Noisy sound card... ???

[Misha]

Hi!

 

I got a Focusrite Scarlett Solo sound card because my computer doesn't have a microphone input jack but it is noisy an annoying when I use my headphones. The sound is much better with the integrated sound card. I use Sennheiser Momentum Over Ear headphones (that I bought at good price from a store closing down.) The earphones work just fine. The driver installed correctly - supposedly.

 

Is this brand good? Should I get something else? Maybe it is a bad unit though I read something about the line outputs being unbalanced and causing problems. In my case, it's the headphones output that is faulty. (I didn't even try the RCA line outputs yet.)

 

I work from 12h00 to 21h00. When I get home, I need to be able to use headphones if I want to enjoy evening without disturbing the neighbors.

 

Any thoughts? (I had - and sold - a M-Audio Fast Track Pro in the past and thought it sounded just ok.. not very good.)

 

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

What kind of noise? What are you use it for? Record with a mic, Record direct, Playback only?

 

Focusrite should produce a dead quiet recording, "IF" you feed it right.

By this I mean, you use a mic with a quiet output, You record in a quiet room, or you record direct without any additional preamplification which might add its own layer of noise.

 

Some people plug in a dirt box cranked up to max and they wonder why there's a bunch of hiss. Others may have it set for mic level with a guitar pickup plugged straight in and the signal is over amplified.

 

There can be other things,

 

If the mic is a condenser and there's some noise of fan going in the room you don't normally notice with your open ears. It can sound like a freight train going with a condenser mic cranked.

 

Trying to track at high gain levels instead of recording at low levels and bringing that recording up to commercial levels during the mixing and mastering stages. Digital recording has a huge amount of dynamic headroom and a very low noise floor. There's no need to record with meters running anywhere near 0db, nor should your meters go near the red. This was a big adjustment for me even. I had done recording in analog for a good 25 years before switching to digital about 1995. In analog you got your best sounds pushing the signal into saturation. In digital you wind up having it sound like crap doing that. It took me a good couple of years to break those old habits and still I have to prevent myself from doing that every so often.

 

If you record a guitar, export it with no mixing at all. Stick it in an audio editor that has some analysis tools. Most will have a tool to test the RMS or Average level of the recording. A solo guitar should be well below -15db. A fill mix should come in about -11~-12db average, -16~16db rms.

To the ears this will sound 1/2 or even 1/4 loud as a commercial recording. Its only during the mastering process, after the music is mixed, you brick wall limit the music and bring it up to commercial volume levels. You cannot get there in a single step trying to track loud.

 

Here's a tutorial on this topic which is excellent. If the best you get now is demo quality, this can get you up that next rung on the ladder. I had used similar methods getting good analog mixes but for digital this is the key item. I was having a success rate of maybe 40% hit or miss before I used this method. That climbed to a good 80~90% now.

 

Its not only good for getting a mix to sound commercial, but you can work back from here if it doesn't work out and you'll know why that mix didn't work out. Normally you'd mix and push everything to its limits trying to eek the best you can get. This on the other hand is a specific target point you aim for and when you miss you'll know it. You may have to go all the way back to re tracking again, to correct things, but it helps minimize the guesswork involved.

 

http://www.hdqtrz.com/Files/Har-Bal_Mastering_Process.pdf

 

You can use substitute tools for doing the same thing they show there. one limiter, EQ or multiband is going to get you similar results if you use it well. I do have these exact tools, but I often swap them out to get a variety of flavors. often trade out The key is the method in back to it. You should get to know this process like the back of your hand.

 

This brings up the next issue of having a good monitor system, and or headphones. Most interfaces should have enough amplifying power to drive most headphones. You want to run the headphone level high and the recording gain low. This may make more hiss in the headphones tracking, but it shouldn't be in the actual recording. If you find this to be the case, then a better quality headphone amp or headphones is needed to bridge that hurtle. I have several different headphone and headphone amp options. Some headphones have a low efficiency level and need more headphone amp power to drive them. Others are very sensitive.

