Software Audio Production Blog, for beginners Options

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Hey guys, I'm trying to make a small blog here that will combine some of my older posts with new material in wish to help the beginners to make their first steps towards more professional software recording:

Digital Processor for Guitar:

Processor is a digital unit that changes the way you guitar sounds. Example of a processor is Boss GT8, but there are cheaper models, varying in price from 20-30$ to thousands of dollars. The reason you would need a processor is because they can convert guitar unbalanced signal into a balanced one which your card can take. They also process your sound, emulating famous guitar gear, and convert your signal into digital one. Here are some processors ranging from cheaper to more expensive ones:


Zoom G2


Line 6 POD XT Live


Roland VG99


TC Electronics G System


Fractal Audio Axe-FX Ultra

Computer Audio chips


can be roughly categorized like this:

1. integrated cards - these cards are of the worst quality. You get them with your motherboard and they should serve mainly as a worst case scenario backup situations. If you consider the fact that you get them for free bundled with the motherboard, you can presume what quality they have. Nevertheless newer motherboard models have more advanced chips and these cards are now enough for mainstream users, and some pilot recording projects.
This is the looks of one chip called Realtek that is often used for integrated solutions:


2. mainstream pc (aka gamer) cards - these cards are more expensive than integrated ones, they offer better sound quality, more clearer sound, and more accurate sound response. They also have bigger processing power than integrated ones, and the memory of their own, which enables them to add some effects on the sound of the computer. A lot of consumer cards will have options for enabling reverberation or chorus effects that can enhance gaming experience. The example of these cards are Creative Sound Blaster Series as one of the best selling cards on the market. Here's example of the high-end consumer market gamer card:


3. music production cards - these cards are mainly intended for music producing purposes, and branch into several categories, but most popular for beginners are audio interfaces. These interfaces have all the inputs and outputs for connecting instrument to computer and recording it with no problems. Interfaces are made mainly as external products, which means they serve as a external sound card with USB or Firewire connection.
Here's an example of a cheap Line 6 interface, notice the guitar input and modeling software that you get with the device:


There are also other music production systems, both PCI, external or combined solutions, but let's not go in-depth about it now.


If you wanna record sound on your computer, the wisest thing to do is to buy a small cheap guitar interface, like this Line 6 Toneport GX is on the last picture. This will get you a solid working sound card for recording, and program that has different guitar effects that you can apply to your guitar when recording in real-time.

Couple of words about latency:

In real-time speaking in audio production terms, means that there is a small amount of latency involved. Why is this important? Well because signal that goes into your card must travel through the card, and processor, and back to the card and to speakers, and be processed in the meantime. This time is mesaured in miliseconds and it is called latency. Anything above 15-20ms is generally not good, and you can perceive the delay, and anything bellow is good. Integrated and consumer cards are not optimized for low latency monitoring, but music production sound cards are. They usually have some sort of direct monitoring that can send signal before it reaches the processor. This enables you to hear and record your guitar in the same time you play it. Well not exactly in realtime time but with less than 15-20ms latency.

In the end I wanna say that you can record things with your integrated card as well, just don't expect that good performance and you will need a device that will transfer your guitar unbalanced signal to line-level one that sound card can take via Line In.

If you buy a cheap interface you will not have these problems and can record much better, and plug your guitar straight into interface. The latency will be small and you will have effects to color the sound a bit.


In the following posts I will go through software and other interesting things you should know about making music at home!

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This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Aug 18 2011, 06:36 PM

[Ivan Milenkovic]

After all this technical mumbo jumbo about connections, it's time to actually start pluggin in (finally) There are several ways you can connect and record your guitars, most often used include the ones bellow. They are ranged so that the first ones in the list require most budget, but are least practical. Lower down the list are cheaper options, but more practical and flexible:

1. Plug the guitar into an amp, mic the cab, and record the microphone sound into mic preamp/sound card
2. Plugging the guitar into guitar head with line out, or guitar preamp, and connecting to line in on sound card
3. Plugging guitar into processor, connecting the processor via analog or digital link to sound card
4. Connecting the guitar into audio card with Hi-Z input (aka audio interface) and modeling the tone from software

1. Plug the guitar into an amp, mic the cab, and record the microphone sound into mic preamp/sound card: The first option is the most expensive one, and it will require most money and biggest chunks of gear. The end result may prove to be most natural one, but only if you know what you are doing. Just as having a pro skate doesn't make you Tony Hawk (it actually guarantees lots of injuries! )- having all that gear doesn't qualify for best tone possible, in fact, it can test your patience at moments. With experience, it can guarantee best tones tho. If you own guitar amp, guitar cab, room to crank it and to baffle it, microphone(s), mic preamp, and sound card (duh..) you can start experimenting right away.

There is one (and only IMHO! ) good thing about this particular approach. The sound from a real tube amp will be better then the sound you will emulate through software or processor. Real thing is always better than the emulation, no matter how good the emulation is. But, you can also create a mosquito attack tone easily, and some guy with software will create that huge tone you are craving for. How? By experimenting and knowing your gear, recording space and mixing techniques inside out.

Bad sides of this approach is that you have to play relatively loud (not important if you have deaf neighbours), you have to experiment a lot in studio, have nerves to always adjust, record, adjust record.. One important downside of this approach is that people usually have couple of amps only, and this will prove limiting after a while in creating various tones. If you do have the amp that you really like and it has your signature tone, there is always an option of getting another cool mic, another cool preamp, another cool stand, another cool acoustic foam, another cool cab... you see where this is going?

various ways of micing this marshall cab


I will not put too much words about the factors that are important, but will mention some of the important ones, and leave you to experiment, cause this is the best way to actually observe and learn your particular gear in your particular recording situation:

- proper room acoustics
- quality balance of the complete gear chain (eliminating bottlenecks first)
- choosing the best possible gear for the job
- microphone placement and microphone combinations
- loudness of the amp vs microphone sensitivity
- setting the tone right in relation to musical arrangement/function
- avoiding clipping and EQing (a lot) before recording
- recording dry (unless there is nice acoustics available for capturing)


In general, problematics of this kind of recording involves lots of factors, but with lots of experimenting and studying, great results can be achieved. I do recommend testing this method if you have the gear and means available.
Since the gear list is big, and budget can increase greatly with each component, I do recommend thinking it over before you actually go into the shop and get everything you need. You might want to consider other options too.
This method is as close as it gets to professional studio recording, so it might be worth taking a shot, and interesting experience for those who would like to taste some of that work. Like I said, the end results can be very satisfying after a while, and you will be richer for one cool experience, which will eventually help you in the emulating world too. Here applies the general rule: Once you learn how the "real thing" sounds, it will be easier to emulate it later through software.




to be continued....

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This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Jul 27 2011, 04:50 PM