Contents:
•
Introduction
•
Plugging In and Setting Up Soundcard
•
Installing VST Effects and Loading Them Into Kristal
•
Setting up ASIO Drivers
•
Setting Up Live Input/Effects Monitoring
Introduction
This lesson will cover the basics of setting up the free recording program
Kristal Audio. As well as how to use Kristal as a guitar effects processor in realtime. In other words, you can plug your guitar into your computer and hear the effects in Kristal 'live' as you are playing just like you would if you plugged into a guitar pedal or effects unit. But the best part is, this is completely FREE!
A list of free effect plugins that I have used are listed
HERE.
Plugging In and Setting Up Soundcard
If you are plugging your guitar straight into your soundcard (without a mixer or anything inbetween your guitar and soundcard) then you will still want to plug your guitar into the "line in" on your soundcard instead of the mic input (for those using stock soundcards), since your guitar puts out more signal than a microphone it should work fine. The mic preamps those cards aren't very good and are meant for those $3 PC mics, so try to avoid them when using for anything that is music/recording related.
For those using a standard PC soundcard: Open your soundcard mixer window (double click on the speaker icon at the bottom-right of your screen) and first off, mute the "Line In" channel. This is only for playback (not recording) so you will not actually be muting the input and the signal will be heard through Kristal. Because you can hear your guitar through your soundcard without Kristal even being open, if you don't mute the playback for the Line In, you will hear a combination of the dry and wet signals when you monitor your effects through Kristal. Therefore, you want to mute the dry signal.
Now go to Options --> Properties --> Adjust Volume For "Recording" (make sure the "Line In" box is checked in the list below and press OK)... Once your mixer opens, select the line input and make sure the volume is up a little bit (not a lot because the guitar effects add a lot of volume and you will get some nasty clipping distortion if the input is up to loud). Plus I have found that the Boogex works best if you have a very low input volume, so I probably wouldn't go above 1/4 of the way up. It's hard for me to give an exact level since for my experiments I'm using my mixer and not going straight in, so after you get everything setup try adjusting the sliders while you are playing to get the best tones.
See an updated tutorial on using the standard sound card mixer window HERE.
For those using a multiple input recording soundcard: Open the mixer for your soundcard and press the mute button for the channel that you are going to be using. This is only for playback (not recording) so you will not actually be muting the input and the signal will be heard through Kristal. Because you can hear your guitar through your soundcard without Kristal even being open, if you don't mute the playback for that channel, you will hear a combination of the dry and wet signals when you monitor your effects through Kristal. Therefore, you want to mute the dry signal.
There should be a way to adjust the input volume on your soundcard and I have found that the Boogex works best if you have a very low input volume, so I probably wouldn't go up very far. So after you get everything setup try adjusting the sliders while you are playing to get the best tones