 

With sensitive headphones you'll be more likely to back off a mic, crank its gain down and record at a lower level. With low sensitivity headphones you'll be much more likely to crank the mic gain up and get all kinds of noise. Most of the time you just aim where it sounds good, but this can often lead to bad decisions. Best advice I have here is, play a commercial recording back. Mark the headphone gain knob with a grease pencil. Then turn that headphone level up by about 1/4 when you record and mix. This should increase the headroom and lower the tracking noise is your issue is preamp hiss/noise.

 

If you're experiencing any kind of distortion or crackle, this can be a latency issue. You may need to increase your latency to remove this.

One thing for sure, you should not be able to use your internal card. If you're daw is seeing the internal card, then you're not set up for the proper drivers. Interfaces use ASIO drivers that are not compatible with windows cards. You may need to download the latest drivers from the Focusrite site, install them, then set your daw options to see those drivers. You also want to be sure you have it set for at least 24 / 44.1 which is a step up above CD quality. You want to record and mix at higher sample rates. This way you'll have much less damage and bits lost when you mix down to 16/44.1. You also want to dither when you mix down to get rid of artifacts.

 

There's much more to this of course. Like I said, your question cant be answered without details. Its like someone on a phone asking someone else, I've got this thing in my hand, can you tell me what it is. Give me a clue what you're hearing and I may be able to guess. You want a really quick answer, post a clip so my ears can hear what yours do. Drop box is free. Upload it there and post a link.

[Misha]

What kind of noise? What are you use it for? Record with a mic, Record direct, Playback only?

 

Focusrite should produce a dead quiet recording, "IF" you feed it right.

By this I mean, you use a mic with a quiet output, You record in a quiet room, or you record direct without any additional preamplification which might add its own layer of noise.

 

Some people plug in a dirt box cranked up to max and they wonder why there's a bunch of hiss. Others may have it set for mic level with a guitar pickup plugged straight in and the signal is over amplified.

 

There can be other things,

 

If the mic is a condenser and there's some noise of fan going in the room you don't normally notice with your open ears. It can sound like a freight train going with a condenser mic cranked.

 

Trying to track at high gain levels instead of recording at low levels and bringing that recording up to commercial levels during the mixing and mastering stages. Digital recording has a huge amount of dynamic headroom and a very low noise floor. There's no need to record with meters running anywhere near 0db, nor should your meters go near the red. This was a big adjustment for me even. I had done recording in analog for a good 25 years before switching to digital about 1995. In analog you got your best sounds pushing the signal into saturation. In digital you wind up having it sound like crap doing that. It took me a good couple of years to break those old habits and still I have to prevent myself from doing that every so often.

 

If you record a guitar, export it with no mixing at all. Stick it in an audio editor that has some analysis tools. Most will have a tool to test the RMS or Average level of the recording. A solo guitar should be well below -15db. A fill mix should come in about -11~-12db average, -16~16db rms.

To the ears this will sound 1/2 or even 1/4 loud as a commercial recording. Its only during the mastering process, after the music is mixed, you brick wall limit the music and bring it up to commercial volume levels. You cannot get there in a single step trying to track loud.

 

Here's a tutorial on this topic which is excellent. If the best you get now is demo quality, this can get you up that next rung on the ladder. I had used similar methods getting good analog mixes but for digital this is the key item. I was having a success rate of maybe 40% hit or miss before I used this method. That climbed to a good 80~90% now.

 

Its not only good for getting a mix to sound commercial, but you can work back from here if it doesn't work out and you'll know why that mix didn't work out. Normally you'd mix and push everything to its limits trying to eek the best you can get. This on the other hand is a specific target point you aim for and when you miss you'll know it. You may have to go all the way back to re tracking again, to correct things, but it helps minimize the guesswork involved.

 

http://www.hdqtrz.com/Files/Har-Bal_...ng_Process.pdf

 

You can use substitute tools for doing the same thing they show there. one limiter, EQ or multiband is going to get you similar results if you use it well. I do have these exact tools, but I often swap them out to get a variety of flavors. often trade out The key is the method in back to it. You should get to know this process like the back of your hand.

