Guitarix Volume, tone settings

[theresidents]

Hi, im trying to use guitarix/etc to get some distortion effects. I dont get it yet (or i dont get computer fx at all).
I made this setup on qjackctl
Guitar input on sound card -> non mixer -> guitarix/jackrack/calf/rakarack -> non mixer -> sound card output -> marshall amplifier input.
Or just input -> guitarix -> output card.

The guitar is a 7 string Schecter with active pickups connected to the 1st inst channel on the sound card.
The jack is set on 96000 hz 256 sample rate. 8 msec latency.
Kernel is set on RT.
What would you recomend to limit noise at the output posible, system crashes, cliping, etc to get direct to the amp. I have damaged my ears in the past, and have to protect all from possible higher volume crashes.

My main problem is with distortions, they sound too much like a real ringmodulator pedal with some tweaks, when i try to use palm mutting, it doesnt make any change, or sounds fluffy. Also i dont like how the other effects sound in general (delay, reverb) , maybe i have to connect the sound card, to normal loudspeakers?

What presets, volume settings would you recommend to practice some metal?

[glowrak guy]

For in-the-box production (not using mic/tube-amp setup)

guitar signal
real preamp/stomp/eq as desired (helps counteract variants in pickups, strings, soundcards etc)
computer input
software amp-sim
software compressor/modulations/eq/reverb
software cab-sim
*reverb (in case it works better here, or supplements an earlier reverb well)
flat response monitors/headphones
recording hard/software
mastering hard/software

Plugins your ears will want, are noise-gates up front, to dampen high frequencies,
and a limiter, further down the chain, perhaps before the reverb, to catch the
mystery explosions. Guitarix has a lot of the plugins covered.
There are calf, invada, and mda collections, to make chains from.

In actual use, the free version of Audio Assault's GrindMachine is my favorite
high gain ampsim, and it's very wine friendly. Many prefer LePous collection,
I really like his SoloC Fullstack, a Soldano implementation, for classicals.

But the most of my string bending gets done with just rakarrack, and presets
made on my fender mustang usb amp. Simple, and I like the results. I'm
not yet a gearhead, but grindmachine or soloC, with rakarrack are great
for crushing a case of the blues.

You might also google up some of the Russian amp sims, for heavy metal.
I've tested some that should be keepers, if time allowed.
Cheers

[ssj71]

Guitar input on sound card -> non mixer -> guitarix/jackrack/calf/rakarack -> non mixer -> sound card output -> marshall amplifier input.
Or just input -> guitarix -> output card.

That sounds like it should work. What kind of soundcard are you using? If its not very high quality you will get a lot of input noise. There's simply not a good way to get really good quality through that noise. Gates etc improve it but it will always be a struggle to get working settings. When I started out I just used my laptop internal soundcard and fought this quite a bit. I have a cheap chinese usb guitar link that is still a bit noisy in high gain but its much improved over the laptop soundcard for noise. If you are stuck with a lousy soundcard consider recording it clean, removing the noise manually in post processing then adding the high gain. Perhaps though you have a great sound card though and none of this applies.

You probably do want a lookahead limiter on the output to protect your ears. Try to keep the volume below the threshold otherwise it will affect your sound.

[theresidents]

For in-the-box production (not using mic/tube-amp setup)

guitar signal
real preamp/stomp/eq as desired (helps counteract variants in pickups, strings, soundcards etc)
computer input
software amp-sim
software compressor/modulations/eq/reverb
software cab-sim
*reverb (in case it works better here, or supplements an earlier reverb well)
flat response monitors/headphones
recording hard/software
mastering hard/software

Plugins your ears will want, are noise-gates up front, to dampen high frequencies,
and a limiter, further down the chain, perhaps before the reverb, to catch the
mystery explosions. Guitarix has a lot of the plugins covered.
There are calf, invada, and mda collections, to make chains from.

In actual use, the free version of Audio Assault's GrindMachine is my favorite
high gain ampsim, and it's very wine friendly. Many prefer LePous collection,
I really like his SoloC Fullstack, a Soldano implementation, for classicals.

But the most of my string bending gets done with just rakarrack, and presets
made on my fender mustang usb amp. Simple, and I like the results. I'm
not yet a gearhead, but grindmachine or soloC, with rakarrack are great
for crushing a case of the blues.

You might also google up some of the Russian amp sims, for heavy metal.
I've tested some that should be keepers, if time allowed.
Cheers

Hi, thanks Grindmachine is great, to get that dry djent tone.
I also like amplitube metal.

at kind of soundcard are you using? If its not very high quality you will get a lot of input noise. There's simply not a good way to get really good quality through that noise. Gates etc improve it but it will always be a struggle to get working settings. When I started out I just used my laptop internal soundcard and fought this quite a bit. I have a cheap chinese usb guitar link that is still a bit noisy in high gain but its much improved over the laptop soundcard for noise. If you are stuck with a lousy soundcard consider recording it clean, removing the noise manually in post processing then adding the high gain. Perhaps though you have a great sound card though and none of this applies.

Im using a Saffire Pro 24, firewire.
I found that a cheap ipod player system sounds better than going to the amp.

[ssj71]

I think then it might be an impedance issue, connecting a line out to a instrument input of an amp doesn't always work the best.

But if you take the amp out of the equation you still have problems? I guess this is just a preference issue, you don't care for the particular sound you have right now. You might try rakarrack and disable everything but StompBox set to Mid Elves Own. Its a Metal Zone pedal type effect. Maybe thats what you are looking for. Or some reading for you: http://sourceforge.net/p/guitarix/wiki/ ... hat_rocks/

Also if you are very worried about audio spikes you might consider finding a piece of hardware to limit the input to the amp.
Anyhow sorry if I'm not very helpful!

[zettberlin]

I connect my Guitars to the instrument input of a MAudio MobilePreUSB, connect it to guitarix, guitarix to ardour and to system_out and thats it.

Considering the results of recordings its the best amp I ever used. And I used a lot of them, including H&K Attax, MesaBoogie and 3or4 different Marshalls.

The only thing I miss is the range of difference one can have with a real amp by just using the volume on the guitar. I cannot find settings where guitarix delivers a nice clean sound at low volume and extreme lead-shred at max. But its getting near and a simple stomp-box could solve that methinks...