I bought a no brand mic for $5 at a pawn shop. It's one of those convenient ones with the cable already attached and a super cool on/off switch!
I have tried recording every tube amp Matchless, Dumble, Egtnater, Suhr, Soldano, Diezel .......
I say recording a tube amp with a mic will never compare to the Zoom G3.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 2, 2017

Alright...

I own a Zoom G5, which basically is a G3 with some extra features.

It's a great unit. It's convenient, you know? All these effects and stuff in a single box? It's great for practicing and jamming with friends.

It works fine as an interface as well. I didn't use this feature much because the G5 has a real tube that adds some real magic dust, and if you connect it via USB it bypasses the tube...But it works fine.

One thing that I really like about the G5 is its noise gate. I haven't used a better one yet. If you play single coils and/or are forced to live with a less than ideal DC quality, man, it will get rid of most of your problems.

Now, to the tone...First, get rid of all presets. They suck big time. Alright. Its got some great amp emulations indeed, specially some vintage Fenders and Marshalls. They sound really nice and (most specially) feel good to play.

The problem is, like all things that convert analogue do digital and back (including budget audio interfaces), it's a tone sucker...Yeah, it sucks away 20% of your guitar's soul in the process...I know this because I own a bunch of real pedals and amps, and the difference, although not really dramatic, is kind of night and day, if you know how to spot the differences.

But, like I said, considering all resources that this unit offers, it's really convenient...But if you own an expensive guitar with great natural tone, it will hurt to listen to its sound quality get depreciated...That's why nowadays, when I'm practicing, I'm all for plugin my guitar directly into the amp with nothing else in between...Sometimes an overdrive pedal, but that's all.

Anyway, I own BIAS as well. Like people here have said, it sounds great. It's the most advance guitar amp VST around, period. It responds so well to dynamics that it's scary...But it sucks a great percentage of your tone in the process, proportionally the the quality of your interface's analogue/digital converters...Even if you use the best available converters, you can expect it to suck that precious 10% sparkle of your tone, which makes your 2K guitar sound like a 2K guitar, not like a 300 bucks one....But it sounds great anyway, better than the G5 in most aspects.

Oh, and I own a Focusrite 2i2 as well. It's great for the price. Works pretty well despite being a little too hot on the input side (If your pickups are high output, it might be a problem). Nothing beats it in that price range...But, again, its converters are great, but not amazing; Much better than G5's though...MUCH better.

To sum up, if your goal is to record guitars at home, I'd go for the Focusrite+BIAS combo. Hard to beat it for the price.

If you play in a band and/or are constantly traveling around with your guitar, I'd buy the G3, just for the convenience .

But in terms of tone, don't be mistaken. Nothing beats the sound of a good guitar being recorded through a good amp with a great microphone and proper technique...Some would say that the difference is negligible, but well, it's the cumulative negligible stuff that makes a good mix sound great at the end of the chain...The cumulative nature of mixing is scary.

Cheers,

R.

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2017

I'm sorry. That's da say-add.

Anyway. Get the 2i2 (or the solo?) and just use free amp/cab sims and/or impulse responses! There's some great stuff out there

At your price point, we wanna make sure that you focus on getting the best performing drivers out of an interface at your price point, and one of these FOCUSRITEs should fit that bill. Anyone can confirm this?

Look at this REDDIT thread for some good free stuff!

https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/5n7s6z/best_free_guitar_plugins/

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2017

Pelao,

You do know that most clean guitar tones are done with single coil pickups? Humbuckers with a single/parallel/series coil tap switch can get you close. I've transformed a cheap Korean dual humbucker Hamer, with high output Bill Lawrence PUs, into a tone machine. For cleans i go with both pickups on single coil to simulate that weak position 4 sound of a strat.
Before you emphatically state metal guitar tone is 'easy' via VST and clean is 'so much better on a Zoom', you might want to look at the entire signal chain, starting with those inferior PUs. On an electric, just like the mic is the most important part of a recording chain, the pickup is what makes or breaks the tone.

Your current setup is far superior to the G3. You say it's not even your guitar? Maybe get one that you can mod yourself.

 

i'm completely agree with you i saw a video that with the same vst that i have (revalver 4) the vox emulation sounds very good and that is for the pickups (he had a fender strato), single coils are made for that tones, so i'm planning to buy a telecaster or strato because with my les paul PU's sounds shitty

 

so i decide to buy the focusrite solo, it's a good interface? there's a better interface in terms of quality sound?

