The output from my Faith electro acoustic doesn’t pass through my Behringer AI to a computer. Initially I thought the problem was my MacBook laptop as that coincidentally has sound issues. However yesterday I hooked up the AI to my old desktop and I don’t get the sound through on that either. It’s just the mic input that goes through. To check there weren’t any issues with the guitar or cable I plugged it into my amp and that works fine. The light indicator on the AI also flashes green as if a signal was reaching the AI but doesn’t reach the computer audibly. The pickup system on my guitar isn’t powered or have volume control. Could it be too weak to use with the AI, which is a UM2 btw.
Can you try another guitar, John? As I recall you have an electric. My electric works fine through the DI and is passive ie no powered pre-amp on the guitar.
Does the UM2 have a setting for an instrument vs a mic input (my 2i2 has such a switch that boosts the instrument signal)
What happens if you crank the gain on the AI way up and amplify the signal in the DAW?
I suppose it is possible that the guitar input level to the AI is too low. But maybe there is something wrong with that input circuit?
Have you checked the configuration in your DAW and specifically which input channels are configured? I suspect it’s just 2 channel input so it should work. The easiest way to tell is to see if the little level meters move when you play the guitar.
According to the UM2 manual you have two inputs, and both of them should accept instrument-level signals (like the signal from an electric guitar with passive pickups). Also, if your signal indicator on the UM2 lights up then it doesn’t sound like the issue is signal from guitar to interface.
- Which input are you plugging into (i.e, the MIC/LINE 1 input or the INST 2 input)?
- Can you hear anything if you direct monitor with headphones plugged into the UM2?
- Is the appropriate input source selected in your DAW? Keep in mind the MIC/LINE 1 and INST 2 inputs will show up as separate input sources in your DAW.
Do you know which pickup system is fitted? What model Faith guitar is it?
Cheers,
Keith
Doh…as Homer would say. It does have a volume switch.
Guitar is a Faith Blood Moon Venus fitted with this pickup system:
Then it also has a battery. Have you checked the battery is good?
Cheers,
Keith
@DavidP I’ll try the electric but there isn’t any way to boost the input on the AI. I have tried the gain on max.
@Rossco01 I haven’t tried going into the DAW yet. As a first step I tried recording using Quicktime on my Mac and in Zoom on my Windows desktop.
@J.W.C I agree the signal is getting to the AI. I’ve only plugged the guitar into the instrument only input on the AI but I could try it in the Mic input, which is dual. I’ll give it a go. As previously mentioned I’ve not been trying with DAW as I’m at the bottom of a steep learning curve with that and wanted to keep the tests simple. But if that’s what I need to do I’ll get on to it.
@Majik yes, I’d thought of that and even though the battery low indicator wasn’t lit I put fresh batteries in on the weekend.
As @J.W.C suggested, try plugging headphones into the UM2. Can you hear the guitar through those?
Cheers,
Keith
@DavidP @Rossco01 @J.W.C @Majik I seem to have progressed a bit. Directly monitoring the AI I could hear very low input. I couldn’t wind up the gain for INST 2 or OUTPUT as it was creating hum anywhere over half way on both knobs. Although I couldn’t hear this while recording it was apparent on playback. Remembering that the guitar lead I was using was old I just thought I’d try another one. This actually did improve the level and I could hear it louder in the AI although this hasn’t translated into a good recording, which I’ve uploaded to YT as Test:
a short clip very low volume and hum.
I then tried my electric guitar, not very well tuned, but I couldn’t find the tuner!
I was able to wind up the gain for INST 2 and OUTPUT this time, which has translated through to a slightly better volume level in YT. -12 against -24. I guess next step is to get to grips with Reaper where I can expect to boost the inputs…yes? And take the output into Zoom hopefully.
The problem of only recording on one channel which affected a couple of my recent AVOYP’s didn’t happen today.
John, you are certainly getting there (just played the 2nd vid) sounding a lot cleaner but as you say, still low on volume (nerd stats -12.3 db). Wish I could offer solutions but you should see a difference in Reaper. Is that the next step in your plan ?