 

This brings up the next issue of having a good monitor system, and or headphones. Most interfaces should have enough amplifying power to drive most headphones. You want to run the headphone level high and the recording gain low. This may make more hiss in the headphones tracking, but it shouldn't be in the actual recording. If you find this to be the case, then a better quality headphone amp or headphones is needed to bridge that hurtle. I have several different headphone and headphone amp options. Some headphones have a low efficiency level and need more headphone amp power to drive them. Others are very sensitive.

 

With sensitive headphones you'll be more likely to back off a mic, crank its gain down and record at a lower level. With low sensitivity headphones you'll be much more likely to crank the mic gain up and get all kinds of noise. Most of the time you just aim where it sounds good, but this can often lead to bad decisions. Best advice I have here is, play a commercial recording back. Mark the headphone gain knob with a grease pencil. Then turn that headphone level up by about 1/4 when you record and mix. This should increase the headroom and lower the tracking noise is your issue is preamp hiss/noise.

 

If you're experiencing any kind of distortion or crackle, this can be a latency issue. You may need to increase your latency to remove this.

One thing for sure, you should not be able to use your internal card. If you're daw is seeing the internal card, then you're not set up for the proper drivers. Interfaces use ASIO drivers that are not compatible with windows cards. You may need to download the latest drivers from the Focusrite site, install them, then set your daw options to see those drivers. You also want to be sure you have it set for at least 24 / 44.1 which is a step up above CD quality. You want to record and mix at higher sample rates. This way you'll have much less damage and bits lost when you mix down to 16/44.1. You also want to dither when you mix down to get rid of artifacts.

 

There's much more to this of course. Like I said, your question cant be answered without details. Its like someone on a phone asking someone else, I've got this thing in my hand, can you tell me what it is. Give me a clue what you're hearing and I may be able to guess. You want a really quick answer, post a clip so my ears can hear what yours do. Drop box is free. Upload it there and post a link.

 

 

Hi!

 

I had time to try it for playback only, yesterday. It makes a crackling noise. It's almost constant.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit**

 

I did download the latest driver from Focusrite, uninstalled the device, reinstalled: no change.

 

I came back to the internal soundcard. It was better.

 

The Sennheiser are supposed to be good headphones, maybe not for recording, I don't know...

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I did not even try to record with it. I put it back in its box and will probably ask for a refund/exchange...

 

I'm at the office, right now,.

 

I will read your reply more carefully before I take a decision, though! (Lots of worthy info in your post! Thank's :-D )

[recordingtrack1]

Hi Misha, I would like to try helping track this down but it needs to be done one step at a time. If I can get a dialogue going with you we can chase this and will likely find out it is really mind-blowingly simple! First of all, do you have direct input monitoring on your Focusrite?

 

[recordingtrack1]

I'm sorry ya'll have had such problems with the Focusrite stuff. I'm surprised actually. Personally I use M-audio Delta AP192. Kind of old technology but with the ASIO driver at 96k-24bit and sampled at 44.1 it is perfectly adequate for my skill level. I do get the occasional crackle but usually only if I'm processing with too many plugins. There are so many variables in the signal chain that noise can come from anywhere. What I have found in almost all cases of noise or other garble, is user error. It pisses me off when I discover I've got something hooked up backwards, but hey, it is what it is, I love the challenge.

[Misha]

I went back to the store and finally, it was really a bad unit.

 

They told me that recently they got a couple of returns, each time it had to do with the headphones output being faulty!

 

They also told me it was a good brand but maybe there was something with this batch...

 

I didn't pick another one yet. I don't know which one to get, anymore... They suggested me a Steinberg sound card but they didn't had it. It's this one: http://www.archambault.ca/qmi/naviga...=ACH003321674&

 

 

[WRGKMC]

 

 

Hi!

 

I had time to try it for playback only, yesterday. It makes a crackling noise. It's almost constant.

 

That's most likely caused by either an issue with the latency and or buffers set too low. Or you failed to install ASIO drivers.

