Guitar recording: Low volume, metronome output gets recorded

[gessie]

Hello,

I'm new around here, but forgive me for not posting an introduction. Frankly, I'm frustrated and just looking for a quick fix right now (though I do tend to linger on forums).

The title describes the problems in short, but here's a detailed explanation: I've been playing guitar for a few years now and decided to record. So I bought a connector for my guitar cable (1,4" TS) to be inserted into my PC's audio input or mic input port (3,5mm TSR), and I tried both.

Recording in Audacity works, though I get very low volume input. It doesn't at all have the full sound of my amp, which is a budget model (so I don't think my expectations are too high). In fact, it gives a very similar sound to when I turn my amp volume almost completely down (about 5%), which entirely removes the subtlety of how I (want to) play.

More importantly though, when I turn on the Metronome of Guitar Pro 5, it gets recorded as well. And far more loudly than my playing. The combination of using a metronome and being able to play my recording would be such a great learning tool, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, some info:
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
Audacity version: 1.2.6
Sound card: Realtek HD
Equipment chain: Guitar > Boss GT-3 Guitar Effects Processor > PC

[kozikowski]

You're not recording your guitar. You're recording the Computer Sound, Mix-Out, Stereo-Out, or whatever your computer calls it. This is the setting you need to record YouTube or other internet shows, but really messes you up when you want to do straight recording.

These are the instructions to record computer sound. You want to do the opposite of that:

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

A guitar pickup has a powerful output more suited for Stereo Line-In rather than mono Mic-In.

<<<It doesn't at all have the full sound of my amp>>>

Not surprising. Guitar Amplifiers are designed for distortion. They're peaky, boomy, and forward with no thought at all for flat, super high quality. We had a small guitar amplifier in the shop that had a control, in addition to Volume and Tone, called Distortion. And it worked. Unfortunately, you couldn't turn it all the way off.

The guitar and the amplifier are a married couple and separating them generally isn't such a hot idea. That's why there's pages of instructions on how to mic your amplifier cabinet and with what kind of mic.

Unfortunately, you also mic the room when you do that.

This isn't easy.

Koz

[gessie]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried changing the input and even output devices, but it's pretty strange. I have XP, though the dropdown button in the mixer toolbar is grayed out (which, according to what I read on here, should only happen on Vista and 7). Furthermore, when I go to the Audio I/O tab in Preferences, I only see these two listed in the Recording section:

Microsoft-geluidstoewijzing - Input (translation from Dutch: "Microsoft-soundassignment - Input")
Realtek HD Audio Input

The output list has the same, though "in" is obviously replaced with "out". I've tried changing 1 (Mono) to 2 (Stereo). Enabling software playthrough makes it a complete mess of what seems to be feedback.

Also, on a possibly related note, the latter also happened when I used some random recording tool off of Sourceforge. It doesn't seem to be specific to Audacity.

Not surprising. Guitar Amplifiers are designed for distortion. They're peaky, boomy, and forward with no thought at all for flat, super high quality. We had a small guitar amplifier in the shop that had a control, in addition to Volume and Tone, called Distortion. And it worked. Unfortunately, you couldn't turn it all the way off.

There are some guitar amplifiers which focus on a clean sound, though I'm not sure if that's what you mean. The Fender Twin Reverb is a classic example. I'd love to get my hands on a proper vintage Twin someday.

[kozikowski]

<<<There are some guitar amplifiers which focus on a clean sound>>>

A clean guitar sound. Nobody would put their phonograph or iPod through a guitar amplifier and nobody would play their guitar through their entertainment sound system.

They're really different.

The reason people want the older amplifiers is to get the right distortion. Vacuum tube sound is a singular experience and really hard to duplicate in solid state amplifiers. Are these cabinets open in the back? That means they use the room as part of the cabinet resonance. Very few entertainment music systems do that because it's very hard to control. Subtle Control is a waste of time when the performer is doing his Jimi Hendrix thing at full volume.

<<<It doesn't seem to be specific to Audacity.>>>

All these tools are a slave to the computer. If the computer and sound card can't deliver uncomplicated sound to the system, then you're never going to get a clear recording

The further you get into the details of how the sound card is managed, the further you get from me. I'm one of the Mac elves.

Do you have Skype? Skype messes with the sound channels. Obviously, to have a phone call, you need to run both the microphone and speaker at once. That's unnatural, and Skype uses special tools and software to achieve that. That, too, is a problem when you're trying to record a simple performance.

Koz

[gessie]

Subtle Control is a waste of time when the performer is doing his Jimi Hendrix thing at full volume.

Ah, I get what you're saying. Guess I never encountered it before because I never tried mixing the two.

And no, no Skype. I used to have Ventrilo but I've uninstalled that by now.