Have a little problem with audacity?

And I always record my electric guitar and my drums with it, and that with a recording volume of 0.0001 because the instruments are otherwise completely overdriven… But at least with the electric guitar it sounds like the guitar is dampened by a want after a few seconds and the quality becomes very terrible, that's only sometimes, but as soon as I put an effect pedal on it it always sounds like this (for information: the guitar goes through the effect pedals to the guitar amplifier into the laptop because I have no other connection to the laptop have). Why is that? Can i change that? Do I need a mixer? Is it the laptop? Or is the electric guitar not allowed to run over the guitar amplifier?

With drums this is only sometimes a problem, because it is usually due to the volume…

The sound card or microphone input in the computer is not suitable for the amplified guitar signal. Normally there should only be an un or minimally amplified microphone!

Quiet, clean instruments sometimes work, as you noticed yourself. But with distortion you can completely forget that you really need a mixer

Remedy: Play the guitar clean and then add the distortion effect in audacity. But I haven't tried it myself, I only play around with it for two or three weeks.

Thanks alot.

Very helpful

Addendum: a little helps to increase the bit rate of the audacity project and the microphone input.

(Addendum to the addendum: so I could at least turn off the hum at the bass drum)

The what? What is that where can I find it?

Wait, I'll write a new answer, I can attach it as a photo.

So, since you can't attach pictures to the comment below, here again as a new answer:

Bit rate (roughly, the sampling quality) of audacity:

I made a mistake with the microphone, there you can't set the bit rate, only the recording level:

Alternatively, you can set the bit rate for each track individually. To do this, open the track menu.

Hi! Don't do the stumble to yourself. If you want to make reasonable recordings, get a good AudioUSB interface (costs between 100-150 euro, a good one!). The investment is worthwhile and you save a lot of time because you can process the signal in a completely different way. Greeting

Oh, I'm just listening. I'm also an absolute layman and just mix everything that is flying around here for fun, but 100-150 euro sound justifiable for "for fun".

Would that work with all instruments (specifically for me electric guitar, electric drums, various others via a not pre-amplified, bad mic)? Or do you need an extra interface for every special case?

And can you specifically recommend something there? And is that a completely normal plug-in card? Say: Is the installation DAU-friendly?

So personally I'm over these whole recording experiments including Audacity and Scarlet 2i2 with all their infinite and unfathomable additional features and settings. Every shot here had an undesirable effect there. Then you had to add a di-box to turn the guitar signal into a line signal, which is probably what you depend on.

I know that is not the question, but still my answer: Buy a (used?) Zoom H4 or H6 and you are rid of all this mess of cables on the PC and the 100 software suites. Your recording is then on the memory card as a WAV and you then work with it.

Personally, I'm still annoyed at the time I wasted with the 2i2 and Audacity and all that patience.

I can't say anything about the rest, but my guitar amp has a line-out. It doesn't matter because as soon as I have some distortion it sounds like a dog (and like a very bad mood).

I assume it's just the unsuitable microphone input on the sound card.

Hi! My band and I bought an audio interface from Tascam together years ago… The currently comparable device should be the Tascam US 2x2 (at Thomann for 115 euro). Other candidates: Steinberg, Focusrite

The short version:

2 channels plus phantom power and plugs for jack and XLR are important so that you can operate both microphones and instruments. Furthermore, monitoring, i.e. Headphone connection and the possibility to coordinate input (instrument, microphone) and what comes back from the PC so that you can play. Regulations of the signal strength should also be possible. Our Tascam has it all and I think so too.

And you don't have to install anything, just connect and install drivers if necessary. When choosing, also make sure that it fits your computer!

We then played all the instruments (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums - here I used my eDrum for the sake of simplicity) and vocals with a Daw in a multi-track project one after the other on this device and then edited and mastered the tracks. With a little practice you can get passable versions, good demo quality, but you can't really compare it with studio quality. Still it sounds better than you think, but as I said, it took a while until the first good results were there.

Hope I was able to answer your questions. Greeting

Thank you, that was detailed:-)