Guitar/PC Sound Setup

DeadMetal17

DeadMetal17

DeadMetal17

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Joined
9 Jun 2010
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259
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Aberdeenshire
not sure if this is the best place to post something like this, but this is the only forum I use (& I've always gotten good help & advice here), never really bin one for forums/social media (hell even talking in the real world is a challenge for me :p) so figured id give it a shot .....anyway..... I've bin playing Guitar for a few years now (started getting more into it at the start of 2014 when I bought what I consider to be my first real Guitar (used to just borrow my brothers cheap old throwaway) & now I'm trying to get a good sound setup for my everyday playing/messing around :D.

I made the mistake of buying a Laney Ironheart IRT30-112 Amp in January which I've only used a handfull of times, I wasn't happy with the sound ( tbh its just too loud for the conditions I live in, & without volume its just no good) so I usually just play with headphones through the PC using a USB cable from a friends Rocksmith Game & a Free/Trial version of Guitar Rig 5. I just have onboard sound & have wonderd if getting a Sound Card would improve things. or buying some kind of pedal to hook things up (I have no idea about this kind of thing, incase u couldnt tell :p).

does anyone have any advice for a simple noob to get a better sound for his headphone rockin ;) I tried doing some research on my own but everything I come across sounds complicated & seems to be aimed at people who want to record or have a small studio in their house, I'm pretty much just looking for better sound to jam along to my favorite bands with (& of course some occasional random noise making lol)

also I've seen some videos on youtube about these Peavey Mini Heads that sound pretty cool, they seem to make a big deal about the fact that it has USB!!! but without actually explaining why thats a good thing (atleast to a retard like me they haven't lol) I wondered if that would be something I should look into getting. anyway any tips or thoughts would be welcome guys :)
 
Hi mate,

Firstly I nearly didn't reply to this thread as you started by slating the IRT :) I've just bought the 30-112, having previously owned the Studio... Love it beyond words, but I guess it has to fit what you're after - I needed some nice cleans and metal tones, and occasionally crunchy rock, which is does perfectly.

Anyway, as for sounds on PC - it really depends what you're looking for, you have a few options:

If you want simulated sound, using either software or a Line 6 POD, or one of the many other modelling amps/products, then you can either buy a sound interface (check out focusrite, line 6, and many others) - connect your guitar in to the unit, connect unit to PC (usb/firewire) and you can then take the dry (no effects) sound straight into whatever sound recording software (daw) that you use. Worth looking at Reaper, free trial but well worth the money. Depending on the device you buy, you can often take the sound with all the effects in (wet) from your device and put that in as well - gives you options to record a dry signal and then play with different effects/eq in software.

Alternatively you can get an amp (actually like the Ironheart Studio) which is a proper tube (= warmer than modelled imho) amp that also has usb output. The usb output will effectively add a sound device to your pc, with ins/outs. I think the IRT-Studio actually lets you send wet/dry signals to the pc, as well as being able to route back the PC sound through the amp (re-amp), so you can record something and then play with the amps settings.

Hope that wasn't all rambling and some of it makes sense. Happy to answer anything more specific if you like.
 
hehe well im glad you did reply :) let me clarify that first part by saying that my biggest problem with the Laney is that its gotta be loud to sound good (which it does well) but with the hours I work (& the people I live with) I simply cant use it loud, the mistake was not thinking it through when I bought it, now its an expensive ornament lol.

Im really intrested in this USB idea (I enjoy playing through the headphones already, that way I can play whenever I want as loud as i want, & no one has to hear how rubbish I am :p ) so the thought of having something small (like the Laney Studio or Peavey Mini) that I can just put on the desk would make things really easy/comfortable to play. (providing its simple enough to setup)

thanks for replying daz.rathbone, the more information the better, like I said im new to all of this stuff :D
 
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:) Only joking mate. Apart from the tone, one of the best features of the Laney IRTs is the watts dial-down, take it less than 1W and still warm the tubes nicely.

Anyway, it's worth going to a local music/guitar shop and trying some of the modelling interface's - the Line 6 Studio (I had a UX2) is a good one, but also the normal POD is also good. A lot of the other small modelling amps like the Fender Mustang (think it's the mustang) are also good with USB connectivity.

Do you use an ipad? If so I can really recommend buying an iRig HD - plug your guitar into that, plug it into your ipad, then chuck your headphones in and off you go. There is some superb iOS software available cheaply to do exactly what you want. Amplitube is good, although I recommend BIAS (let's you create any amp sound you want, and they do sound good). For a portable practise device it's worth buying something like an ipad mini just to do this.

Also I think the iRig HD comes with normal USB, not just Thunderbolt, so you can actually connect it to your PC and use it as a guitar interface on it's own.

There are so many options it's unreal tbh - another one is buying ROcksmith for PC or Console (Rocksmith 2014) and get a Rocksmith Realtone cable. Not only can you use it to play the "game" (not really a game, a great teaching aid) but you can use the cable as a standard guitar interface to pretty much any other software.

Hope some of this helps. Feel free to trust me over with any specific questions, maybe if you see something you like the look of. I've tried a lot of the kit that's out there so happy to offer any advice I can.
 
thanks for the posts

bin using the Rocksmith Realtone cable along with a free version of Guitar Rig 5, which has bin pretty fun, allot of sound options, but havent really found any good metal tones (i notice they offer allot of presets on the forums but they dont work for the free version :(

dont have an Ipad, but will have a look into these things at the weekend when I have some free time :)
 
I recently changed from a full Line 6 setup (POD HD500X, with a DT25+cab) back to the Ironheart for one simple reason - no matter how hard I tried or who's patches I copied, I could never get the metal tone I wanted - especialy the deep chug when pm'ing.

Of course your Ironheart 30-112 has a direct out on the back - you could plug that into an audio interface and get the REAL metal tones from it.

If you decide to try and build a nice line 6 metal tone let me know - I can help a little and point you in the direction of some good tone building guides.
 
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