Setting up a PC as an amp simulator (updated)

yeah oh what's up is it Cohen so I get a lot of questions about what are you running through for an amp what are you running through for speakers and I've said it many times but people always seem to miss it I run through amp simulator software and I run directly and there's no microphone here other than this microphone right here all everything else this guitar is running through cables into my PC and through a mixer and then back out directly into the camera but I do know my king of amps so I get a lot of questions well how do I do that how can I get that sound how can I do that and I send up a video a couple years ago my most unfocused and ridiculously all over the place video and I went back to it maybe six months ago and looked at it and I was just cringing at my lack of focus it's like self had so I've been on a quest to update that video with something a little better and I think I have so without further ado here's the updated version of how to set up a PC is a namsom check it out okay so let's start by looking at PC hardware for the CPU I recommend an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer that's pretty easy considering that chip came out in 2006 I also recommend an AMD Phenom or better again a chip that came out around 2006 2007 if you can get an Intel I series that would be optimal if you can get an AMD FX or a series that would be great too for Ram 2 gigs or more is absolutely necessary just remember in a 32-bit operating system you're only gonna see the first three point two five gigs no matter how much RAM you put it in so even if you put four even eight gigs in it windows 32-bit will only recognize the first three point two five gigs so for most of those systems I put three or four gigs of ram and that's about as good as it gets on the 32-bit OS for 64-bit OS I recommend at least four gigs of RAM if you can go eight or sixteen that's all the better we're also gonna need an audio device and not just some sound blaster cart or any nonsense like that but you need a professional audio recording device and they're not as expensive as you think the most affordable ones are USB and firewire the more expensive ones are Ethernet and PCI I recommend USB because there seems to be more choices in the marketplace for USB this Focusrite Presonus line 6 and tascam or firewire I like Presonus and Focusrite I picked up this focus right to i2 for $65 used with shipping and tax it was 75 bucks which is half of retail I just needed to go to the website and download the drivers and I was good to go you also need some way to hear the sound that the audio device is creating so you're gonna need some headphones which is my recommended way for listening you can also get speakers but they need to be special near-field monitors and not just regular speakers that you get down at the local Best Buy for headphones I like the AKG K 44 is for 35 bucks you can get the K to 40s for 70 those are classic or the KQ 40 Mark 2's for 120 I also like Sennheiser you can get the HD 202 mark twos for 25 bucks the HD for 39 s for 70 bucks I also see the HD 558 which is the model I use out there for about a hundred and twenty dollars for speakers I personally use the KRK Rokit series I have a set a 5 inch which I think cost me 200 bucks for the pair other brands RM audio or Mackie and they all make pretty decent stuff now that we have a hardware we just need to get a USB cable plug the USB cable into the side of the computer and then into the back of the Focusrite let's take a quick look at the focus right on the front there are two input jacks each jack can handle both low impedance and high impedance signals high impedance looks like the standard Jack that we are all familiar with a low impedance signal is like the standard mic jack that we all know the mic jack has the benefit of being balanced which means it can cancel its own noise there's also a switch to go between line and instrument if you're plugging in a mic or a line set it to line if you're plugging in a guitar set at the instrument there's a ring around each gain knob that tells me what the signal strength is I want it to be green but not red there's also a headphone jack with a volume knob there's also a monitor volume which controls the volume of the monitor Jack's on the back of the unit there's a 48 volt power for the jacks that would send a 48 volt power out to any microphones that would need it if you had your guitar plugged in at the same time the guitar would just ignore the signal there's also a direct monitor button I tend not to use direct monitor because I like the sound of the affected guitar and not the direct guitar and when they're together they can sometimes be a little confusing on the back is the USB Jack and the line outputs the line outputs can be run out to the speakers or to any other device that would take a line signal I have it in this video run directly to the camera now that I have my driver installed from Focusrite I can plug the unit in I plug the guitar in I check the signal and I adjust the gain accordingly as you can see the guitar signal is pretty hot so I'm going to reduce the gain to the minimal amount I'm noticing that even at the a minimal amount I'm still getting some red in the signal that's not good so to fix that I'm going to use what's called a DI or direct injection box I picked up this $20.00 behringer box and it's able to reduce the signal to something that the Focusrite can handle I plugged the high impedance into the input and I run the low impedance output to the front of the Focusrite and I move it from instrument to line because now we're getting a line signal from the DI box I checked my levels and now everything is perfect now that we have our hardware connected we need some software software can be complicated so let's choose something easy so we can get up and running right away let's find a simple solution that's free that we can download and try out right away the first one that comes to mind is AmpliTube Custom Shop for free they give you 23 devices 9 stompboxes 4 amps 5 cabs three microphones two rack effects and the tuner another good one is Guitar Rig 5 player Edition it only comes with one amp but it's a good one the jump amp it also includes 17 cabinets 13 effects and modifiers and 50 presets for this video let's AmpliTube custom shop I've gone to the amplitude website it registered now that I have my install codes I'm able to come back and install the software now that we have a hardware connected and the software installed we need to set the software to look at the hardware we also need to set the hardware to run the best possible performance ASIO drivers use something called buffers when buffers are at their lowest the system runs to the fastest but sometimes when it runs that fast the audio software can't keep up it causes crackles and dropouts so we need to raise the buffers just to the point where that stops as you start to move the buffers up though there's a trade-off and that's called latency latency is the delay between when you strike the strings and you hear the signal when latency is low it feels instant but as the buffers get larger and larger the latency gets bigger and bigger and it does become noticeable you have to set that according to the power of your computer - the computers seem to be able to handle lower buffers where slower computers need slightly higher buffers it's the trade-off between your CPU power and the size of the buffer if you use any of the tips I mentioned earlier though you shouldn't have a problem at all if you find the delay is super large make sure you have selected ASIO for your drivers and not windows driver model or DirectX both of those are far slower than ASIO now that we have our hardware our software and our drivers and everything said let's check it out [Music] [Music] okay well thought that sounded pretty good especially for a free amp sim but speaking of free amp Sims I'll be back with another video the covers free amp Sims in greater detail there's a whole world of free amp Sims out there but they are a little bit trickier to install so I'd like to dedicate an entire video to it okay guys thanks again for stopping by and rock on [Music]

Channel: Steve from Boston

Views: 1,368,862

Rating: 4.9180017 out of 5

Keywords: How-to (Website Category), Software (Industry), Guitar Rig (Software), AmpliTube (Software), Focusrite (Award Winner), presonus, firewire, USB, amp modeling, amplifier modeling, amplifier, guitar, Guitar (Musical Instrument), Ibanez (Guitar), Ibanez RG (Guitar), IK Multimedia (Business Operation), Native Instruments (Musical Instrument Company), Computer, Laptop

Id: Hhv9rHUfHFk

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 11 2014