 

Run this little program and it will tell you what an absolute minimum your computer can be set for. http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

 

What you have to realize is, it takes time for the CPU to get all the bits of data too and from the interface. If you use a USB interface the CPU can block its data flow when the CPU gets busy. USB ports are called Master/Slave ports because the ports are slave to the CPU. The ports can be very fast when the CPU isn't being taxed, but can throttled down to a crawl when the CPU needs power.

 

In order for the data flow to get from point A to point B in one piece, its uses a buffer. A buffer is like a gas tank in a car except its being filled at one end and the engine is drawing out the other end. If the supply to the tank is always the same. It should keep up with the engine running at moderate speeds.

 

When the engine is revved up it can suck more gas out of the tank then the tank is being fed. When it gets sucked dry, the engine coughs and sputters. The only fix is a larger gas tank so the engine cant suck it dry.

 

In a computer this analogy is basically the same. When you set up your interface, the gas tank = Buffer & Latency settings are often too small.

Its set too close to real time it needs that time to do its job in the background before you hear the sound play back.

 

When you tell the CPU (the engine) to stream data at high speed, the buffer (gas tank) is too small to keep up with demand and the stream runs out and sucks air. The distortion you hear is missing chunks of data in the stream and the system does its best to reconstruct the data into sound.

 

The fix is to give the system a larger gas tank so it cant be sucked dry. So you manually go in and increase its temp memory to give it a larger buffer size. You also increase the latency to allow the computer more time to reconstruct the data before its played back.

 

The other possibility is you didn't install ASIO drivers properly. You should have gone to the Focusrite site and downloaded the proper drivers, installed them, then set the DAW program to run on those drivers. If you're attempting to play back music with Windows drivers, it will create really bad distortion because the data packets are too slow.

 

As per Wiki

 

(ASIO) is a computer sound card driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing a low-latency and high fidelity interface between a software application and a computer's sound card. Whereas Microsoft's DirectSound is commonly used as an intermediary signal path for non-professional users, ASIO allows musicians and sound engineers to access external hardware directly.

ASIO bypasses the normal audio path from a user application through layers of intermediary Windows operating system software so that an application connects directly to the sound card hardware. Each layer that is bypassed means a reduction in latency (the delay between an application sending audio information and it being reproduced by the sound card, or input signals from the sound card being available to the application). In this way ASIO offers a relatively simple way of accessing multiple audio inputs and outputs independently.

Its main strength lies in its method of bypassing the inherently high latency and poor-quality mixing and sample rate conversion of Windows NT 5.x audio mixing kernels (KMixer)[citation needed], allowing direct, high speed communication with audio hardware. Unlike KMixer, an unmixed ASIO output is "bit identical" or "bit perfect"; that is, the bits sent to or received from the audio interface are identical to those of the original source, thus potentially providing higher audio fidelity. In addition, ASIO supports 24-bit samples, unlike Windows NT 5.x MME and DirectSound which truncate 24-bit samples to the upper 16 bits, whereas Windows NT 6.x mixer provides 32-bit floating point output. Higher bit-depth samples offer the potential for a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

 

You can also try installing ASIO4ALL if you run out of options failing to get the manufacturers drivers working properly. This driver can be used to get a windows card to stream the high speed audio data. Its a toss up on how well it works. You should go into the hardware manager and disable your built in sound card, then point all your audio programs to use your Focusrite card only for both recording and playback. If you keep switching between your interface and windows cards you're going to have to manually go into all your audio programs and switch drivers every time you want to use the windows card.

 

This is why its best to use only one or the other. You wind up with a mess trying to run both. You're going to confuse Windows Plug and Play feature making windows to constantly change hardware and drivers otherwise. Disabling the windows sound card is simple. you just right click on My Computer > select Properties > Hardware manager> Find your windows sound card> Right click and disable.

