Hi,
As a newbie I would welcome some advice on which guitar USB interface would work best with Audacity. I have been looking at the Behringer UCA202 and the M Audio fast track. My intention is to import backing tracks then record the guitar through an FX into USB interface on to Audacity in my Windows Vista PC.
Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome.
Best regards,
Maurice.
Topic split from Sound Card Reviews topic
Provided that the output of the “FX” is a line level signal, then an UCA-202 would do it. It’s a well regarded device among many users of this forum.
And if its not you mioght want the Cakewalk UA-1G (it has its own hardware gain control) - see this sticky thread from the top of this section of the forum for reviews of sondcards that we know work well with Audacity: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/sound-card-reviews/8375/1
WC
Hi bgravato and WC,
Many thanks for your prompt replies. The thing I did not mention in my original post is that I am looking for something simple as this is a new project for me, and being a novice in PC recording my aim is to start with the easiest method. I have downloaded the latest beta Audacity and have successfuly imported a backing track to track 1 and now I am looking for the best way to record the guitar to track 2 which is why I posted my first request on this site. If you think the UCA 202 is the easiest device to use then I will go ahead and order one.
Best regards,
Maurice.
The raw electric guitar signal is pretty powerful. This is a clip of a guitarist playing an electric jammed straight into the Line-In of my Mac. No amps, no pedals, no effects.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/millerGuitar2.wav
You do need to know that you don’t get the sound of the cabinet or room when you do that. It’s pretty sterile sounding.
So I would expect adapting the 1/4" from the guitar straight into the “left” of the UCA202 would work grand. You also have the advantage that the UCA202 is one of the adapters that drives a headphone and will let you do perfect overdubbing and voice overs.
When you get your mixer involved, you can really go nuts.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo.jpg
Koz
A note. When you set up for overdubbing, each time you press record, Audacity will create a whole new track for you. After a number of passes, you have multiple tracks one over the other and you can do whatever you want to each one.
The picture is one I did with a slightly different hardware arrangement, but a mono microphone. The base track on top is my rhythm and chord machine. Next track is piano and the bottom track is violins.
Each phrase repitition, a different instrument joins in.
Koz
You need to be in Audacity 1.3.13 for these tricks to work. Your job is completely beyond what Audacity 1.2 can do.
http://audacityteam.org/download/
Koz
Hi Koz,
Many thanks for your replies, I only joined today and already I am learning. It might be a long road but I am looking forward to improving my knowledge.
You mentioned a mixer, but is it necessary to use one for such a simple 2 track recording ?
Best regards,
Maurice.
Probably not, as long as the audio interface that you are using has a suitable input for the signal that you are feeding into it.
To get good quality results, a microphone needs to be plugged into a microphone input and a “line level” signal needs to be plugged into “line level” input. A typical microphone signal is about 1000 x smaller than a line level signal. The output from an electric or electro acoustic guitar is typically a little less than “line level” and best suited to an “instrument” input.
The UCA 202 has a pair of line level inputs and is not really suitable for plugging in a guitar directly, and definitely not suitable for plugging in a microphone.
Amongst many other, ART make USB pre-amps that can accept the input from a guitar (they also make USB microphone pre-amps).
The output from a mixing desk can be plugged directly into a UCA 202, and many mixing desks have inputs for microphones and other inputs for instruments and/or line level signals. Adding even a small mixing desk can make the recording set-up more flexible, and becomes really important if you want to record more than 2 inputs at the same time.
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for the information. It appears that the UCA202 and a mixer go together quite well, so it might be a good idea to get a suitable mixer to help with my recordings.
Best regards,
Maurice.
First we need to know what is the source you are recording from.
You spoke about “FX” so I assume your talking about an electric guitar connected to some effects pedal, or similar, and then the pedal output would go into the UCA-202. Is this correct?
If so, what is the FX interface brand and model?
If not, tell us what equipment you have, brands and models.
Who has the ART preamp and is it USB?
Does it have headphone drivers? It kills you if you can’t do that headphone mixing thing.
Koz
I have the ART preamp and yes it is USB and it has headphones output for monitoring.
You have to be careful here - I too have an ART pre-amp, but it is just that a phono pre-amp. It is the DJ-PRE-II and has RCA phono ins and outs (and with a grounding post). It feeds my Edirol UA-1EX USB soundcard.
IIRC Bruno has the ART USBPhonoPlus v2 (which is esssentially my preamp with an addtional integrated USB souncard)
WC
No, mine is an ART USB Dual Pre, which is a (dual) mic preamp. I thought Koz was talking about that. I wasn’t aware of that phono preamp by ART.
Anyway first we need to know what kind of signal is maurice connecting to the interface (line-level, mic-level, other…).
I have the ART preamp and yes it is USB and it has headphones output for monitoring.
Can you listen to the computer track playback mixed with the live performance? It’s turning out that’s critically important for easy overdubbing success.
You know when we get posters complaining that the computer is trying to send the track playback back out to the sound device instead of the speakers? That turns out to be normal and highly desirable if the device knows what to do with the track sound when it gets there.
Koz
Yes I can hear the sound from the computer on the headphones connected to the preamp. There’s a knob on the back that lets you select how much of the sound is coming from the computer and how much is coming from the mic inputs.
I currently have all my recording equipment packed but it’s on my todo list to make more thorough tests on that feature.
The exact process for hardware overdubbing is the subject of a thing I’m writing.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/overdubbing/overdubbing.html
There are errors and typos, missing links, and orphan ideas yet, but you’d be doing a very close sister to this process. This Shure business is a USB Mic Amplifier with headphone mixing – just like yours, only I’m betting yours works better. Mine is not a particularly good amplifier.
Koz
Further to my previous post I have been looking at behringer USB mixers and wondered if I need a guitar interface and a mixer. Would I be right in thinking that just a mixer with a USB connection would be suitable.
Oops, I forgot to look at page 2 
My chain would be guitar / yamaha magicstomp / USB interface or USB mixer / PC. In my last post I asked if you needed an interface as well as a USB mixer and would appreciate any comments.