MBox Studio, Electric Guitar, Eleven Mk II

[ObiJonKenobi]

Hi all,

I am recording electric guitar in Pro Tools through my MBox Studio. I am using input 1 and only default settings. When I record the guitar it sounds perfect. However, when I add Eleven MKII to add the Metal Effect when there is no audio from the guitar there is a lot of hiss and a tone at 3.5kHz. Some Eleven settings have it and some do not. I would guess that there is something in the recording that the plug in is picking up but that is just a guess. Is there some group of settings I am missing? Anyone else have this issue? Andy thoughts?

Thanks,
Jon (MBox Studio newbie)

[Darryl Ramm]

Hi welcome to DUC.

You are likely hearing the Eleven II noise gate cut in and out. You might just need to adjust that.

"default settings" tells us nothing. What gain setting is the preamp at? A DI input goes through the preamp so has adjustable gain. Make sure you are using a DI input, not a mic input. What guitar? what pickups? what guitar pedals before the DI input? what amp sim and gain/volume settings? For bonus points...what signals levels in dBFS on the dry track and through the sim?

"when I record the guitar it sounds perfect"... what exactly do you mean? Are you monitoring the dry signal when recording? or monitoring a wet signal through a (different?) amp plugin? The dry recording should be at a low level/quiet until you insert an amp sim plugin to significantly boost the signal. You might be recording the dry guitar too hot, especially if the guitar has active pickups, or you have pedals in the signal chain. That will also increase various types of noise, and can make it more difficult to get a good tone out of the amp sim.

But just like with real amps a high gain (==metal) amp can sound noisy as heck, and folks have to live with a noise gate and/or get used to tapping on a cut-off or tuner pedal. You might have to be more aggressive with the noise gate, look at shielding and noise pickup in the guitar etc. Much of this is experience that you need to pick up by just working with real guitars and amps or amp sims, the best way to get that experience is to follow along with tutorials about recording electric guitars and/or working with amp sims, videos on youtube or commercial lessons like Groove3 can be a good sources.

[ObiJonKenobi]

Darryl,

Thank you very much for your response. I am so new to this I am still learning the variables that matter.

Guitar: Epiphone SG
Pickups: 2 Alnico Classic humbuckers
MBox Studio picks this up as an instrument from the input
No pedals before the interface
Gain: probably too high based on your recommendation - probably recorded too hot - I will experiment with recording much lower

“Sounds perfect” = “sounds exactly like what I was hearing while playing including the absence of noise when not playing”.

I need to mess with the noise gate as well - did my research on noise gates today to get myself up to speed (yes, I am that much of a noob).

If you have any favorites on YouTube who you trust and who have provided value please let me know.

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. This have given me so much direction to continue learning! Thank you!