 

This will leave your interface to run all your audio playback. If you use windows media player for normal playback you have to go into its properties and select your focusrite. You do the same with your DAW and other programs. Once they are all pointed to the right device, then you can set your Latency and Buffers higher to allow for your computer processor speed. These should be set up automatically when you install the drivers, but they may fail to do so if you did an improper installation like connected the device before you set up the drivers. This is why its important you Read the Manual and follow it to the letter.

 

Any other distortion is likely caused by signals recorded above 0DB or incompatible audio formats. Those are involved topics for another discussion. I would hope you're testing the playback with a known good file format, or a Commercial CD playing back through the card to rule out damaged wave or MP3 files in the troubleshooting process.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I went back to the store and finally, it was really a bad unit.

 

They told me that recently they got a couple of returns, each time it had to do with the headphones output being faulty!

 

They also told me it was a good brand but maybe there was something with this batch...

 

I didn't pick another one yet. I don't know which one to get, anymore... They suggested me a Steinberg sound card but they didn't had it. It's this one: http://www.archambault.ca/qmi/naviga...=ACH003321674&

 

 

It definitely sounds like you had a defective unit, but the folks at the store were correct - Focusrite is generally a good brand.

 

PreSonus, Focusrite, Steinberg, Alesis / Akai... all of them make decent units in your price range, and all should be better and more fully-featured than your computer's onboard sound card.

[recordingtrack1]

Yeah, the only user error I can speak to is my own. Ain't got a clue how you handle your situations. I do read a lot of forums, especially Cakewalk because Sonar X3 is my personal choice for software. Always lots of words about something that ain't working right. Usually comes down to "forgot to check the #@&*% box"! Been there several times myself. Makes one feel woefully inept.

 

BTW, I love Windows 7. Amazingly stable platform, IMO. Especially when you trim it down to basic operations around audio and get rid of the fluff. I wish the guys at Microsoft would create a barebones OS designed strictly for Audio that didn't have all kinds of stupid stuff to clog up your arteries. Take the mufflers off the SOB and let them exhaust pipes roar!

[Misha]

 

It definitely sounds like you had a defective unit, but the folks at the store were correct - Focusrite is generally a good brand.

 

PreSonus, Focusrite, Steinberg, Alesis / Akai... all of them make decent units in your price range, and all should be better and more fully-featured than your computer's onboard sound card.

I didn't know Akai were making sound cards until last week. I was surprised when I saw Akai guitar pedals in store recently. I got a compressor for 50$ on clearance. It works fine!

 

(I didn't visit music shops for 2-3 years...)

[recordingtrack1]

I didn't know Akai were making sound cards until last week. I was surprised when I saw Akai guitar pedals in store recently. I got a compressor for 50$ on clearance. It works fine!

 

(I didn't visit music shops for 2-3 years...)

I have that compressor. It works great and it looks cool too. Does yours have the bright green LED indicator light? It's a blinding son of a gun. I mean it is so bright, when I look down in the dark, it actually makes all the other stuff harder to see. I'm actually thinking about painting it over with a semi-transparent color to tone it down a bit.

[Misha]

I have that compressor. It works great and it looks cool too. Does yours have the bright green LED indicator light? It's a blinding son of a gun. I mean it is so bright, when I look down in the dark, it actually makes all the other stuff harder to see. I'm actually thinking about painting it over with a semi-transparent color to tone it down a bit.

 

Yes I have the bright green LED too!

 

It doesn't bother me, though because I play only alone in my living room... at least for now!

 

I had gotten an EHX headphone amp but thought it sounded just ok. Tonight I called to see if I could change it for a Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe. I went to the store and took the pedal back home. I didn't try it and it's not working! Jeez! What's wrong with me, I'm gonna start thinking my body is emitting bad waves this week! (I've had this pedal in the past and shouldn't have sold it! The other one worked perfectly!)

 

[recordingtrack1]

 

Yes I have the bright green LED too!

 

It doesn't bother me, though because I play only alone in my living room... at least for now!

 

I had gotten an EHX headphone amp but thought it sounded just ok. Tonight I called to see if I could change it for a Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe. I went to the store and took the pedal back home. I didn't try it and it's not working! Jeez! What's wrong with me, I'm gonna start thinking my body is emitting bad waves this week! (I've had this pedal in the past and shouldn't have sold it! The other one worked perfectly!)

