A few days ago I gave myself the pleasure of buying an electric guitar (although I do not play guitar, I am a pianist haha) but I always liked metal and wanted to start practicing parts connecting to the pc and adding ampsims

The problem is that although they say everywhere that this guitar sounds very good, it this does not happen to me, I plug it into my focusrite 2i4, I put the levels of gain and volume in the middle, let's say and adding it for example an amplitube 4 the sound is disgusting! there is even a lot of noise that is heard and that I can not get it even using the '' noise reduction '' utility and also the distortion tone sounds very bad even if I change the parameters in amplitube

I leave an audio example to see how bad this sounds:

Does anyone know what is happening here?

 

I've got a whole herd of Jacksons and Charvels. I've used Amplitube 4, but pretty much stick to Overloud TH3 at this point. With all of these VSTs, you have to treat it as if it is a real amp. Using too much gain, and the amp will respond just like a real amp, lots of noise. First thing I notice is that your strings sound like they're tuned way down, perhaps on purpose, but they sound kinda dead. You have to put some sort of noise gate in your effects chain if you're going to go with a very high gain setting. The other thing is, the presets in these VSTs are usually kind of lacking any character, especially the high gain ones. I hate them. I usually get one that is kind of close to what I want, then tweak it all out to get my sound. Almost all the VSTs do a respectable job with clean tones, it's the distorted stuff that separates the different VSTs.

 

Are you next to a computer / video monitor?
are you using a speaker cable?
is the guitar grounded properly inside the cavity?
Is the cavity properly shielded?

As others have pointed out, start with less gain. Learn about string muting....

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 3, 2018

the levels are ok, the meter just show green

i'm adding a distortion pedal, and the amp, with both of their gains in the middle

sounds way down because the string i played in the audio is the 7th and is tuned in B (wich i suppose that must be like this), but you're right, sounds dead also

yes, i'm right next to the pc and monitor

i'm using a guitar cable, the one with the big plug in both sides

what do you mean with the cavity properly shielded?? i just plug the cable into the guitar hole all the way to the bottom, and i do the same in the input of the focusrite...

 

Does the noise decrease when you change the angle of the guitar to the comp? TRy moving away.

' big plug ' is usually a speaker cable. Are you sure you have a shielded TS cable?

The cavity is where all volume pots and wiring resides. If the pickup ground wire has a bad solder joint it can cause that noise.

 

There's a lot you need to learn to get a good electric guitar sound, lots of variables and different components, it's hardly ever plug and play. Check youtube for tutorials on how to get a good ampsim sound, there are some great videos there and also great sounding free plugins.

The noise might be the result of shitty wiring in your guitar, shitty cables, or it can be the result of improper gain staging - there's only so much distortion you can use before you get a lot of noise, so try using as little gain or volume as you can in Amplitube and see how that goes. There is always going to be noise if you don't use a noise-gate. The bad tone might be the result of old strings (new ones make a huge difference), not utilizing the different amp controls, or bad choice of amp (Amplitube isn't really great for Metal). How you play also makes a great difference - I don't know if you have a teacher or not, but if you're just starting and haven't practiced a lot, you're just not going to sound good.

Also, you need to use the 'inst' option on your Focusrite, if you haven't already, and you should check whether the volume knob on your guitar is all the way up - if you try to amplify a weak signal, you're going to get a lot more noise.

 

Active or Passive pickups? (gotta fresh battery?)

 

What guitar exactly do you have? are you playing with. speaker volume, if you play near your computer you , depending on the guitar could be picking up. radio interference from power supplies in your computer monitor and even cooling fans emit RF so you have to be careful special with. hot single coil pick ups and P 90"s. you said you have a guitar cable but how much did u pay for it ? cheap cables are a no no in guitar world one last thing too are the rich ups clean? ie. no dirt, paint on them, that could cause weird stuff to happen as well.

