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Recording guitar in Logic I am lost - any help?


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I have been reading so much information on this I thought I would post here and see if I could find a consensus

 

Here is my signal chain:

 

Guitar>Apogee Symphony Desktop>Logic Pro>Amplitube 5

 

I have the following questions:

 

1. When I plug my guitar into the HI-Z input on the Apogee, should I set my Apogee so that the guitar does not hit above -18dBFS on the Apogee Control meter?

 

2. If I am wrong (likely) about setting the gain in Apogee, what level should I aim for in Apogee Control?

 

3. Once I have the proper level in Apogee Control, how would I then ensure the proper level in Logic before inserting Amplitube on the track?

 

Bonus: I am just confused with the whole -18dBFS and where that number comes into play - is it in Apogee before going to Logic? Is it in the Logic mixer? pre-fader in Logic? post-fader in Logic? once I load Amplitube in, do I need to change everything I already set?

 

 

It seems the more I read about how to properly set these levels, the more confused I get

 

If anyone can give me the quick and dirty of how to set these levels I would truly appreciate it

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should I set my Apogee so that the guitar does not hit above -18dBFS on the Apogee Control meter?

No. Turn it up so it does not go above -1dBFs on the absolute loudest parts.

 

3. Once I have the proper level in Apogee Control, how would I then ensure the proper level in Logic before inserting Amplitube on the track?

Apogee Control should be transparent, ie. it should hand over the incoming audio 1:1 to Logic, without any changes.

 

I am just confused with the whole -18dBFS

Forget about it for now (and possibly for a long time).

 

once I load Amplitube in, do I need to change everything I already set?

No.

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should I set my Apogee so that the guitar does not hit above -18dBFS on the Apogee Control meter?

No. Turn it up so it does not go above -1dBFs on the absolute loudest parts.

 

3. Once I have the proper level in Apogee Control, how would I then ensure the proper level in Logic before inserting Amplitube on the track?

Apogee Control should be transparent, ie. it should hand over the incoming audio 1:1 to Logic, without any changes.

 

I am just confused with the whole -18dBFS

Forget about it for now (and possibly for a long time).

 

once I load Amplitube in, do I need to change everything I already set?

No.

 

 

Do I need to check anything on pre-fader metering?

 

So the -18dBFS was a rabbit hole I never had to go down? I guess I thought it should be at that level to work properly with Amplitube as an analog modeler?

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Logic will show input level (pre-fader, pre plugins) anyway if your track is rec enabled.

 

-18dBFs is only applicable with analog modeled gear, to hit the sweet spot, if any such level dependent behaviours are actually included in the model, that is true.

 

But then, you will vary your input levels wildly anyway, with the volume knob on your guitar and the dynamics of your playing, precisely to get the amp sim to react differently, and sometimes decidedly not 'properly', and thereby causing distortion.

 

The gist is this: If you find your setup too hot and everything quickly results in distort-o-rama, then turn down the input gain a notch. Or, if you can't get the distortion you want no matter how hard you hit the strings when the guitar Volume is up, turn the input gain up a bit.

 

Soon you will find the sweet spot that works best for you and you come back as the expert in setting up levels into Amplitube.

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