Need help getting my guitar to sound right please :)

Ok, I posted this i  the 'songs' forum yesterday, but seeing as nobody replied I realised it probably should have gone in to the folder. Please please, if you do read this and have ANY help/advice for a complete newbie on how to get my guitar tracks sounding great, I'd really appreciate it! :) Here goes...

Ok, so I'm a complete newbie to this music recording malarkey! A few months ago I downloaded Music Creator 5 and Amplitube 3, bought a Saffire 6 USB interface, a sE2000 condenser mic, a £200 Yamaha electric guitar (I also have a cheap acoustic) and set about recording a song I wrote ages ago (on my Dell laptop, running Win7 64 bit - hope that covers everything?) 

The main things I'm struggling with is getting the main guitar riff to sound right - it just seems to sound a bit 'wavy' to me, like you can tell it's been run through a computer, and I'm not sure how to sort it out. It was recorded with my electric guitar, running straight into the Sapphire 6 interface. I then added the amplitube effect, clicked the 'bypass' option on the cab (never seems to have enough 'presence' if I run it through a cab?) and played around with all the knobs etc as best as I could. I've added a link to a small sample of the song I quickly put together, so that hopefully you pros can advise me on where I'm going wrong! :) I would also like it to have more presence, it all seems a little 'tinny' and faint compared to the songs on my itunes etc....if that makes any sense - I apologise for my lack of jargon, ha! Is there any other effects/processes I should be using besides Amplitube? 

I also appreciate that my equipment is real entry level stuff, but as I have no previous experience I have no idea how much sound quality to expect! 

Many thanks :) 


http://soundcloud.com/brandto/abigail-sample 

Getting a good guitar sound is a case of trial & error. 

You can mic the amp. Here, the position of the mic in relation to the speaker(s) is just as important as the tone on the guitar and the amp. Just because you have a sweet guitar tone on the amp that is perfect does not mean sticking a mic in a speaker grill will capture that tone. It takes time & effort to get it right.  Record, Listen...... move mic... record listen.... move mic..... etc... just keep GOOD NOTES. 


Second.... you can use a pre-amp or something like a POD to get your guitar tone.  I currently use a POD2. I run the guitar to the POD2 (red kidney bean gizmo) and run the POD2 output to my interface. I listen to the sound through the monitors and get it to sound like I want. Then, when I hit record I know it WILL sound exactly like that on playback. The POD has a very wide range of tonal possibilities and it's very easy to set up and use, which is why I have used it for so long. 

I have experimented with the amp simulators and have not found them to be appealing. Some people here have spent the time to play around with them and get them sounding quite good. I prefer to get the sound right before I send it to the interface rather than trying to fiddle with it "in the box".... I'm old school, but I like to hear it like it's gonna be. 

As you listen to songs in the songs forum, and you hear a guitar tone that you like, just ask the person about the details on the guitar. Most will willingly share the details of the sound and how they got it. 

Running a guitar straight into an interface will most often be to clean and thin sounding to really use. So grab some sort of "treatment" either an amp with a DI box, a POD or similar, or a designated guitar pre-amp to create the sound you want... going IN. 

Thanks for all your answers guys, really appreciated!

I went to the guitar shop and mentioned a DI box, and the guy there said that just running it through my amp (it's only a £40 Peavey 26 watts) and then in to my interface would be just as good, as the Saffire 6 isn't necessarily the best for handling a raw guitar signal (?) So I bought a stereo insert cable and have been playing with that. There were some background noise issues at first, but strangely unplugging my laptop seemed to have sorted those. There still is a faint 'hiss' in the background whilst playing the guitar, but this could b to do with the fact my amp is really cheap!? I like the sound of the POD2, so I think I will save up for one of them anyway!

You're right codamedia, I was after a more acoustic sound for the opening riff, but never seemed to get the sound right using my condenser mic and acoustic guitar - I think I shall just have to try again with that. I seem to remember there being a lot of background noise when I tried last, what do I need to play around with to reduce this?

I know these are probably real entry level questions I'm asking, it's so tricky trying to figure all this stuff out from scratch with nobody to guide. Don't get me started on buses, sends, compressors, EQs.....I've got plenty to learn!!! :/

Thanks again though guys!

Brandto


Thanks for all your answers guys, really appreciated!

I went to the guitar shop and mentioned a DI box, and the guy there said that just running it through my amp (it's only a £40 Peavey 26 watts) and then in to my interface would be just as good, as the Saffire 6 isn't necessarily the best for handling a raw guitar signal (?) So I bought a stereo insert cable and have been playing with that. There were some background noise issues at first, but strangely unplugging my laptop seemed to have sorted those. There still is a faint 'hiss' in the background whilst playing the guitar, but this could b to do with the fact my amp is really cheap!? I like the sound of the POD2, so I think I will save up for one of them anyway!

Thanks again though guys!

If you check out my music it's all POD2 on the guitars.  I found my POD2 on Ebay at a very good price in excellent condition.  I later found the 4 button foot switch same place for a decent price as well. 


Noise form the lappy plugged in could be power supply or ground related. Hiss is common in all amp circuits. Try to minimize it. Keep gain levels down.  

The noise you are getting may be coming from any electromagnetic fields caused by the laptop power transformer, or the laptop's monitor, etc.  If you're using single coil pickups - this stuff can get into the signal quite easily.  Even humbuckers are susceptible to this.  Unplugging the laptop, like you've done, reduced it.  The source may be coming from something else, like a cheap switch or dimmer, extension chord, and the act of unplugging the laptop cures it.  I had the same problem, and unplugging the laptop was a work-a-round that helped.  But I traced the problem to a cheap switch.  I leave the laptop plugged in all the time now, but sometimes I still pick up noise, and changing the angle of the guitar or putting distance between the guitar and the laptop is sometimes required, especially with my strat.

Monitors are in fact a source of noise for guitars if they are too close. The old CRT's were really bad for that.