Noise when capturing guitar input with distortion

I'm trying to record some guitar riffs using distortion, in my case the metalgod amp setting. I have the input set as line in with the mic off. It picks up a lot of noise from somewhere, even when nothing is plugged into the line in jack. Where could it be coming from and how can I reduce it?

I'm trying to record some guitar riffs using distortion, in my case the metalgod amp setting. I have the input set as line in with the mic off. It picks up a lot of noise from somewhere, even when nothing is plugged into the line in jack. Where could it be coming from and how can I reduce it?

 

Hi

 

There's a few things to address with recording guitar especially with distortion...

 

Distortion and noise

 

Distortion is normally associated with having high gain in an amplifier, that's why your average guitarist is looking for the 11 setting on the gain knob of their Marshall head. Unfortunately, high gain means that ALL input signals are being boosted, whether they're wanted or not. All electronic circuitry generates electrical noise, its unavoidable unless you run your gear at zero degrees Kelvin (but that's way too cold for playing guitar ). So even if your soundcard is a real high quality one, it will still have what is known as "inherent" noise in its circuit. Pass that noise through a high gain amplifier, even a plugin software one, and you boost the noise.

 

You should find that choosing different amp models will result in different amounts of noise and different "sounds" of noise, some amp models are more "trebly", others more "middy". If you have selected a really high gain ultra metal preset then you will normally get more noise than if you pick a lower gain bluesy preset where you are on the edge of clean versus warm breakup of the sound. So to an extent you can be a victim of your choice of amp model.

 

But real guitar rigs get it too. Turn any real world guitar amp up high and you will find there is noise aplenty.

 

Worse still, there are sources of electrical interference in your studio, whether its at home or a commercial property. Fluorescent lighting, dimmer switches, generators, they all produce unwanted sources of hums, clicks and buzzes, so if any of those get picked up in your wiring they will get amplified too...

 

So is there an answer? Well, you may find that once you play the guitar, you don't notice the noise behind the sound of the guitar, and you can get away with it. There will be plenty more sound in your mix by the time you add other instruments, which acts to mask the noise.

 

However, high gain amplifiers have a natural compression effect, Look at your level meters pre- and post-amp model, the original guitar level may jump all over the place but the distorted output will be pretty steady. This can mean that the noise is still significant even when the guitar is playing... You can never really get rid of the noise, though a denoiser plugin *might* be able to take some out, but beware of it affecting the guitar tone too...

 

So the other option is to GATE the output from the amp model. This can be tricky to set up, but you can usually reach a good compromise situation where the gate only opens when you start playing the guitar and closes once the guitar is almost inaudible. When you listen to it in isolation it might seem odd, and obvious that gating is occurring, but when mixed in with other instruments it can be a lot less intrusive.

 

Listen carefully to commercial recordings of s similar style to yours. On the last album from Oasis there is a track where, at the end of the track when all the other instruments and vocals fade out, you can still hear the noise from the guitar amps for a few seconds until it abruptly cuts off. That might have been a mistake from the mix engineer (eg the wrong gate setting) or it might have been deliberate. To my mind it made the track more real, more organic, it reminded me that this was real music from real musicians on real instruments...

 

 

Important issues about connecting your guitar

 

The way you connect your guitar to your DAW can have a massive effect on the tone and volume of the signal. If your method of connection loses treble, or volume, then you are more likely to get noise in your recordings because you will subsequently turn up gain controls or add high end EQ to compensate.

 

The sort of signal level output from a typical electric guitar is a little too high for some mic inputs, but too low for line inputs. This is not a good start! Furthermore, guitar pickups have an electrical characteristic called "high impedance" (unless you have an "active" guitar with powered tone controls). If you plug your guitar into a mic input or line input which has much lower impedance than the guitar pickup, then the two are mismatched and you lose a lot of signal level and in particular a lot of treble. A typical guitar pick up will have impedance in millions of ohms, whereas a typical line input is likely to be 10 thousand ohms, which is a massive difference.

 

If your sound card has a "Hi Z" or "Guitar" input selector, then you should use this, as it makes the input impedance high enough to be a good match with most guitars.

 

If you dont have that Hi Z switch, then you are best using a DI (direct injection) box. These have a high input impedance to match the guitar, then provide a balanced XLR output which you connect to an XLR MIC input on the sound card. They don't cost much, in the UK you can get a Behringer DI box for around £18, and they make recording an electric guitar a lot better as you keep all the original guitar signal level and tone.

 

Another option is to plug into a real guitar amp, use a clean setting and connect the line output from the amp to the line input on your sound card. This may add noise to the equation though, as guitar amps are rarely that clean...

 

I play bass guitar and the difference there is even more obvious. Bass guitars lack a lot of the high end tone you get from any other guitar. Without a Hi Z or DI input, the guitar sounds really dull and muffled, kind of dead and lifeless. With a DI box you magically get back all the clarity of tone that should have been there and its a lot easier to sit the bass in the mix then.

 

Happy recording.

 

Regards

 

Fleabag

Thanks a million for your quick response. Good to know that it's normal and not just a problem with my computer.