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Guitar Noise/Feedback

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macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 16, 2004
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Is anyone else getting a considerable amount of noise/feedback when using the distortions with an electric guitar? I am using a Griffin USB input device, going directly into that form my guitar. It works and everything, but there is so much noise/feedback from the distortions, that they are all useless for recording. I've tried monitoring on and off. Didn't matter. I'm using headphones so there's no problem with the output being picked up somewhere else...I've also tried using the built-in mic, and the same problem remains.

The distortions actually sound decent (from what i can make out of them), but there is just too much noise/feedback in the way! The noise is especially noticable when I am not playing. While playing, it still there, but mixes with the guitar to make it sound god awful. When I saw John mayer preview it, I got very excited...unfortunately I can't use any of the guitar distortions/amps or anything without that noise or feedback occuring.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch. -Kevin
 
No luck...

Still no luck. I have found that:

1) The noise is present for all the effects, it's just the most noticable for the distortion.

2) When I use the built in mic...there is none of this noise.

So I'm thinking that the Griffin iMic just sucks. I need to invest in something good, maybe firewire? Any suggestions?
 
I've been playing al night, and I find going straight into the mac, if you can, works really well. I've got my SG running into the audio in through a standard patch chord into my powerbook and the distortions are great.

BTW...It's really cool to double up the amp simulators, throw on the rverb, echo and gate about halfway and become a rock god.

If this helps....
 
Heh

Haha, thanks for the reply, but I have a G4 flat screen iMac....has no direct input. I've alywas hated that...is it that hard to put one direct in on a Mac? Now I'm going to have to spend over $100 for a good USB input device...
 
I think you do have audio input. At least, my 1 GHz 17-incher does.It has the icon that looks like two arrows going into a circle. It's furthest to the right when looking directly at the three sound plugs.
 
I bought the Edirol UA-20 for $179, which is more than I wanted to spend... It has stereo 1/4" inputs and MIDI as well as optical and RCA outs. It has worked great so far, I am very pleased.

As far as the guitar feedback is concerned, Have you turned on the Noise Gate?
 
re

Nope, this doesn't have an audio input. It has to outputs (one for the speakers that came with it, and then headphones). It's a 15" flatscreen so yeah, I guess they didn't put audio inputs on the older flat screen iMacs, which is a dåmn shame.

About the noise gate....it's worthless. All it does is stop the noise when I'm not playing. When I am playing, the noise is still there, mixing with the guitar distortion. The noise gate also cuts off the guitar when you first come in.

It's the iMic, I just need to buy a nice one.
 
I can't believe it doesn't have an audio in! I was gonna use my audio port but I have a guitar synth too so I need MIDI, hence the all-in-one USB box.

I have been fighting with the noise gate myself so I may plug in my POD and see how it goes.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Hey sonofsam, post a review of how the pod works with GB, compared to the built in amp modeling. I like the customability GB offers, and have had good success with it so far, but would be curious to know how it stands up against a POD.
 
Results

Well, after messing with my guitars, levels, and the Grriffin iMic and coming up with no luck, I've decided that I will invest in one of these:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T9104LL/A

Seems to be what I'm looking for. Reasonably priced I guess.

For those of you who considered buying a Griffin iMic for the use of Garageband....reconsider. Okay, don't buy it because frankly, it's trash.
 
I attended a "demo" of GB in Apple's Soho NY flagship store today. They recorded a guitar through the m-audio pre input device and sure enough screaming feedback/noise! To be fair they said it was their first time messin' w/ it.
 
Re: POD (Crazy Canuck)
RE: POD

I have tried out my POD with Garage Band and it works like a charm. I need to do a little more tweaking get the sound I want but so far so good.

The POD signal isn't as hot as the Garage Band amp sims but I have found that adding some EQ only in the GB effects does help to give some bite to my sound.

Has anyone else used a POD with GB? Any tips are appreciated.
 
RE: POD
Crazy Canuck

Oh yeah, I like the GB amp sim too Crazy Canuck. I just haven't found the sweet spots yet. It sounds a bit too "straight into the board" to me. I am very impressed with the sounds though.
 
ah the POD ...

I have the Bass Pod and tis good news to hear I will be trying it as soon as I get an input device... might go for the TASCAM US112 or the 224.
 
Getting the iMic to work well

Go to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup. Go to the Audio Devices tab. Select the properties for the iMic USB audio system. On the Audio Input section, there should be something along the lines of "2ch-8bit". If you've only got mono input, change that to "1ch-20bit". You can also adjust the gain numerically here, it mirrors the slider in the Sound control panel. You can also mess with the sample rate if you want, but I leave it at 44.1 kHz so I don't need to downsample for Audio CDs.

For some reason, the channel will every once in a while reset to 8bit. I've had it happen to my output and I wondered why iTunes sounded so poor for a week before I figured it out. When I'm using GarageBand I keep Audio Midi Setup in my dock.
 
Noise and the PreUSB

Okay, two points:

First, if you have a CRT, then the electron gun in the back will generate a lot of electromagnetic noise. Try moving your guitar closer to the screen and see if the noise gets louder. The solutions here are to turn off your moniter (not happening I'm sure) or back away from the screen or use humbucker type pick-ups that should cancel out some of the noise.

Second, I have the M-Audio PreUSB Audio interface and I love the little guy. I have my electric feeding through several pedals into channel 1 (I prefer the pedals so I can switch effects on and off, and I know the little buggers pretty well so I can get what I want). I've got an XLR mic feeding into channel two. That I use for acoustic and vocals. Lastly, the PreUSB has two quarter inch outputs on the back, which I'm running through quarter inch to RCA adapters and feeding into my stereo. The set up is great, except that I have to use headphones to monitor while I'm using the mic or the silly thing will feedback like a mother.
 
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