 

i've notice that the main problem are the pickups, and the free plug ins are so good like lepou

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2017

Focusrite Scarlett's win the budget end of the audio interface market generally. I guess the only other competitior on a par really is the Presonus Audiobox, but I'd stick with the Focusrite.

 

so scarlett solo is THE interface to buy. I will trust you

 

Flaco, cuanto queres gastar? Me parece que vos estas buscando una utopia, una interface que suene barbaro, con buenos pre, pero que valga poco.

Claramente los flacos no te van a poder ayudar porque estas haciendo la misma pregunta hace 10 posts, cuanta guita pensas gastar y yo te puedo decir facilmente cual comprar aca en Argentina.

Saludos.

 

es que tampoco hay un termino medio en cuanto al rango de precios, o sea tenes la focusrite solo a 2500 y despues pasas a la roland quad capture de 10 lucas

PD no me gustan las behringer

 

aparte queria saber si iba a haber diferencia en cuanto a la lexicon alpha en calidad de pre. y gastar no puedo mucho hasta 3500 me estiro y llorando

 

Entonces no le des mucha vuelta, por esa guita, no hay nada que este por encima de la scarlett solo o la 2i2. Vas a tener diferencia con la lexicon, pero no abismal ni mucho menos.

Con respecto al sonido que queres lograr con la viola, mas que el plugin, es las horas que tenes que pasar buscando el seteo correcto. Y asi y todo nunca esperes lograr un sonido de ampli real, con las distorciones puede ser, pero lo mejor en tonos limpios, es el S Gear, por escandalo.

Yo tengo la roland quad capture y anda bien, pero igualmente ya pienso cambiarla a una audient, y ahi ya hay un salto de diferencia importante.

Dale para adelante con la focusrite

Abrazo

 

I wouldn't go for either of those. USB 2 audio interfaces are on their way out. if you really want full quality 192khz samplerate with a low latency then go for USB-C/Thunderbolt3 its like 100x faster than than usb3 and like 100000x faster than usb2 . trust me high bandwidth means everything when it comes to audio interfaces.

Just get this. http://www.uaudio.com/audio-interfaces/apollo-twin-mkii.html

i know its expensive but you will never need another audio interface ever again. and it has a quad core processor build it.

Its just a waste to get a powerfull pc and an old skool usb 2 sound card. this means you will never be using the full performance that your pc is capable of achieving, it would just bottleneck your pc.
Trust me its worth the extra cash. USB2 interfaces are laggy and shit... you will never hear clicks and pops ever again if you go usb-c

 

i do not have a powerfull pc, i just can work in 24 bit 48 khz because in higher samplerates the crackles appear. and the apollo twin in argentina cost like a new car jjeje

 

Did you even read the previous messages and what the OPs budget is?!?!

 

Zollblade, I wouldn't waste my time on an Apollo Twin? Just buy the nicest studio in Argentina, nothing beats having an engineer to boss around. Dave Pensado only charges $2000 a song for mixdown anyway.
It will be better.

 

Apples to oranges.

If you want a cheap interface that sounds great, buy the Audient ID4. Outstanding quality pres and converters for a little interface. It has a dedicated instrument input that sounds miles ahead better than a regular input. Its downside is that it only has one mic preamp. You won't be able to use two microphones at once, but you can connect a guitar and a microphone.

If you want a floor based Multi-FX to play at home "live" (switching between sounds in real time, etc) then get the Zoom. People criticize the Zoom G3 but it's astounding how it sounds for so little money (it sounds way better than Boss stuff, which is more expensive). However I wouldn't count on it as an audio interface. Those devices offer the feature, yes, but they usually don't have dedicated drivers to adjust latency, buffers, etc (only expensive high end ones).

Choose your poison. You can never have everything

 

To me, multi FX are good for : travel/gig/train

Everything else "virtual" in the studio should use soundcard/plugins.
there are amazing free ones, like Lepou TSE and more.

About sound, i know it is a matter of taste AND models. My fav travale/gig is Tonelab LE (a solution most ppl would not even consider).

Studio ? A lot of plugins, with Ownhammer Nebula cabs ;D

 

I'd go with the 24bit recording over 16bit. Just for the extra dynamic range. If you want to record quiet things it will give you more breathing room.

Having said that it really depends on what you intend on doing with the final tracks. The Zoom still beats a 4 track cassette !

As others have stated interference can come from many and often unusual sources.

EG. When you track on your guitar, do you sit in front of a monitor ?