitar tones to sound like anything other than complete arse. I'm using IR loaders in my DAW for both bass and guitar but they never sound anything like they're supposed to so I don't know if I'm just using them wrong or if I need some kind of pre-amp or something. I tried using a pre-amp VST with the IR loaders and still couldn't quite get it right, do I need a piece of kit to plug my guitar into before plugging into the PC (I'm currently using the Rocksmith USB cable to connect to the pc) to get decent results? The tones in Rocksmith are incredible but there doesn't seem to be a way to use Rocksmith tones for recording in DAWs.

[drummersaredeaf]

Assuming rocksmith is a guitar friendly interface, download amplitude and use the demo amps in that. Couple of fenders and Marshalls, and a decent bass amp as well as quite a few others.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Air windows guitar conditioner plugin (free)

Decent preamps (behringer's) cheapass interfaces have Midas preamps in that take guitar really well

Air windows also does a sansamp vst which get a very decent bass tone I think

Amplitube/zoom/guitar rig any of that shite will sort you out

Or one of those thomann preamp boxes if your one of those hardware perverts

[idunnosomename]

do you not get latency without a preamp? im quite pleased with my Behringer UM-2 U-phoria. I go in through my Roland cube amp and can get a decent tone in my computer with my headphones on so as not to annoy the neighbours

can anyone also suggest any recording software? I'm using Audacity and the lack of good punch-in/out methods just drives me mad

[BeardFaceMan]

There's a tiny bit of latency, but not enough for it to spoil things. I got rid of all my amps and hardware when I got Rocksmith, the amp modelling software is first class and you get very accurate versions of tones from lots of good bands so I didn't need an amp anymore for just playing at home. Maybe I just need to learn how to eq and mix properly, the guitar tone doesn't sound too bad on it's own, it's when I try and mix it with another guitar, bass and drums it sounds a bit crap. Or learn how to set up IRs properly. So much learning!

I use Mixcraft for recording, which is a piece of piss to use. But then it's the only DAW I've ever really used and I rarely see other people mention it so I've no idea how good it actually is, functionality-wise, but it's done everything I need to so far.

[Better Midlands]

can anyone also suggest any recording software? I'm using Audacity and the lack of good punch-in/out methods just drives me mad

You can download Reaper for free on an endless trial, might be worth a look.

[earl_sleek]

(I'm currently using the Rocksmith USB cable to connect to the pc)

This seems like the prime suspect to me, I can't help but think the cable will be optimised for Rocksmith and not necessarily give the best results with anything else. As PlanktonSideburns suggests, try running a normal guitar lead into a budget interface. I can second the suggestions of Behringer U-phoria interfaces and Reaper.

[BeardFaceMan]

This seems like the prime suspect to me, I can't help but think the cable will be optimised for Rocksmith and not necessarily give the best results with anything else. As PlanktonSideburns suggests, try running a normal guitar lead into a budget interface. I can second the suggestions of Behringer U-phoria interfaces and Reaper.

That makes sense, because if you use a USB cable other than the official Rocksmith one, it won't work with the game.

[BeardFaceMan]

So something like this would be suitable?

https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0AVV

That's within my budget, I wouldn't have to wait for Santa to get one of those.

[Sherman Krank]

Yep that would do the job. You'll also need to download Asio-4-all (free) which functions as a driver for the interface and will allow you to adjust for latency and a few other things.

I suspect that rocksmith cable thing is just a basic audio cable but with some kind of DRM built into it to discourage piracy, so no different than plugging a guitar straight into a mic or audio input on a PC which always sounds shite.

Also I'll third Reaper as it's great.

[earl_sleek]

That seems decent for the price, and a quick google suggests it's well reviewed. I have a cheap Behringer mixer with Xenyx preamps like the UM2 and it's fine.

(You may already be aware, but I do feel compelled to mention that Behringer products had a poor reputation with many people for a long time. I think they've improved, and I use a Behringer interface and patchbay along with my mixer with no issues, but caveat emptor.)

[BeardFaceMan]

Thanks for the help everyone, I think I'll get one of those. Not that I'm doing anything serious, it's just the beginnings of dicking about so I'm just after a bit of starter kit to see how I get on with it and that looks just the job.

[Sherman Krank]

The Behringer stuff is mostly good to great now.
Their modus operandi is copy a highly rated bit of gear as closely as possible keeping any components integral to the sound and maybe swapping out others that aren't for cheaper ones, stick it a toughened plastic enclosure instead of metal then mass produce it in large numbers to lower production costs.

For example the U-Phoria interfaces are heavily based on the Focusrite range and are close enough that the price difference makes them a better buy.
Their SL 75C microphone costs £15 and sounds pretty much identical to the Shure SM57 it's copying and their £20 guitar pedals are mostly bang on clones of the classic Boss pedals (the UV300 ultra vibrato is one of my favourite pedals, sounds fantastic).

[BeardFaceMan]

I was worried by the low price but I bought a Behringer multi-fx pedal last year because I was tired of retuning my guitar and wanted a pitch shifter, not the I've used it a lot but it's been great when I have. The plastic and not metal might make a difference if I was gigging with it but its fine for bedroom work, so I'm assuming this will be the same.

