Guitarists? What audio device you using?

I’m looking at a compact set up consisting of a MacBook, Morningstar MC6, some expression pedals and a sound card.

What are you guys using for a sound card that is compact and works and where do you keep it onstage (assuming not in a rack?)

Thanks

MM

AXE I/O is nice for guitar. I don’t play the guitar but I work with one that just got the interface and it is a very good device for inputting guitar. He uses a Mac Mini and Amplitube 5. Sounds really good.

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You need an expression pedal anyway right? At least a volume pedal! So wouldn’t it be nice if the volume pedal and the audio interface was one? Well, such a beast exists, but sadly it’s been discontinued. Why? Who knows. It makes so much sense, I’m amazed others haven’t come out with their own version. The IK multimedia Stealth Pedal is a highly quality USB audio interface and expression pedal in one. Built like a tank too! I use everyday! Of you can find one, get it!

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I use a Focusrite Scarlett Solo - mostly for keyboards, but also for guitar.
It’s small, it’s reliable, it also has a MIC in (just in case) and it’s not too expensive. I like it.

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Hi! I use Xotic SP Compressor Pedal https://houseandbeyond.org/best-compressor-pedal/. It’s very solid and well built little unit with very good looks. When you crank either knob, the noise floor is amplified; I think this is more of an issue with equipment noise, not the SP. The manual specifically points this out, so if you hear people complain about noise, it might not be a fair assessment.

I (playing guitar) use a scarlett 4i4 3rd gen. I like to have 4 outputs, because I also use MDrummer (vst plugin) live and the mixing engineer likes to be in control (obviously). The interface costed around € 200,00, I think to remember.

My guitar pedal is only a box with 6 switches that only has a midi-over-usb connector. Built that myself, just because I could (and still can). The costs of this thingy was about € 100,00 and a lot of time. But it is nice to accomplish something and it is also a hobby of mine.

Formerly I used reaper together with this pedal for controlling all guitar effects (bx-rockrack-v3, suhr-pt100 (plug-in alliance), unfiltered audio triad, mphaser, mconvolution-whatever, etc). Last week I converted everything to Gigperformer. I like the glitchless switching, the ease of connecting things, and the flexibility of the scripting facility. The maiden voyage for this setup will be next week on Sunday…

Most of the plug-ins I bought during sales, so the total amount spent on these plugins, apart from MDrummer, is about € 250,00.

Furthermore, I also used a midi pad controller from Akai for controlling MDrummer, but a few months ago, I bought a touchscreen to use with my laptop, created a gig in Gigperformer with 8 pads for selecting the loops I want MDrummer to play. Furthermore I extended this gig with songs in a setlist, so now I select a song, the right tempo and signature (4/4, 3/4, etc.) is told to Gigperformer, the ui is updated to display the right names with the pads (verse, chorus, count-in, intro, bridge, special, etc), and the right preset for MDrummer is also loaded automatically (MDrummer behaves well, and I don’t mind having to wait for a few seconds between songs). When I select a pad, MDrummer starts the right loop, and there we (I) go :grinning:.
The MDrummer setup took some time and scripting, but I’m very happy with it. No mouse or keyboard needed during performance, just hitting the pads and the ‘next song’ button on the display. The display costed about € 200,00. Should have bought that much longer ago.

I do not use external effect boxes. Although we live in different times now, I remember the always ongoing troubles with damaged patchcords, powersupplies introducing humming, noise, etc. Let alone the cost…

So, now you almost everything about my setup.

Of course, when you ‘only’ play guitar, you do not have to spent money on MDrummer and the infra around it.

My advise is to create a setup where you, during performing, only have to use controllers and alike. Trying to use a mouse or even keyboard while you’re playing guitar is very error-prone.

Edit: I’m on Windows, I7-something from 2020, 16 GB ram, lots of ssd-diskspace.

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This is the audio interface/pedal I was talking about earlier. Doesn’t this just make SOOOO much sense?

Its built like a tank and sounds really good. Why not consolidate hardware as much as possible? I mean if you need a lot more outputs, I get it and perhaps they should make such a product. Everyone uses expression pedals, I wish they didn’t discontinued this. If you can find one used, I HIGHLY recommend it!

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I included an expression pedal in my home-brew controller. Just forgot to use it… but originally I was a bass-player, maybe that explains it :grinning:.

Furthermore, I started with the idea of using a DAW as an effect-rack for playing bass or guitar, because I disliked the sounds that our guitarist-at-that-time used to produce. It had to be as lowcost as possible, so I started out with using a Raspberry Pi Zero. These were about £ 5,00. Reaper is also cheap. And a lot of free vst effects are very usable, although not always easy to dial in. That project ran a bit out if hand :grinning: and kept me busy during my holidays for some years. Then I dismissed the Rasp and bought a Teensy 4.0 with inbuilt A-D converters (for the expression pedal), floating point in hardware, 600MHz and lots of io pins. I abandoned 80% of programming stuff, that was only there to control the Rasp (It runs a linux derivative, so there is need for login to its console sometimes, which is a burden when you are running it headless). After that I finished the project in a few months. And then Gigperformer came along and I decided I was going to standardize to GP. The difference in pricing to Reaper can be neglected in the long run (and GP made my life do much easier).

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@ztones About this pedal: For consolidation: depends on the case: One day I might buy a Scarlett 18i20 to improve the monitoring for everyone on stage. Maybe trying to replace the multi-cable and the hardware mixing console. Depends a lot on our mixing engineer. So I like to keep pedal and io module independent. But if you don’t have these dreams (or nightmares), then I understand you like this pedal: in fact you’re after the same thing as I am: trying to simplify things.

I forgive you when you are not going to read this :grinning:. Too much explanation, I’m afraid. Or otherwise please forgive me this lengthy explanation.

Exactly! I’m all about consolidation! :slight_smile: That is a REALLY cool hardware box you built! I’m sure many others out there would prefer consolidating as well, so what I don’t understand is why manufacturers aren’t making their products more live user friendly. Audio interfaces are built with studios/home recording in my mind. Not live playing. For live playing, pretty much everyone uses some sort of floor pedals, so why not built the interface into floor pedals with at least one controller? Maybe using computers live wasn’t a big enough business and gig performer will help change that! Once there is demand, they’ll make it. Here goes hoping… LOL

I appreciate your explanation! :slight_smile:

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