Yeah, you just hit a couple of rough spots. This too shall pass, LOL. Truth is, I'm not a big fan of Danelectro stuff. I used to have a few of their pedals. Really noisy and overall poor quality in my personal opinion.

[Misha]

Yeah, you just hit a couple of rough spots. This too shall pass, LOL. Truth is, I'm not a big fan of Danelectro stuff. I used to have a few of their pedals. Really noisy and overall poor quality in my personal opinion.

 

 

I would prefer another brand, maybe the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe, but it is at least 3 times the price of the Cool Cat Vibe!

 

 

[recordingtrack1]

 

 

I would prefer another brand, maybe the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe, but it is at least 3 times the price of the Cool Cat Vibe!

 

I didn't mean for that to sound like it obviously sounds. Sorry about that Misha. I apologize. Left me clarify that the Danelectro's I had were their bottom of the line ones. I know they have others that are of higher quality.

[Misha]

I didn't mean for that to sound like it obviously sounds. Sorry about that Misha. I apologize. Left me clarify that the Danelectro's I had were their bottom of the line ones. I know they have others that are of higher quality.

 

 

No problem here, RT1,

 

in fact, I'm already convinced that these pedals wont last like more expensive brands!

[kwakatak]

It sounds like you got it figured out, Misha. I'm no expert on these things and I envy that you're able to get any recording done at all. Even though I live in a single family home at least two members of my family are really light sleepers and all my playing has been relegated to playing downstairs in the family room which is a large space that is open to the kitchen where the refrigerator is constantly humming. I'm tempted to upgrade my portable rig, go downstairs into the garage and record inside my minivan. I did exactly that a couple of years for a VOM, though it was summer and I did the creepy thing of parking in the back of local restaurant's parking lot where my only audience were the crickets.

 

Nowadays my problem is not choking in front of the microphone. After all the thought going into tweaking the settings and whatnot it's hard to ignore the thing when it's looming in your face with the little red light blaring in you eyes.

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

 

No problem here, RT1,

 

in fact, I'm already convinced that these pedals wont last like more expensive brands!

 

And yet, in my experience, they actually do last pretty well. I have had a Danelectro Fish & Chips on my board for several years now, and it's as reliable as any other pedal I own, and has held up great. It also sounds terrific, especially considering how little it cost me.

 

A lot of people rehouse the "Food Series" Danos too, which makes them more reliable if for no other reason than you can install case mounted I/O and power jacks in place of the PCB mounted components.

 

They may be made inexpensively, but there are a few really good bargains in that series, such as the Fish & Chips, French Toast (based on the Foxx Tone Machine IIRC), Chicken Salad vibe, Tuna Melt tremolo, etc.

[guitarist21]

And yet, in my experience, they actually do last pretty well. I have had a Danelectro Fish & Chips on my board for several years now, and it's as reliable as any other pedal I own, and has held up great. It also sounds terrific, especially considering how little it cost me.

 

I have owned several, my favorites being the Pastrami Overdrive and the Tuna Melt Trem. While I love them (can't beat the price for sure and they're not terrible sounding), I am kind of rough on gear sometimes and I occasionally had some knobs and switches break on me. Not to say I don't still totally dig em.

[Idunno]

Good gawd the technology has restrung the auditory receptors hasn't it? Take one of these and call me in the morning.

 

 

[video=youtube;Y9A8Aki0CkI]

[Misha]

It sounds like you got it figured out, Misha. I'm no expert on these things and I envy that you're able to get any recording done at all. Even though I live in a single family home at least two members of my family are really light sleepers and all my playing has been relegated to playing downstairs in the family room which is a large space that is open to the kitchen where the refrigerator is constantly humming. I'm tempted to upgrade my portable rig, go downstairs into the garage and record inside my minivan. I did exactly that a couple of years for a VOM, though it was summer and I did the creepy thing of parking in the back of local restaurant's parking lot where my only audience were the crickets.

