Good sound card with gain knob (or maybe pre-amp)?

[Balthazar]

Hey

I recently bought myself an Ibanez Artcore AS103 semi-hollow guitar, which sounds really great acoustically. Unfortunately, I think it sounds bland when played electric through Logic Pro and the amp modellers that came with it (I don't have a real amp). At my friends studio it sounded pretty good, though. Now I have gotten myself a copy of Guitar Rig - but haven't tried it yet. But I suspect the problem is in my sound card. It's an M-Audio FastTrack. It doesn't have a gain knob for the guitar input, and judging from the visual sound curves in Logic, the input level I achieve is extremely low. Since the sound is already digitalized in the sound card, I believe that the low input level involves a loss of sound quality which can't be helped if it's amped up (software-wise) within Logic, and that even if Guitar Rig might help, it will have lower quality data to work with.

Do you have any suggestions for a good sound card? Not very expensive, hopfully. POD, more expensive M-Audio models (than what I have) and Native Instruments' Audio Kontrol 1 are possible contenders. I don't believe I'd need any higher quality/price range. Also, if you feel only a real amp will do the trick, feel free to suggest that... :) What I mean is I need proper equipment to play the guitar on.

EDIT: Maybe just a (valve?) pre-amp would do the trick, if the sound quality of the M-Audio card is good. Is that expensive?

[exoslime]

i suggest you a tascam us-122 audio interface
http://www.tascam.de/index.php?page=us-122l.html

i have that one, (this is the the old model...
http://cgi.ebay.com/TASCAM-US-122-USB-AUDIO-MIDI-INTERFACE-LOW-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ280340409891QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4145972e23&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

it has low latency, a high-z instrument input, and works great with guitar rig, basically with all vst stuff because of its asio compatibility,
also the quality of the device is very good and solid (imho)

the old model goes cheap on ebay now, you can really make a bargain

cheers
exoslime

PS:
try other amp sims too, like revalver, waves gtr, and amplitube.
and also experiment with cabinet impulses, i found out that the mostly kick ass of the internal amp sims in the vsts... and there are tons of free and good ones in the net

[MrBump]

Hate to disagree with a fellow forumite, but I would avoid the older model at all costs.

The new one (the "L" model) is a great little box by all accounts, but the older one (which I happen to have) is highly problematic.  Have a search online and you're bound to find many issues with it...

Mark.

[Balthazar]

Thank you.

I forgot to mention that I have a mac. Intel-mac. I don't have much knowledge about VST and audio software stuff, but I think asio is a windows thing?

I see the card also works on macs. If anyone knows how well it works on an Intel-mac please tell me!

[exoslime]

Hate to disagree with a fellow forumite, but I would avoid the older model at all costs.

The new one (the "L" model) is a great little box by all accounts, but the older one (which I happen to have) is highly problematic.  Have a search online and you're bound to find many issues with it...

Mark.

Cheers Mark,

no problem, can you be a little bit more specific about the problems you have with the US-122??

i use it regulary since a few years and its in my eyes really a solid 100% trustable unit.
I have used it on my windows laptop for live sessions and performances, on my pc workstation, and also use it sometimes on my mac at work to fiddle around with it..
never had any problems during installation, run, etc...

i have to admit, i have suggest this soundcard already years ago to 2 of my friends, both bought it, one is using it since then, had never problems (like me), and the other one had great problems with it all the time from the beginning, but when i visited to help him, and plugged it in, it worked like charm.
the mistake what he probably made was that he plugged in the interface in the same time that he started the sound application, which resulted in a big mess (of course) and system crash.
i suggested him, to let the soundcard all the time plugged in, at the same usb port.. since then, he also got no issues anymore

if you are running an internal soundcard and and external, you have to keep your drivers and configuration well, but thats for windows only.. i can imagine that easily a conflict can occure in such a enviroment.
But as 8hours working per day on an apple mac, i doubt this will be a mac problem too..

But you know, how technics and computers are... one is absolutly happy with it, while the other one got the greatest imaginable problems with it..  :(


cheers
chris

[exoslime]

I see the card also works on macs. If anyone knows how well it works on an Intel-mac please tell me!

sorry, cant help with that, it was a power pc machine when i used it.

[Lew]

the logic amp sims are pure shite, guitar rig 3 is in a different world - get waves gtr solo too (its free) it's great for cleans and overdrive but cr@p for high gain.

[Balthazar]

Thank you. Yep - guitar rig was a huge improvement. I'l try out GTR Solo too. One full year of tryout is really great... :)

From the input meter in guitar rig it seems I was wrong that I got such a low input level. It generally goes up to about 50%. I still think, for more versatility and control, that my sound card should have a gain knob.

I'll leave the question open for now, on whether I should get a better sound card, or if M-Audio Fasttrack (the cheapest one) gives OK sound. Anyone who has experiences please comment!

[Bradock PI]

Anyone tried using the little Vox headphone amps to drive the soundcard input, I would suspect that could work quite well and you would gain a headphone setup as well?

[MDV]

Headphone amps dont have the high-z input required for guitar.

Pre amps arent the entirety of whats needed here either. Certainly the guitar signal needs amplification to line level, but they need to be high impedence to match pickups rather than mics.

There are LOADS of soundcards with breakout boxes with high-z inputs that have gain controls. If you go for something with 2 combo (mic pre xlr and high-z trs) inputs round 100 quid you should get something pretty capable. Check out what emu are doing these days. Great bang-for-buck soundcards