[Sherman Krank]

For another £20 you could add one of these Tube Amp Modeller.
It's a knockoff of a Sansamp GT2, not in the same league but it's around a tenth of the price.
It's basically an overdrive pedal with a pre-amp chip in it with digital simulation of three popular tube amp types (Fender Tweed/Marshall Plexi/Mesa Boogie Dual Rec).
There's also a larger version but the only difference is the bigger one has an extra balanced XLR output so probably not worth it unless you're getting mad interference from somewhere and need a ground lift option.
It's like having an amp between the guitar and the interface boosting the signal level but it's in a pedal and it's £20.

[idunnosomename]

You can download Reaper for free on an endless trial, might be worth a look.

cheers will give this a go

[BeardFaceMan]

Bollocks, now we come to the bit I hate. If I plug everything in and monitor the track in my DAW for audio, it works perfectly. As soon as I arm the track for recording or try recording, it goes forever mute and I hear nothing. If I open another track and try again, same thing happens. Got Asio-4-all installed but when I select it in my DAW, the Behringer device doesn't show up, in my default recording device list everything disappears and it just says "Not Connected 1/Not Connected 2". If I switch back to the Wave RT, it reappears. I say again - bollocks.

[Sherman Krank]

What operating system are you using? I did a quick google and found some posts from 2010 from folk having the same issue with mixcraft and blaming it on their recent upgrade to Win7, their solution was to go back to XP so not much use to you here in the future.
It could be there's an audio setting in the operating system defaulted to Wave RT that's affecting things or a usb driver or background process messing things up or something else entirely, it's hard to tell without be able to see what's happening.
One thing you could try is installing Reaper and seeing if the same thing happens with that. The two DAWs seem to have an extremely similar layout so it shouldn't take you too long to sus Reaper out.
If it does also happen in Reaper then in the unlikely event that you're making the exact same error in both DAWs you'll know the problem is either with the OS or the interface.

[BeardFaceMan]

I'm using Mixcraft 9 on Windows 10. I'm having even less luck in Reaper, it's not making any noise whatsoever, not when monitoring or recording. I think there may be an issue with ASIO4ALL and the UM2 because when i go to the ASIO4ALL settings I can't see the device there.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Thought the new behringer ones came with their own dedicated drivers? Pretty sure I'm not using asio4all in my setup

With reaper, have you tried hitting the monitor button on the track? It's a little speaker icon

[PlanktonSideburns]

Number 2 there?

Not properly read your problem description, just thought I'd mention that as I was always getting caught out by that in reaper

[earl_sleek]

In Reaper, if you got to Preferences > Audio > Device, does the interface appear in the "Audio Device" dropdown box, and if so is it selected? If not, is something like "WASAPI Exclusive Mode" listed? Try using that if it is.

Also try plugging the interface into a different USB port, when I used Windows for music production I frequently found it was fussy about detecting audio gear via USB. It's probably not this but worth trying.

[earl_sleek]

Thought the new behringer ones came with their own dedicated drivers? Pretty sure I'm not using asio4all in my setup

I was gonna advise not using ASIO4ALL and using the manufacturer's drivers, but I just checked Behringer's support page for the UM2 and the only driver there is ASIO4ALL, so I guess they don't do their own drivers for their cheaper stuff (which is possibly a factor in why they're so cheap).

[Sherman Krank]

I found a link to an old Behringer universal driver that apparently still works with the UM2 (among others).
https://mega.nz/file/NJh30LzJ#fgNL6jM3dnmoQjoGgZUth84M_DzyYI3eSmV3UmgDA88

I got it from this youtuber who seems legit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3QHbhtknH8
(I downloaded and virus scanned it anyway and it came up clean.)

Using this driver instead has fixed the issue for a bunch of folk and given others better latency.

[BeardFaceMan]

In Reaper, if you got to Preferences > Audio > Device, does the interface appear in the "Audio Device" dropdown box, and if so is it selected? If not, is something like "WASAPI Exclusive Mode" listed? Try using that if it is.

Also try plugging the interface into a different USB port, when I used Windows for music production I frequently found it was fussy about detecting audio gear via USB. It's probably not this but worth trying.

I don't see the device listed, it's usually called 'USB Audio Codec' (which makes it fucking annoying when you have multiple devices plugged in and they all have generic names, but I digress), in the 'audio system' dropbox I have WDM Kernal Streaming (WIndows XP), DirectSound, WaveOut, ASIO, Dummy Audio and WASAPI. Tried them all, still nothing.

I was gonna advise not using ASIO4ALL and using the manufacturer's drivers, but I just checked Behringer's support page for the UM2 and the only driver there is ASIO4ALL, so I guess they don't do their own drivers for their cheaper stuff (which is possibly a factor in why they're so cheap).

Yeah I didn't know what I was doing so I went to the product page on their website that I linked to earlier and the software section just took me to the ASIO4ALL website. Would it matter that I'm using the 2.15 beta version?

