Getting a good guitar sound.

Have you tried the demos of software modellers such as Guitar Rig 5 or S-Gear: http://www.scuffhamamps.com/download .  I find they give me tones I could only wish for live!  See if they are any help in getting you close to what you have in mind.
I always found floor modellers like Boss and Digitech too 'digitally' and 'fizzy', but of course what constitutes a good guitar sound is highly personal to the individual.
 

I concur! 

I believe the Boss unit is meant to be played through a guitar amp, so the cabinet part is the missing link!

joakes


The speakers are the problem.

Nothing wrong with Alesis M1s. I seem to remember they were the defacto project studio standard around the turn of the century...

I have a GT-3 that has a settings option under utility. That should be set to Line(headphones) or Line out. From there I would run into the interface line in ( usually a RCA input ) however your interface may not have a line level input. Check your owners manual. You may be able to use the instrument input. I would try not to use the mixer if possible.

joakes  

 The cab, for me is where the speakers are, or am i missing summat ?

Yeah, but hifi equipment, be it PC speakers, studio monitors or headphones won't ever produce a "guitar cabinet" sound. Guitar cabs are basically very poor speakers with little low and no high end. That's what makes an electric guitar signal (another poor invention, fidelity-wise) sound listenable or even pleasant! That's why we have digital guitar cabinet emulation in our PODs, Guitar Rigs etc. Such an emulation is what the OP needs between his pedal board and his output!


Sven

stop dreamin' and start drivin';-) http://fractalaudio.com/p...reamp-fx-processor.php

The Boss GT series does have amp simulations in it. The older GT 5 had the amp sim set up so you had a choice of different cabs that you could mix and match with the different amps. They dis-continued that ability starting with the GT3 & GT6. If you pull up a twin in the 6 you get the 2 12 cab. There is no way to mix up a twin with a Marshall 4 12 cab. I know this because I played thru and still own a GT5! You could also adjust how far away the mic sounded from the cab. If I remember correctly there was a choice of mics as well. I don't know if they stopped building that option in or not. I have used nothing but amp sim plugins now for several years. I love Scuffham but I generally keep going back to Amplitube. Guitar Rig has seen it's share of use as well. My real introduction to the sims was a POD 2.0 with a floorboard. That rig still gets dusted off for trips across town to other studios. Bottom line, if you really love the GT6 but want more realistic sounding cabs, I would dis-able the cab sim in the 6 and use a more modern cabinet simulator. That will probably serve your purposes very well. Hope this helped out!

@ Marcus, I am not sure what resources the OP has. True an Axe-Fx would not cure mixing problems but it provides piece of mind in getting sound when recording i.e. "If I can't get good tone with this it must be something else." I have heard really good guitarists play with Digitech pedals and never wondered whether they were going through an amp or not. I seem to recall Steve Vai saying how he lamented about his tone with Zappa even though he had the gear (Marshall and Strat I think) and Zappa said that most of the tone was in the fingers...

Do you have a guitar amp that you can mic?

I so want to get on board with guitar sims but so far I'm not impressed. I have Guitar Rig, GTR, Amplitube, TH2 and recabinet but I haven't tried iTH2 and Recab yet. I'm not giving up though. BTW: I've been gassing for an AX FX for this reason. I've been a tube amp guy forever. To the OP: Do you have an SM57 and a small amp to try out?

Rocky

I love my little '70s Fender Champ. I put a Weber in it.

Rocky

stratman70

 
I believe it is your monitors, to a degree only.

I totally agree with this assessment. The monitors will add high end that you do not get from a guitar cabinet. This will also highlight any background noise and hiss that will occur. By plugging your boss straight in you are not getting the benefits of the cabinet. This is why some people suggest you mic a cab and others say try cabinet simulation. the great debate remains over which one is better.


In my case I believe placing a mic on a good amp and cabinet is the ideal situation, but I share my home with my family where my studio is, and volume is an issue. My little studio doubles as an office/computer room and I don't have the treatments I really need on the walls. This really limits me. So amp sims are what I am stuck with. Being a solo artist and only recording my music gives me a studio that fits my needs. but I must figure out a way to get great tone. The amp is fine for playing live or open jam sessions, but not everyday recording use.


I have a rack-mount Pod pro 3 and Pod farm 2.5 which is awesome. I also have the full version of TH2 which is much better then the version that comes with cakewalk. between these two products I get what I need, but it is not without a lot of trial and error.


If you can't mic your amp plugging straight in with the boss will not give a great tone. You will need to find a program to simulate a cabinet. without that you are not going to get a good guitar tone unless you use a mic.

I cannot get a good quality guitar sound through my speakers. I am looking for the same sound quality as I would get plugging my guitar into a guitar amp.
But no matter what settings I use on the boss, I cannot get a decent guitar sound through the speakers.

Sound quality is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe that guitar FX is not for you. But i can tell you that no one here can say set it up like this and you'll love the sound, as there is no magic settings for these things. Sell it, if you cant get what you want out of it. Ive bought some effects i did not like. That's life.
 
If you want your guitar to sound like when you plug into your amp, then buy an SM57 and a ribbon or condenser mic and mic your amp.
 
Cj

I don't think you will ever get a good guitar tone with the Boss GT6 plugged straight into your interface. I have never had a good tone coming out from just an FX unit like that. The guitar sound should already have gone through a cabinet before they get to your studio monitors. The GT6 is great for playing with an amp tho, if you like the sounds.

If you really want to use your Boss then I suggest you add an amp sim or cab sim to the front of your effects chains and use the simulated cabinets in those to get a more natural tone. The Guitar Rig LE or Overtone TH2 will do this job just nicely. If you're up for more fine schmecker stuff, AudioEase have a pretty decent cabinet simulator. I think there are some freebies out there too but I haven't looked much into that.

Good point about the lack of air Jim.

However, here's a trick; I usually insert a convolution reverb on my guitar bus with a room sample. It should be short and pretend to be the room where you would put an amp. I use a variety of studio or small room IR's from Altiverb and set it to 70-95% wet depending on the IR. it's not the same as a mic in front of a cabinet, but it's close enough sometimes and work surprisingly well for a lot of things.

I have also recorded my studio speakers with a mic and back into the project with varying results. But when it workes, it's quite cool