If you've ever recorded a guitar, you've probably always believed in the slogan: turn up the volume high enough to get a good signal, but not so high as clipping. It seems quite logical, and in fact this is also how you use a microphone to record in the studio. But what if you use a guitar plug-in for an audio interface? Of course the same rules apply?
It turns out that it's not that simple, and before that, there were a lot of misleading suggestions on how to record guitars with an audio interface, including directly from manufacturers like Line 6 and Neural DSP.
Normal gain grading
Focusrite Clarett 音频接口前面板特写
Just like in a recording studio, many online recommend that you plug in the instrument input of an audio interface (or press the corresponding instrument button) and turn up the gain until the signal peaks between -14dB and -9dB for the best sound.
Recording in this way minimizes noise while also ensuring that each part of the signal chain receives the best possible signal. This is the "blonde zone" of the signal, not too hard and not too soft, and is a general rule of thumb for recording any sound.
But it turns out that this isn't the way to get a great guitar tone when using plugins.
The new normal
装有 Amplitube 音箱模拟软件的 MacBook
Over the past year or so, I've finally been able to reluctantly buy myself an HX Stomp and a Helix Native. While I don't think I'm all bad at tone – at least as I sound it – sometimes I struggle to get a really nice clean tone in a particular preset. I also found myself always turning down the gain of the analogue amps in heavy presets, wondering how the makers could have found this oversaturated tone to be usable.
It wasn't until I discovered a video by John Nathan Cordy that I realized I was completely on the wrong track with the guitar plug-in. It turns out that all the savvy recording advice on the web about gain segmentation doesn't actually apply to this situation, although this is obvious to anyone who knows about recording. This video took me down the rabbit hole of YouTuber Ed S, who has been trying to teach guitarists how to use plugins properly.
How to get a better tone
A man plays an electric guitar in a recording studio
If you've been struggling to get good sound from a guitar plugged directly into the audio interface, you can start by turning the gain of the audio interface to a minimum. Then, you'll need to adjust the plug-in input gain to the default value, which is usually zero, so that your analog amp behaves more like a real amp.
If you're using a Neural DSP or Line 6 Helix plug-in at the same time as a Universal Audio or Focusrite audio interface, set your audio interface gain level to zero and do the same in the plug-in to get the right input level. As for the other combinations, you can check out the super helpful table provided by Ed in the video above, which shows a range of audio interfaces, plug-ins, and the gain settings you should use.
Further adjustments
A universal audio interface placed on top of a guitar amp
As explained in the video, setting all parameters to zero can cope with a lot of situations, but there are some subtle differences. Each audio interface has a different maximum input level for the instrument inputs, which means you may need to add a little gain, or even use fine-tuning plug-ins in your DAW to lower the input levels for specific interface and plug-in combinations. One thing that isn't taken into account in the video is that there can also be a big difference between the guitar pickups you use, so further adjustments may be required. If you're a single-coil player, you'll need different settings than players with active EMG, so it's important to keep this in mind when changing the input gain.
Of course, we always encourage you to listen with your ears rather than your eyes, so you may need to tweak further based on personal preference, but it's a great starting point to get a better guitar tone in the box and make your analog amp sound more like the real one.