I found a link to an old Behringer universal driver that apparently still works with the UM2 (among others).
https://mega.nz/file/NJh30LzJ#fgNL6jM3dnmoQjoGgZUth84M_DzyYI3eSmV3UmgDA88

I got it from this youtuber who seems legit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3QHbhtknH8
(I downloaded and virus scanned it anyway and it came up clean.)

Using this driver instead has fixed the issue for a bunch of folk and given others better latency.

Thank you, I'll give this a try.

[BeardFaceMan]

Hehe this is why I stayed away from trying all this for so long, I'm awful at the technical side of things and it makes me feel stupid so I give up. So I have the new driver installed (which has changed the device name to Behringer at least so it's easier to spot) but it looks like it's only recording in mono, would that be right? If I have the 'In' as 'Input Mono In 1', there's silence. If I do 'Input Mono In 2', I get something. If I do 'Input Steero In 1 / In 2', the file I end up has a flat line on the top half and a waveform on the bottom half. If I just use 'In 2' would that be ok?

Other thing is that when I've selected Behringer USB Audio as my ASIO driver, the only outputs it lists is Out 1 and Out 2, not my speakers or onboard audio or anything. So even though the guitar is playing and recording (If I save the wav and play it in an mp3 player it works) I can't hear it in Reaper as I'm or playing it or when I'm playing it back. When I plug the device in all other audio stops working, can't use mp3 player or VLC or anything so I thought it might be that but if I unplug the device the play button in Reaper stops working. I plug the device back in, it works again. Only to play silence, obvs.

Just had a check in Mixcraft and it's the same, only the right channel is working and I can record and save the wav and play it elsewhere and it will work but I can't hear it as I'm playing it as the only output options are Out 1 and Out 2. Does this mean I need to connect some speakers to the outputs on the back in order to hear anything?

Fucking hell, now I've just realised that because the device stops all other audio from working when plugged in, I can't playback what I've just recorded in the DAW because the audio has stopped working. And if I unplug the device, the play button stops working. If I go into the options and change the driver to something else, the play button works again and I can hear what's playing, until I plug the device back in again.

Yep, this is getting ready to go in the bottom of my closet, I haven't got a lot of hair left to tear out and I don't want to start on my beard.

Edit - now that I've installed that Behringer driver if I select 'USB Audio Codec' (as it was before, now it's called Behringer USB WDM Audio) when I have WaveRT as the driver as I usually do in Mixcraft, it works. If I select the right channel (the left channel is still silent) I can hear when I'm playing and recording and I can also playback what I've recorded. I've no idea about inputs, is a mono input usual, can I get away with this?

Still no idea what's going on in Reaper though, total silence no matter what I do. This is why i've always stuck to the one DAW.

[Sherman Krank]

Guitar output jacks and guitar leads are mono so your input will be mono, generally stereo mixes of songs are made up of panned mono tracks.
You have two inputs on the front of the UM2, the one labeled Mic/Line 1 is a composite input that can take both XLR and standard 1/4" guitar jacks (this will be IN1/Input1 in the DAW) and the one labeled inst 2 is just 1/4" (IN2/Input2).

If you're using the behringer driver then the audio will output to the UM2 so you'll need to plug headphones into it or connect some speakers to the left and right audio outputs on the back of it (pretty standard for most interfaces). I think Asio4all has an option that lets you route the output elsewhere.
(There's also a 'direct monitor' button on the front of the UM2 that might need to be engaged)

If you want to work with stereo tracks then record a track in mono then duplicate it to a new track (Reaper has an option in one of the drop down menus to do this, just select the track, click the option and it's done). Then just pan the tracks and you have stereo.
If you're willing to watch a few youtube tutorials then you can find out how to chain plug in effects to both tracks and add things like stereo reverbs and delays just on those tracks.

Edit

If I do 'Input Steero In 1 / In 2', the file I end up has a flat line on the top half and a waveform on the bottom half.

You've got the DAW set up to record both inputs at once and the flat line is the Mic/Line input where nothing is plugged in.

[BeardFaceMan]

Oh that's fine then, it was just that stereo was the default when I selected it so I thought it had to be that. I just select the right channel and it's working fine in Mixcraft now. I have my speakers that I have plugged into my PC for my audio selected as the default audio device, it looked like the UM2 was being selected as the default device every time it was plugged in and stopping all other audio from working. But now I've manually selected my default audio device the UM2 no longer stops other audio from working when plugged in and everything still works. Still no idea what's going on with Reaper, though. Just remembered I have Ableton Live 10 Lite too, it came with my MIDI keyboard but I didn't even install it, I'll give that a try later, see what happens.

Thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated.

EditYou've got the DAW set up to record both inputs at once and the flat line is the Mic/Line input where nothing is plugged in.

Edit - that makes sense now, cheers.

[idunnosomename]

i unplugged my behringer today because I'm going to be lecturing online away from home, and lo, my onboard laptop speakers have no drivers! I spent ages trying to download them but no dice. fucking hell I hate windows 10 audio. i got the onboard mic working though, so I'll just do it with headphones on.

I also have terrible problems with update changing drivers so the input shifts from mono to one stereo channel. i just do some things for fun, god knows how you handle this shit professionally with windows. i guess you dont

[mrClaypole]

I go through a line 6 pod pre amp.