I am curious to know I'm just starting to learn how to use my Audio interface its a Focusrite 2i2. When you plug your guitar into the audio interface do you go direct or use pedals before plugging it in directly? Hope that makes sense!!

Do as you wish m8. You can use effects from computer or use real hardware before audiointerface.

Exactly, both options are ok. If you have a really good hardware processor, you can add it before the interface, if not, I recommend to use directly the amp simulators which can give great results.

There is a trick shared by Todd, that consists on adding a tube screamer before the audio interface as a preamp, to get a better result with amp simulators, so if you have one, or even a clone, try it.

Thank you. And yes I have the Ibanez Tube screamer

You can safely connect pedals up front, before going into the interface. I personally like to go direct and not mix "real" with "software modeling". Having said this, you can get certainly nice results using pedals in front of the audio interface and if you are running a software amp on your computer, you'll have the similar signal path as in the real world. For example, I have experience connecting Wah, delay and other pedals this way and it did work. The best is to try out all the possibilities to see what works well with your tone/setup. Other possibility would be to do everything in software, including pedals emulation.

Thank you Bogdan Going to experiment a bit today and see what sounds right to me.

If using peddles, you probably need to use an amp as well and mic it or use a dedicated out towards computer to get good sound . I use clean signal and plugins after the fact. there is a learning curve( very little) , but with a clean signal you can always change everything if you choose to do so.
A few suggestions
http://overloud.com/download/demo.php
http://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear
Both of these have a free demo for about a week or two. I would only download the demo if you can give them some serious time to get your feet wet. Also only demo one at a time you might get a little more free learning time that way

A LOT of guys (including me) will use a tube screamer with the distortion all the way down as a "clean boost" to help guitar plugins sound better Most guitar plugins can sound a bit crap unless you hit them pretty hard.

Thanks jstcrsn and Todd, going to try the demos out! Ive been wanting to learn about this stuff for quite sometime, still very confusing to me Still don't understand what plug ins are?? Are they for your Daw or recording software??

yes, easiest way to get started is to find a youtube tutorial about your DAW

p.s. get your feet wet with plugins before you put peddles in the loop, if you are not familiar with it you might put to strong a signal into your computer, don't want to fry ahything

You can view "plugins" term as "add on software" which you can use in your audio recording software. Audio recording software is usually referred to as "DAW" in short (Digital Audio Workstation) and these terms are indeed confusing. Plugins would be additional apps you can run inside your audio recording software and they would be for example Amplitube, Guitar Rig and other guitar modeling software. Their ability to run inside the audio recording software allows you to instantly play with the tones and everything while recording or mixing your guitar tracks. Please let me know if you need any help with this stuff?

Thank you Bogdan and jstcrsn. Thanks Bogdan for clearing that up that makes sense now

The best way to get going is to jump in! Try to record something, anything and share it on sound cloud. It's like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it will get

So I have been figuring out lots with the software plug ins etc so far its been awesome, now I want to be able to do this with my lessons on GMC because it sounds so much better. Here is a dumb question! When its all done, how do I send the video out? WAV, OGG etc. Hope that makes sense?

Once you get done mixing, say in reaper, you EXPORT/BOUNCE to a single audio file.

Then you import the audio in to your video editor and synch audio to video.

Then export the entire thing as a movie (.mp4 or something compressed) and upload to youtube.

Make sense?

Todd

Very interesting thread

got to try that out - tube screamer in front of interface - there is always something to explore .

Thank you guys !

Dieter

Trying to find the video Ivan did, I think it would be good here.

Have you found it yet?

This one?

Ok so on Mixcraft 6 it gives you a option to mix down! I'm assuming to MP3 for audio? And can anyone tell me is Windows Movie maker a good video editing software? I have it on my laptop!

Windows Movie Maker is fine for editing videos. Mac users get iMovie which works in a similar way. Win Movie Maker is not extremely versatile with different options but should make it possible for you to edit your videos in it successfully. If not (depending on the complexity of material you are editing), there should be some paid and free alternative out there. Please let me know if you need any help along the way?

I've never heard of mixcraft? Most folks use REAPER because it's free Also, many folks can help you with your questions if you use reaper since many folks use reaper

But if you want to use something else, it's your choice of course. I'd honestly suggest trying reaper though.

Windows movie maker is good enough for putting basic videos together but it's very limited so you'll probably out grow it pretty quick. But it will get you started!!

did you watch the video Bogdan posted, it is the best video to get someone started .It has reaper and movie maker in it ( if I remember it correctly, man I should watch it again to make sure before I post something )

Yeah thanks I did watch the video. Actually figured out a lot of info.

Yes, usually audio recording software would allow you to export "mixdown" or "render" of project. You would then select the time frame in the project timeline you wish to export (there are often little "guides" that you can drag around to select a specific area in the time line) and hit the export option. You can export to mp3 or .wav your final product/mix.

Please let me know if you need any help with this?

Thanks Bogdan I should of got Reaper instead of Mixcraft I suppose just because most people here use Reaper!

Reaper is very cool piece of software and it is free to try out and evaluate with full functionality.
Lots of people here use it and there is a strong community out there.

But Mixcraft should also work very well, no need to change really. I haven't used it myself but it looks capable.

YOU STILL CAN!! Reaper is free to download so go ahead and get it You can use both if you like. Most folks use reaper so it's easier to get help with questions and such. Nobody I know uses mixcraft so it would be hard to help you with it and hard to share projects. But you've already got it so may as well keep it as well

Thanks Bogdan and Todd. I had Reaper before and will get it again