10 replies to this topic

[hb]

I was playing with an old favorite of mine and decided to put it on Audacity, as my recording skills were needing a lesson. After listening and tinkering with it for a while, I don't know what makes the lower notes of the song so boomy and when it gets to the highest notes of the song, you can't even hear my guitar. The mid-level notes seem to record in a fairly decent fashion. I am recording through a cheap mic, because I have two amps plugged into my guitar through it's two jacks, thus, I couldn't figure out a way to plug the guitar into the line-in jack and still get the sound of both amps. I am recording over the original song but wearing earphones to keep the original song from coming out into the room and being recorded through the mic, which I guess, I do not want to happen?? I would appreciate any thoughts on this.
I uploaded a piece of it here:
i w only joking 1st take.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Thanks in advance,
hb

[Tekker]

Can you post a clip of just your guitar with out the original song?

-tkr

[hb]

I could have before I saved it. When recording, Audacity had my guitar on the bottom, and the song track on top, and at that time, I could mute either of them. But when saving the track, it evidently "blended" the two, cuz when I open the track, the only way it shows up is like the track I posted. Should I record just the my guitar?????
hb

[Tekker]

It sounds like you only exported both tracks to a single file (mp3), which is what you need to do to be able to post it online, but you can also save the Audacity project (under File menu) and keep both tracks separate in Audacity when you open the project again.

You could try re-recording the guitar, but even if you didn't save the project before you closed it you will still have the original guitar file on your hard drive. So if you want to find the guitar you already recorded, you can try looking through the Audacity folder and see if you can find it (it should be a wave file)... I'm not sure where the default location is for the files recorded in Audacity.

I always save my files in a new folder for every new song I make. This way I can always find files later if I have to.

-tkr

[hb]

Thanks Tekker......I couldn't find the file anywhere in the Audacity folder, but I think I have part of the problem figured out. I adjusted the preamp on the acoustic/electric a little, taking a lot of the bass out and turning up the mid and high levels, and although it's not exactly right, it did seem to help a bunch. I'll try to tweak on it some more. It seems like just because the guitar sounds okay to one's ear, that's not necessarily how it's going to come through the computer......dunno
thanks,
hb

[Tekker]

You mentioned before that you are using a cheap mic, so are you running the guitar into the amp from the guitar's output and then miking the amp?

-tkr

[hb]

Tekker said:

You mentioned before that you are using a cheap mic, so are you running the guitar into the amp from the guitar's output and then miking the amp?

-tkr

Thanks for the reply. Let me go into some details, as maybe this will shed some light as to what I'm doing and what the problem might be.
I have an Ibanez Montage acoustic/electric, which has two jacks on it for using amps. One jack is for the magnetic pu, and the other jack is for the acoustic pu, and it has a 5-way switch which controls the usage of the two jacks. One can even blend the output of the jacks.
The solo that I posted actually has an acoustic guitar solo part, and a distorted electric guitar solo. I wanted to play the solo just like the original, so I set one amp up with acoustic settings and another amp up with a distorted electric setting. I did this because there's not enough time in the song to stop and change amp settings using just one amp, thus I flip a switch on the guitar and change from acoustic sound to electric sound.
After doing this, I came to realize that I didn't know how to hook up both these amps to the computer, so after studying your posts on recordings, I figured that my only option was to record directly into a little, cheap, computer mic that I have on my computer. Thus, I'm probably getting background noise, ie, computer fan noise, etc., into the recording also.
I realize now from your posts that going directly to "line-in" is a better way to do it, but I just didn't know how to get this done.
So this is how I have it set up. Maybe I'm trying to do too much........dunno.
Sorry for such a lengthy description, but I felt that all this probably comes into play and thought that it was worth mentioning.
Thanks again,
hb

[Tekker]

hb said:

I realize now from your posts that going directly to "line-in" is a better way to do it, but I just didn't know how to get this done.

Yes, going directly into the line in will give a much better sound than using a computer mic. You will need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to make the guitar cable fit into the computer. Radio Shack and/or any music store should have these.

Hosa Technology | Audio Cable 1/4" TS Phone Male | GMP-386

Another option would be to get a 1/4" Y-splitter and the 1/4" to 1/8" adapter so you can use both of the outputs on your guitar.
Hosa Technology | 1/4" Male to Two 1/4" | YPP-118

For the electric part you can use amp simulator effects plugins so you can get the distortion for the electric part. I have a list of free effects plugins that I have used and like here (for electric guitar try
AcmeBarGig DIG 2.0, it is pretty awesome for a free plugin! )
http://www.guitarfor...5-freebie-list/

Then in the windows mixer you need to set the input to line in and adjust the recording volume level:
http://www.guitarfor...ws-sound-mixer/

That should do it.

-tkr

[hb]

Tekker said:

Yes, going directly into the line in will give a much better sound than using a computer mic. You will need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to make the guitar cable fit into the computer. Radio Shack and/or any music store should have these.

Hosa Technology | Audio Cable 1/4" TS Phone Male | GMP-386

Another option would be to get a 1/4" Y-splitter and the 1/4" to 1/8" adapter so you can use both of the outputs on your guitar.
Hosa Technology | 1/4" Male to Two 1/4" | YPP-118

For the electric part you can use amp simulator effects plugins so you can get the distortion for the electric part. I have a list of free effects plugins that I have used and like here (for electric guitar try
AcmeBarGig DIG 2.0, it is pretty awesome for a free plugin! )
http://www.guitarfor...5-freebie-list/

Then in the windows mixer you need to set the input to line in and adjust the recording volume level:
http://www.guitarfor...ws-sound-mixer/

That should do it.

-tkr

Thanks Tekker! That's going to take a little studying!
If I use the splitter and plug each amp into the computer using the splitter, am I correct in saying that I would not need the amp simulator effects plugin? This being that this effects plugin takes the place of an amp?
Also, will these plugins work with Audacity?
Thanks again!
hb

[Tekker]

hb said:

If I use the splitter and plug each amp into the computer using the splitter, am I correct in saying that I would not need the amp simulator effects plugin?

Yes, if your amps have line outputs that would also work.

Quote

Also, will these plugins work with Audacity?

The plugins will work with Audacity, but not in real time, so you can't change them after you apply them to the track. Which is a huge drawback of Audacity and one of several reasons why I never spent much time looking at it. I really like Reaper and although it's not free it is very cheap at $60 and the demo version is fully functional and never expires so you can try it out.

-tkr

[hb]

Thanks a bunch ! !
hb