Lexicon omega and recording electric guitar

hello all i have set up my Lexicon Omega interface with my mic after some faffing around.. (my god, these instruction manuals are hopeless) Now i am trying to record my electric guitar. 1. Do i have to install some software amplifier first before i can get the sound from the lexicon onto MC5? (the Lexicon came with something called Pantheon VST Reverb plug in , but i never installed it.. do i have to do that?) many thanks in advance. Jason

Ah, one I may be able to help with. Pay it forward and all. :)

As Beagle stated you don't have to use the amp simulator that comes bundled with MC5. In fact, I never cared much for it. It's a bit noisy for my taste. I have the Lambda which is the same basic unit but with two inputs at a time as opposed to the 4 you can use with the Omega.
The following instructions assume you've installed your MC5 software and have chosen the Omega as your audio and MIDI device.

First - plug your guitar into the instrument jack on the front of the unit. Turn the Monitor Mix knob to the 12 o'clock position and the Output Level knob down to zero. By default the the unit will assign the Instrument jack on the front to the Line 1 knob - 2 knobs above the Monitor Mix. Play your guitar and turn up the Line 1 knob until you see the meters jumping between the Instrument input jack and the headphones input. Try to keep the signal in the green and not the red but as close to the red as possible wiithout exceeding it.

At this point what you will hear in your headphones is your basic dry guitar tone coming straight from your instrument. Not very impressive but it means you're on the right path.

Now in your MC5 software in the upper left-hand corner beneath the File menu, you'll see a button with labeled with a plus sign (+). Click on the plus sign to add a track. Since this is a guitar track you will choose "Audio" to add an audio track and not a MIDI track or whatever. This will open a track in MC5 with a Track name and number as its default description. To the left side of the track name you will see an icon that looks like a wave form. On the right hand side you'll find an arrow to expand the box. Beneath the track name you'll see six buttons. For now only concern yourself with the first four - M, S, the record button, and the monitoring button.

You'll want to click on the drop down arrow in the upper right hand corner beside the track name and expand the track box. You'll see Gain/Vol/Pan, with its own drop-down menu, Input/Output with its own drop-down, Effects with its own drop down menu, and Sends also with its own drop down menu. In order to record a track first set your input under the Input/Output section by clicking on the drop-down arrow for that section. Under that expanded section the input and output are the two boxes to the left, one above the other. The one on the top sets your input. Click on the arrow beside it and choose Omega ASIO (1 in, 1 out) and choose the Left input for a mono track. If you want a stereo track, choose stereo. It's best to a mono track for most audio. Next set the output by clicking on the arrow next to it and choosing the Omega as your device for output.

Next you'll need to monitor the track through your headphones, which you can do by pushing the input monitoring button next to the record button under the track name. Now slowly turn up the Output Level knob on your Omega. You should see the meter jumping in the transport control area at the top of MC5. This indicates you are now getting signal to the software. You'll also be able to hear the signal much stronger.

From there, just hit record and you'll be able to lay down a track.



Now, about using a plug-in such as the amp simulator. No one wants to be stuck with just the dry recorded sound of their guitar. You can insert the amp simulator by clicking on the effects drop down arrow beneath the track name. Then click on the plus sign labeled Add Effect and choose to add an audio effect. Find your amp simulator in the drop down menu and you'll hear guitar tones more like those you're accustomed to.

Oh, and by the way. The Lexicon Pantheon software that is bundled with the Lexicon Alpha, Lambda, and Omega units works only in the Cubase LE software that is also bundled with the device. It sounds great but is of no use to you if you're going to use another host such as MC5. (Oddly, it doesn't even work in the full version of Cubase).

I hope this helps and good luck. The folks here in the forum are amazing and are great at answering questions. Welcome!

David