Hearing clean direct input sound through distorted guitar

[cecobon]

Hey everyone,

Hoping anyone will be able to help me. I've been researching this problem for the better part of 5 or 6 hours now and I just can't seem to find anything that has the answer I need.

I want to record guitars using AmpliTube as a plugin through GarageBand and I'm running direct from my guitar into a Presonus AudioBox iTwo. Also using a Mac running OSX Sierra.

I'm fully familiar with setting up levels as I've been researching for days about how to correctly do that. However, once all my levels are good and I'm ready to record, I can always hear this clean signal through my distorted amp model (using Mesa Boogie Mark IV). Even after recording a track, if I boost the input, that clean tone just cuts right through and I cannot seem to get rid of it.

I've seen loads of answers on the internet about turning off direct monitoring, but in my sound settings, it doesn't seem to offer that option and neither does GarageBand or Amplitube.

Am I just to assume the AudioBox iTwo doesn't offer this as it's an affordable audio interface? Similarly to GarageBand, can I not edit the minor details of settings as it's only a free DAW and just need something like Logic to fine tune the signals?

Thank you all for your help,

Daniel.

[Peter_IK]

I see from the manual and photos of this interface that there is a Direct Monitor Mix Control button on the front of the unit. That would likely be the culprit.

[cecobon]

Thanks for your reply Pete!

The knob on the interface is only a volume control for the headphones unfortunately so even playing with this control all the way on playback, that clean input signal is still there after I've recorded a riff into GarageBand.

It's barely noticeable when the levels are set properly, especially when playing lead. It's only when I really dig into a chunky metal riff that it can poke through, and obviously if I turn the input volume all the way up and the output volume all the way down, you can clearly hear it. Is this something that all amp sims have? Maybe I just need to deal with it haha. Keeping in mind that I have the knob set all the way to playback too.

Though, if I close GarageBand entirely and play, I can still hear that clean signal with my headphones that are plugged into the headphone jack on the audiobox even if the direct monitoring mix is set to playback. I'm assuming this is because the interface features zero latency direct analog monitoring. If I remove the headphones and change my output to my TV speakers, I hear nothing - probably because there's no direct output coming from the audiobox. I would assume if I was using speakers plugged into the interface, this sound could still be heard while the mix is all the way on playback.

Using Amplitube on its own, it's the same situation. Mix knob set to playback > everything sounds juicy good, but if I record inside Amplitube and hoof that input volume and drop the output volume, there's that layered clean signal again.

Going to do some more testing today. See how it goes and if I find anything else I'll post on here. I couldn't find anyone with the same problem as me, so these posts can hopefully help other people down the track!

[cecobon]

I HAVE FOUND THE PROBLEM!

So, as a default Amplitube had my D.I signal all the way up and I didn't understand why I couldn't access it, but apparently you can only access it through the in the Cabinet section, so after turning that all the way off, my signal is all fine!

Man.... I am just so happy. I like solving things.

I hope this has in any way, helped people out there as well.

[zsoccerino]

I hope this has in any way, helped people out there as well.

God bless you, my friend!

[Clyde15N]

When I keep my guitar's volume all the way up to 10, no matter how much dirt my Orange or Leslie Amplitube I put on, I can always hear my clean guitar strings come through with just a shadow of the dirt behind the initial string strike. I think that the strings being struck are reaching my headphones faster than the computer can process the amp sounds. So what I do is turn my volume on my guitar down to 2 or 3 that seems to let the dirt catch up with the string strike. Then I turn the master volume up on the Amplitube panel and Voila! Perfect. Hope this helps...

[Peter_IK]

When I keep my guitar's volume all the way up to 10, no matter how much dirt my Orange or Leslie Amplitube I put on, I can always hear my clean guitar strings come through with just a shadow of the dirt behind the initial string strike. I think that the strings being struck are reaching my headphones faster than the computer can process the amp sounds. So what I do is turn my volume on my guitar down to 2 or 3 that seems to let the dirt catch up with the string strike. Then I turn the master volume up on the Amplitube panel and Voila! Perfect. Hope this helps...

Sounds like you might have direct monitoring enabled on your interface and/or DAW track. Or the DI in AmpliTube as mentioned above. I would bet that the solution revolves around one of those issues and if not the IK Support team can help via http://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-support

Thank you.

[SenecaReader2]

I HAVE FOUND THE PROBLEM!

So, as a default Amplitube had my D.I signal all the way up and I didn't understand why I couldn't access it, but apparently you can only access it through the in the Cabinet section, so after turning that all the way off, my signal is all fine!

Man.... I am just so happy. I like solving things.