 

 

Nowadays my problem is not choking in front of the microphone. After all the thought going into tweaking the settings and whatnot it's hard to ignore the thing when it's looming in your face with the little red light blaring in you eyes.

 

If you record in your minivan, I hope it's a bit warmer than it is in Quebec otherwise, it's gonna be tough on your fingers!! (It's been around

-30 °C during the week-end!)

 

You really choke in front of the microphone, Kwak?! I'm surprised because you're such a good guitarist!

 

[Misha]

 

And yet, in my experience, they actually do last pretty well. I have had a Danelectro Fish & Chips on my board for several years now, and it's as reliable as any other pedal I own, and has held up great. It also sounds terrific, especially considering how little it cost me.

 

A lot of people rehouse the "Food Series" Danos too, which makes them more reliable if for no other reason than you can install case mounted I/O and power jacks in place of the PCB mounted components.

 

They may be made inexpensively, but there are a few really good bargains in that series, such as the Fish & Chips, French Toast (based on the Foxx Tone Machine IIRC), Chicken Salad vibe, Tuna Melt tremolo, etc.

 

 

The Cool Cat pedals I had were working just fine, (Too bad I sold them!) I had a Fixh & Chip too and thought it sounded good, the casing fell apart, though!

[Misha]

 

I have owned several, my favorites being the Pastrami Overdrive and the Tuna Melt Trem. While I love them (can't beat the price for sure and they're not terrible sounding), I am kind of rough on gear sometimes and I occasionally had some knobs and switches break on me. Not to say I don't still totally dig em.

 

 

I try to take care of my things, but accidents tend to happen to me!

[kwakatak]

 

If you record in your minivan, I hope it's a bit warmer than it is in Quebec otherwise, it's gonna be tough on your fingers!! (It's been around

-30 °C during the week-end!)

 

You really choke in front of the microphone, Kwak?! I'm surprised because you're such a good guitarist!

 

Only in the summer or in the garage, Misha. As for my fingers, they weren't what they once were even 3 years ago. My practice time has been reduced considerably. Long story. I need to get back into it though, if only for the therapeutic effects.

 

As for choking in front of the microphone, blame too much coffee and the feeling that "what else should I be doing right now?"

 

OK, hijack over. Back to talk of gear. I'm thinking it may be time to upgrade to a Go Pro over the Zoom as it has been making a lot of "crackly" noises that ruin the few good takes I get and the quality is not what it should be IMO. On the PC end of things, I need to reacquaint myself with Reaper and get a USB interface. My Studio Projects large condenser microphone should still be sufficient.

[Misha]

 

Only in the summer or in the garage, Misha. As for my fingers, they weren't what they once were even 3 years ago. My practice time has been reduced considerably. Long story. I need to get back into it though, if only for the therapeutic effects.

 

As for choking in front of the microphone, blame too much coffee and the feeling that "what else should I be doing right now?"

 

OK, hijack over. Back to talk of gear. I'm thinking it may be time to upgrade to a Go Pro over the Zoom as it has been making a lot of "crackly" noises that ruin the few good takes I get and the quality is not what it should be IMO. On the PC end of things, I need to reacquaint myself with Reaper and get a USB interface. My Studio Projects large condenser microphone should still be sufficient.

 

It was -24°C , again, this morning!

 

Neil, if I ever get as good as you are, I'll be in heaven!

 

Take care of your head if you ever go skiing with that Go Pro on your helmet! (Michael Schumacher's traumatic head injuries were caused by a Go Pro camera mounted to his helmet.)

 

Today, I was working though I'm sick and I drank a Starbucks Double Shot Energy + Coffee. It helped me through the day but I'm glad my shift is over!

 

I finally picked up a Native Instruments soundcard, model Komplete Audio-6 (or KA-6). I'm now installing it. (I downloaded Reaper, the trial version).

 

( I have only a tie pin microphone or another cheap Radio-Shack mic. For now, it's going to be enough!)

 

''See'' you later when the installation is finished!