having probs with recording my Yamaha APX 500 electro-acoustic through audacity 2.0. Am using windows 7 and a Tascam US 100 interface- this set-up works well with my electric guitar but I cannot get the volume without it distorting hugely using the electro-acoustic with piezo pickup.Is audacity compatible with piezos or can I adjust it to allow my recording attempts to be more successful.Thanks.
You should take this in steps. Can you get the interface SIG light to come on without turning the OL light on? Bigger interfaces would have an actual volume meter here, but we can go with that. Overload is going to happen at this interface step, not in Audacity. Guitar pickups of all types can produce some very serious volume levels and it’s sometimes difficult to record without distortion. Pay attention to those lights.
In Audacity you should have blue waves that never hit top and bottom and red recording meters what never go all the way up. Set that with the interface Output knob. This is a normal recording.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg
You may have other places to set volume, too, but start there.
It’s a difficult concept, but you can make a successful recording in Audacity (or most other programs) without ever hearing a note. The guitarist at work once went through an entire three minute song on his electric with no amp. I got a good recording, too. The meters and indicators are there for a reason.
After you make a recording, play it back and listen to it. If you can’t get the bone-crushing volume you started out with, that’s a playback problem, not a recording problem. The green playback meters should look pretty much like the red recording meters did.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg
You stopped short of telling how you’re listening to the show. USB interfaces and Windows can have a strained relationship.
Koz
thanks koz. I have set the signal level so its not going in the red- Im listening to playback through headphones.Blue wave patterns are way off touching the outer limits of the track- a lot less than on my electric and thats my query really- how come I can record with my magnetic pickupd electric guitar, with the wave getting very close to the edge at times, without distortion, but at much lower apparent volumes with the piezo equipped yamaha, I cant get a clean signal at much lower apparent volumes as indicated on the wave patterns.In other words, the only thing different about my set-up is the piezo- just had a thought, the volume on the yamaha was turned up full and the input level on the interface was at about 9 oclock,maybe playing around with different levels of these 2 will give me a better sound on playback-what do you think?