I hope this has in any way, helped people out there as well.

it helped indeed, even after almost 7 years! yet if you use a pedal to boost the amp, guess what, you get that dumb clean tone as well. Crazy. Why would I want a little Hank Marvin in the background when I am playing metal guitar

[SenecaReader2]

When I keep my guitar's volume all the way up to 10, no matter how much dirt my Orange or Leslie Amplitube I put on, I can always hear my clean guitar strings come through with just a shadow of the dirt behind the initial string strike. I think that the strings being struck are reaching my headphones faster than the computer can process the amp sounds. So what I do is turn my volume on my guitar down to 2 or 3 that seems to let the dirt catch up with the string strike. Then I turn the master volume up on the Amplitube panel and Voila! Perfect. Hope this helps...

Sounds like you might have direct monitoring enabled on your interface and/or DAW track. Or the DI in AmpliTube as mentioned above. I would bet that the solution revolves around one of those issues and if not the IK Support team can help via http://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-support

Thank you.

it's not the direct monitoring, I have it set to off

[Peter_IK]

The DI isn't enabled by default in AmpliTube 5. No idea why it was present like that for you.

[SenecaReader2]

Well it's not just to me, what about the guys on top of the thread

I do have AT 5. The reason why I wanted v4 is because the Powerball sounds different in either version, and the only reason why I wanted AT in the first place was the Powerball in AT4. Unfortunately, I was totally unaware I could have had that as early as 2014.

Fortunately, the one on IOS still sounds extremely similar if not identical, which I got a couple years ago. But I always wondered if the one in AT 4 desktop is even better (having finally tested both today, I can say that the IOS version is most certainly not inferior, in fact it might be better.).

As for you having no idea, as a famous bluesman once said: "Boy, if you don't know, I can't tell you.".



Not trying to be glib, but in your replies you only wrote stuff that we all knew, i.e. direct monitoring, etc. Is it possible that only the 5 of us here had exactly the same problem? Did we get a bad instance of Amplitube? I doubt it. I am using a Zoom U 22 interface, i.e. a very easy to understand interface.

And no problem with you not knowing, either. I have now read the entire AT 4 manual, and that dumb "bypass" sound is like a disease, always there. You can turn it down, but you can never kill it entirely. I gave up.

Anyways, sorry about my light-hearted sarcasm, and thank you for your reply. I like IK Multimedia and its products, no problem. All very good stuff.

[SenecaReader2]

The DI isn't enabled by default in AmpliTube 5. No idea why it was present like that for you.

after my reply, I got curious., so I checked with AT 5......guess what, the DI sound is THERE too!

I never realized because I don't use AT 5, I use AT IOS. So there it is.....this dumb D.I. sound must be some features none of us can make sense of. I actually have seen this useless feature on other software. But it's not on AT ios, thankfully, otherwise it would drive me mad as I really like the tones there

[SenecaReader2]

Peter, I owe you an apology. Here's what I think happened: first, it is true we were hearing a DI clean tone in the background of the distorted tone. But then the other user above found the problem: it was the DI pot in the cabinet section, that you could not access until you get to the cabinet section.

That's where things got stupid for me....after I turned down the DI pot, I wanted to check that there is no clean sound at all even with the amp off. Ha ha.....I thought, amp off, no sound, right? Just like in real life....ha ha

But I didn't understand that the DI sound still gets routed to the end of the chain , that's why I kept hearing it. Ha ha

As I always use the IOS version, and use my Ipad for almost everything, I got rusty with how stuff works on desktop.....lol...

Anywaysu, I don't think there's any problems in AT 4, 5, or anywhere else. Ha ha....sorry!

[Peter_IK]

No need to apologize. I was definitely stating things that some may already know, that unfortunately tends to fix problems for the few that may not know (it is frequently something that is obvious to some but not for all, no harm no foul either way - we're all at different stages of expertise in the multiple areas required to handle fairly complex music software these days).

However, I do stand by my statement that the DI is not on by default in these versions of AmpliTube but that's because I've been using them on multiple systems since the very first version so I may have a bit of road behind me where I would have run into the problem. Though I said AmpliTube 5 because I forgot the age of this thread so that is indeed my bad That's all I have installed on this computer and I did test it to make sure - so for those using AmpliTube 5 you do have to click on the DI symbol in the signal chain diagram or unmute it in the cab section to hear your DI signal. Thankfully. Those little "plinky plinks" would get annoying otherwise.

[SenecaReader2]

I agree with all you say, Peter. You are absolutely right, what is obvious to some, might not be to others.

Thank you! Amplitube is a great product, just got myself a Blueboard. I don't understand why some spend thousands when you can put together a killer sounding setup all for such a reasonable price. Great work.