Setup - extremely bad signal

Hey guys.

So now I got myself some equipment (cheap but it should do the job.. but eh it doesnt!)

I got:

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 | soundcard

Behringer Tube ultragain mic 100 | Preamp

Soundforge Compact4 | Mixer

Boss Gt-6 | Fx-board

Guitars - different types


Varius recording programs

An old Amplifier with a set of speakers


Ok, here goes. First I had the amplifier connected to the soundcards outputs. This gave a perfect clear sound when listening to audio, so I can surely say that the amplifier works. Next thing I got the mixer so I decided to try it out.

This is how I connected it.

Soundcard output to mixer 'Playback in'
Mixer 'record out' to soundcards record in
Mixer 'Monitor' to Amplifier
Board to preamp
Preamp to mixer input (like pluggin a normal device into the mixer)

The results were good at first I thought, the sound was nice and clear but I discovered that when I tried to record something it was AWFUL!! Ultra low sound with more buzzing than sound!

What can the problem be, and how do I solve this mess?

Thanks for reading

sounds like the problem is gain staging.

Do you have the GT hooked up to the Behringer pre ?

That is a bad move as you really want to keep your signal path as short as possible. You also want to try to only use one peamp. Sending the signal through more than one can make it noisy, There are pres on the desk as well.

If you absolutely have to use more than one pre then turn the first one right up and all the others right down. The idea is to et your signal as hot as possible as soon as possible with out it clipping.

Thanks for your answer Doc, I did what you said (turned the pre amp signal up and the mixer signal down) and it gave a great result when listening to it from the mixer monitor.
The problem still left is the signal that is transfered to the computer!!

Output from the computer to the mixer works perfect and gives a 100% clean sound, but when recording I get a strange almost mechanical twist of the sound plus there is a low frequenze constant buzz which is not there when just playing the guitar using monitor sound!!

I tryed using Cubase SX but it wanted to update its setting due to the new audio path I created. The update failed since a hell lot of 'Sync' were lost, I have absoluttely no idea what that means but maybe you can make something out of it?

Thanks once again for reading

Schmange is the resident Cubase expert however I think audio path is, in this context, the location of a file on a disk. This is nothing to be afraid of.

It could be that your sound card is looking for an external clock to synch to which is screwing with your sample rates etc and generating noise, jitter and weird artifacts. Try setting the sound card as clock master.

Another thing, does your Boss GT have an S/P DIF out and is there an S/PDIF in on the soundcard ? If so get some 75 ohm video cable with RCA type ends, set either the GT6 or the sound card as master, make sure the sample rates are the same and record guitar digitally.

Well, I am not sure how I make my soundcard clock master..

Anyway, I recorded a soundtest in Wavelab so maybe you can recognize the problem?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/steffenmusic.htm

cheers

there will be a properties box for it some where, you could start by looking in the start menu. this will be a sound card thing rather than a cubase thing.

After listening to it I think it is probably something else anyway. Have you checked your cables ?

DO you have any fluorescent lights in your recording space ?

have you tried turning off the computer monitor after pressing record ?

I am using two old Phono cables for the input signal (mixer to soundcard), they are plugged in 'unbalanced' since I do not have more than two jack converters (and those two are used for the monitors).

I do not have any fluorescent lights at all so that shouldnt be the problem, and turning of the monitor did not help.

Cheers

what happens if you plug the Gt6 directly into the sound card using the analogue outs?

I can't do that since I don't have any large jack to Rca jack transformers :(

Just found out why the buzz was there!! For some reason the computer was only using the signal from my webcams mic!!! DOH! So now that I plugged it out its gone.. Only problem is:

No incomming signal at all!! What setup should I use with my audiophile 2496 to get a signal?