 

also amp emulation depending what amp and how much drive you have going in can cause this. amp being short for AMPLIFICATION !!!! to make things bigger and it does this to everything fed into it... my advice is turn on the noise gate, it docent get ride of the noise just silences it between passages.

 

I believe this is the guitar that the OP has.
OP, what is the tone that you are going for? It's hard to pinpoint exactly what you think is wrong without knowing exactly what you're shooting for. What are you comparing your tone to?
That being said it does sound like there is some microphonics going on there, particularly that ringing around the 2-4 second mark - given they're humbuckers you shouldn't really be getting that kind of noise which could indicate a problem with the wiring or pickups - or it could just be that the pickups are crap, which given it's an entry-level guitar could be the case.
Otherwise it could be the lead as evolas has mentioned - make sure you're using a shielded cable - in fact that should be the first thing to check out, try testing with a quality lead.
In terms of the deadness of sound that you mentioned - have you changed the strings? I would always recommend restringing a new guitar, especially one that has come from the factory or guitar mega-store.
That being said, despite the noise, that's in the ballpark of what I would expect a guitar like that to sound like (from the 6 second mark onwards)

 

May sound obvious but have you set the noise gate, Hi gain amps always create bucket loads of noise, and need a good gating system

 

cannot listen to the sample right now.
some general hints:
- dont use a spiral cable, tends to pick up radio interference
- have all your devices hooked up to the same wall socket.
- if the technology in your area allows, try turning mains plugs by 180 degrees
- unplug any unnecessary devices to identify the culprit
since i did that, i have been able to get rid of all noise gates in my chains. goes for pc, monitor, tv, router, keyboards, externals.

made all the difference for me, better than -80db signal to noise ratio afterwards, at any pickup combination of my fender strat.
dont set input to mic level.
if you get hum when touching metal parts on the guitar, theres a shielding problem.

 

All of the above moosh, but maybe start by trying to get a decent clean sound first, which should be erm.....clean and without any noise, and if you can't achieve that and you've still got that noise its probably the geetar or cable as mentioned above......maybe try another geetar if you can borrow one to test?

Did you try it before you bought it?

 

One more ......was the guitar upgraded with a push / pull pot ? If it's up, push it down.
It does sound like microphonic or single coil noise from humbuckers.

Do we have a 3 question limit or automatic ' dislike ' rule @superliquidsunshine ?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 3, 2018

Huge

 

Oops...th3 fat finger small keyboard, zooming around without double checking syndrome...

 

About noise:

About Amp sims like Line6 helix, Bias Fx, Amplitube, Guitar Rig,...: they are not good at all for distorted guitar. These are adverts to sell their products. In reality, they just sound similar to the real thing for someone who has not played with the real amps.
If you play with a Real amp (like Roland solid states) you will never go back to the amp sims.

To get a good sound for a low price buy an Amplug metal 2. However, it may have an inevitable noise yet but not audible when playing.

See how it sounds and feels. It is huge even without double tracking!
http://voxamps.com/amplug2

 

Last edited: Apr 3, 2018

if i go 3 meters far from the pc still sounds the same

this is the cable that i have:



i don't have idea if the ''cavity'' is ok, the guitar is new

i'm already using the inst option

if i turn the volume of the guitar to the maximum i get even more noise

as far i know this guitar have passive pickups

yes, that is the guitar i have, i didn't chaged the strings, the 2nd looks like rusted lol, here's a close look:



but, all people say that this guitar have great pickups for the price, look at this video, i want a sound like this, and the guy is using amplitube 4:

my devices are all in the same socket

all the usb ports of my are used (but not all devices are on), one is the focusrite.... you say that that can cause noise?

i didn't had the chance to try it because this guitar is not available in my country, i bought it in a place that works bringing stuff from other countries

there's no push or pull pots here

 

Was this recording made while monitoring through headphones or speakers? Also is the recording the dry guitar signal, or the processed one? I'd try recording just the dry signal, and monitor with headphones to see if there's a difference. Sounds like a loose ground to me.