Cheers
Toby
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I’m hoping to get going with Reaper, yes. After a couple of dabbles. I do also hope to try out OBS. I’ve played a bit and it looks very interesting.
It sounds to me that the problem is the hum.
Yes, -12dB is quite low, but not in an unacceptable way. At least not for recording purposes, as you can boost the level in a DAW.
The problem, of course, is: if you boost the level by (say), 6db which is a doubling of the level, you will also double the level of the hum.
Are you recording this to a laptop? If so, try disconnecting the power supply whilst you are recording.
Cheers,
Keith
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I do record on my laptop with power connected so I tried with it unplugged as per your suggestion. This does eliminate the hum heard in the AI and I can get the volume in my headphones pretty loud. Louder then I want to endure. However, I’m not sure it’s improved the sound recorded on the laptop. I’ve uploaded the result to YT as before and it shows a content loudness of -27.7dB.
I’m not experienced in gauging these measurements yet. A negative figure is suggesting to me it’s some sort of relative measure? Just DuckDuckGoed and it seems 0dB is the threshold for distortion. I also see that YT videos should be normalised between -12dB - -20dB. My video is 7.7dB below that but I don’t know if that means I’m missing by an inch or a mile! Lot to learn
John just to let you know the quality is now good but the volume is very low. To give you an idea I would normally listen to YouTube recordings or my own audio at around 25% of my PC soundbar speaker volume, to get anywhere near that level on your last take, I had to ramp it up to 65%.
When I render my tracks for YouTube or prepare for the OMs using YouTube to measure the level, I normally aim for about -6db but anything around -10 to -6 is generally ok. I just sorry I have no answers at to why yours is down at -27. Keep trying an Happy New Year all the same
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So, the 2 recordings I’ve made today with the acoustic guitar have very similar loudness levels in YT. The first test is -24.6dB and the second -27.7dB. Seems the only difference is that the second was more comfortable and easier to monitor because of the absence of hum in the AI meaning I could increase the gain, although this didn’t lead to a better recording on the laptop.
The recording with my electric guitar is the best with -12.3dB.
I am listening on the phone John and I have sort of 75-80% volume on and it is a bit below expected volume levels, but I can clearly hear everything.
Can’t be much help with Behringer AI but I will keep an eye if you manage to improve your levels.
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John, I’ve had a listen to all three.
I Test2 with the electric sounded good and was OK loudness level. I suggest do a trial with that setup into Zoom, a test recording, and upload. If you achieve the same as what I assume is a recording made directly into QuickTime then we can tick the box and say you are good to go with that setup for OM in Feb and for making AVOYP recordings.
I can’t explain in depth how the dB scale works (I’m sure @Majik could do that). Rather than saying 0dB is the threshold for distortion, think of it as the point beyond which you will get clipping of the signal. May be a pedantic distinction but you could record a distorted guitar below 0dB and it will sound good, whereas clipping of a clean acoustic will sound not good.
Next test would be to record the acoustic guitar into Reaper and see what happens when you amplify the signal. I suggest you watch this video
I think the intro will be interesting, then you could skip ahead past the drums and bass to look at the bit about guitar levels, and right at the end he shows how to amplify the signal in the recorded track.
Note that throughout this the track faders are at 0dB. The faders will adjust the playback level of the track for mixing purposes. At this stage we are just interested in the recorded level.
I suggest you do a similar recording of your vocal, acoustic, and electric guitars into Reaper, as you did for the test videos and share what you observe.
I’ll not speculate any further at this point.
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@DavidP thanks for the link to recording levels. The Kenny Gioia tutorials are on my list of things to do. Because my first goal is to have an adequate setup for the OM’s all the tests I did yesterday were actually done as Zoom recordings. Today, thinking of AVOYP’s, I have done a similar test in QT. Recording guitar and vocal again:
Test4: voice and guitar thru AI. Mic input records to left side and guitar records thru INST 2 to right side.
The loudness of this is -10.2dB. A lot better then the Zoom recordings and seems close to the acceptable range @TheMadman_tobyjenner mentions.