Home recording newbie.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

I want to record some songs with vocals and guitar so today I bought a
M-audio Delta 44 and a M-audio Audiobuddy. My setup is as follows:

Electric Guitar -> Audiobuddy -> Delta 44 (input) -> PC -> Delta 44
(output) -> Speakers.

When I tried to record some sound from the guitar, the signal coming
through on the Monitor Mixer (M-Audio Delta console) was very quiet
(about -36Db rather than -3Db) even though the audiobuddy preamp gain
control was set to the maximum value.

Has anyone got any ideas? Should I need to plug my guitar into an amp
before it reaches the audiobuddy? Thanks in advance.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"ourkid" <ourkid@london.com> wrote in message
news:1119219580.369838.273780@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I want to record some songs with vocals and guitar so today I bought a
> M-audio Delta 44 and a M-audio Audiobuddy. My setup is as follows:
>
> Electric Guitar -> Audiobuddy -> Delta 44 (input) -> PC -> Delta 44
> (output) -> Speakers.
>
> When I tried to record some sound from the guitar, the signal coming
> through on the Monitor Mixer (M-Audio Delta console) was very quiet
> (about -36Db rather than -3Db) even though the audiobuddy preamp gain
> control was set to the maximum value.
>
> Has anyone got any ideas? Should I need to plug my guitar into an amp
> before it reaches the audiobuddy? Thanks in advance.

Was this an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar with a magnetic soundhole
pickup, or an acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup? I'm going to guess it was
the latter, and if so, the culprit was probably the impedance of the
AudioBuddy's instrument input. It's 100k, which is low even for magnetic
pickups and WAY low for piezos, which need to see at least 1Meg and
preferably higher than that. If you're using a piezo pickup, yes, you need
to use a preamp (Fishman makes nice ones) or an amp with a DI output jack.

Oh, and as another poster mentioned, make sure your Delta is set for -10dBV
input sensitivity.

Peace,
Paul