Recording guitar - newbie question

joeyamg

I bought a super champ xd recently, usually play it at low levels at home and very happy with it. I've also started recording myself for the first time which is very enjoyable but I'm running into some volume issues!

I've no mic at the minute so I've been running the line out on the SCXD into my audio interface, but the problem I'm having is that there is no way to disable the speaker. The volume knob affects the line out level. Recording either channel via the line out, with the volume turned off, and I get no signal. I need to have the knob at about 3-4 to get a decent recording signal, but that is a bit too loud for the neighbours, especially late at night.

Any advice?

KeithTS

Not too sure of your setup, didn't quite follow your description, can you replace your speakers with headphones?
If not can you place a preamp before your input to the audio interface to boost the signal so you don't have to turn up so loud?

joeyamg

I'm new to all this so excuse my stupidity! My guitar is plugged into the amp input and then my amp line out is plugged into an m-audio fast track pro...I use headphones with the fast track pro (which has a preamp built in), I don't really want the amp speaker to produce any sound at all as I use headphones to listen to the overall sound?

KeithTS

I'm not too familiar with these amps so I dunno which way it's wired but there's a couple of things you can try.

1) If the gain is turned up but the volume knob is turned all the way down will you get a signal from the line out?

If you do get signal that way it should solve your problem, the gain knob should control your input signal, the volume knob will control your output level from the speaker.
Obviously with the gain turned high the signal will distort even with the volume all the way down so take that into account if you are receiving a dodgy line out.

2) If that doesn't work check out the image on the link below.

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2331100000#

<Amp goes boom>

Removed this as it could cause an amp to blow - feylya

Demeyes

KeithTS wrote: »

I'm not too familiar with these amps so I dunno which way it's wired but there's a couple of things you can try.

1) If the gain is turned up but the volume knob is turned all the way down will you get a signal from the line out?

2) If that doesn't work check out the image on the link below.

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2331100000#

It shows the back of your amp, if you look at the cavity in the back where the back of the speaker is exposed you will see two small wires clipped onto the left hand side of the speaker, these should just slide off and back on again, if you disconnect those wires you will not get any sound from your speaker no matter how high you have the gain and volume knobs but you should get signal coming form your line out.

I wouldn't reccomend doing what I just said if you are unsure as if you aren't able to connect those wires back you will have useless amp.

Don't disconnect the speaker! You'll stand a pretty good chance of blowing something in the amp then. A poweramp needs a load and you'll remove that if you disconnect the speakers.
I'd recommend just using amp sims if you want to record late at night. These are programs that replicate the sound of amps and will get you a pretty passable tone for home recording. There are loads freely available on the net too. Using these you just plug your guitar into the interface and run the amp sim plugin in your recording program and the sound will come out your headphones. These are great because you can tweak your tone after the recording too so you can dial in a great sound after you've nailed the take.

joeyamg

Thanks for the responses lads, I've read that unplugging the amp isn't a good idea, so didn't touch it! I've heard you can buy a dummy load for the speaker, but was wondering if there was an easier way.

I've been using Guitar rig 4 for amp modelling, does a good job, there's just a couple of settings that I really like on the amp that I've found very difficult recreate with GR. Suppose if I persevere I might get closer to it....

Paolo_M

Don't follow any advice from KeithTS!! Holy sh*t, that's some really dumb, idiotic, dangerously mis-informed advice!! :eek: :eek:





I'd agree with Demeyes, amp sims are awesome these days and perfect for silent recording.

Are you PC or Mac?
What style of music do you play?
What DAW are you using?

I must that I don't like Guitar Rig at all.
If you're Windows based there's loads of far better free ones.
Grab LA Convolver (free) and Guitar Hacks Impulses (free) instead of the sim speaker and I guarantee that no-one will notice that it's a sim.
Let us know your platform and style and I'll post some links.

joeyamg

Cheers Paolo M, much appreciated...I'm using a PC, I only bought the interface recently so I've been trying a few different DAW's, so far I've found Sony Acid Pro 7 the easiest to use but not positive I'll stick with it.

I like the Johnny Marr sound with the Smiths/Cribs/Modest mouse. So usually jangly/chimy riffs, fairly clean with a little reverb and delay, also like a surf sound with really deep reverb. Very rarely play anything heavily distorted.

I'll take a look at both of those sims and any links/recommendations would be great...Thanks again!!

Dord

Please ignore the advise from KeithTS, it's just downright dangerous!

Unfortunately because of the design of the amp that's the way it works. When you use the line-out it can't disable the speaker because the amp still needs to see a load. The best way round this is to just record direct into your pc with an ampsim like Paolo said, or otherwise you could get a power attenuator like the Weber MicroMASS. That might be a little overkill for an amp like this though.

Paolo_M

joeyamg wrote: »

Cheers Paolo M, much appreciated...I'm using a PC, I only bought the interface recently so I've been trying a few different DAW's, so far I've found Sony Acid Pro 7 the easiest to use but not positive I'll stick with it.

I like the Johnny Marr sound with the Smiths/Cribs/Modest mouse. So usually jangly/chimy riffs, fairly clean with a little reverb and delay, also like a surf sound with really deep reverb. Very rarely play anything heavily distorted.

I'll take a look at both of those sims and any links/recommendations would be great...Thanks again!!

Reaper is a great and cheap DAW, have you tried it? You can download a fully functioning demo and "evaluate" it for as long as you want.

I'm more into heavier stuff. For that I find ReValver III to be about the best there is, and I've tested almost all of them. This clip is EZDrummer, ReValver for guitar and bass and the DAW is Reaper. It's not a masterpiece of playing or mixing or anything, but it's a good example of the quality of tones that can be had by sims alone. Everything on this track is fake!!
http://www.netmusicians.org/files/70-Baker%20Street.mp3

Voxengo Boogex http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/ is a free amp sim for Windows. It does good low gain.
It's also some other great free plug-ins on that site.
LePou has a bunch of great higher gain sims for free, I'm into the heavier stuff remember!! http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/
The HyBrit does a nice clean/mild overdrive. Should get close to that jangly Voxy type tone.