Recording with guitar/mic PC, preamp, DI box?

[scarrz]

hi all

think this is my first post... here we go.

I am fiddling around with jack/guitarix/ardour. Previously I had been using my onboard sound which created tons of noise on the high gain setting for guitarix. So, I noticed on my laptop, it sounded much clearer... bought a $60 AudigyFX and cleaned up the input. But I still get alot of noise. Either that or I don't fully understand how to operate guitarix to get a nice signal/high-gain-tone. So far the JCM800 settings are a bit pleasing but I have been doing a bit of reading.... musicians are suggesting a DI box for my guitar. I see this berhinger one for pretty cheap that even has cabinet emulation. Should I get it? (I'm thinking yes) What I want: All I'm after is sounding at least as good as the youtube videos around for guitarix. Comments?

[MattKingUSA]

A di box works well for instruments with a hum. But there are passive amd active di boxes. So get the one you need. I use one that is passive for one of my keyboards.

[English Guy]

Make sure you are recording at mic level and not line level. Mic's need pre amps but they introduce noise. Guitars have a more powerful signal that do not need a pre amp.

I had noise problems with my onboard sound card on my laptop. I fixed it by turning off the pre amp using alsamixer. On my system it was called 'mic boost' and was responsible for all the noise, yours may be called something else.

(If you use alsamixer from a terminal you will have to use the F6 key to make sure you have selected the right soundcard. Mine defaults to pulse audio which is no use for sorting this.)

[English Guy]

The other thing that can cause noise is interference, the guitar may need keeping from the PC and mains adaptors away from your other gear. My line6 POD has to be kept away from the laptop for example.

[CrocoDuck]

I have the very same DI box you mention. I never use the cab simulation... but it is a good cheap piece of hardware. Most of the tracks I recorded were recorded with this chain:

Instrument -> DI Box -> Analog Mixer -> Soundcard (FCA202)

I never had problems with noise I couldn't solve by trimming properly the gains (both in the mixer and in the software) and maybe a least little touch of post processing with a filter.

Now I use a Scarlett 2i4 and noise is not bad at all.

I recommend to use a DI box. Beside balancing the line and being able to tackle ground loops, it adapts impedance from instrument to soundcard input, which is very good for overall sound quality.