Focusrite + electric guitar = muffled sound

[Mortenz]

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue with my electric guitar sound when recording through the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen. The raw input sounds muddy, muffled and lacks clarity, despite trying various troubleshooting steps.

Setup:

Guitar directly connected to the Scarlett 2i2.
Using ASIO with Ableton Live.
Monitoring through frontal headphones output.

Troubleshooting Done:

Checked guitar settings and tuning.
Adjusted input gain on the Focusrite.
Verified ASIO settings.
Tested with different cables and guitars (PRS, Fender).
Tried different input channels.
Tested with other software and headphones.
Checked for grounding issues and used a power conditioner.
Updated firmware and software.
Even after these steps, the issue persists. The Focusrite seems fine with a YouTube video, so it might be related to the guitar input. Any ideas or suggestions?

If I switch of the Ableton and i use direct monitoring on the Focusrite the sound is the same.

Would I need an amp before passing the sound to Focusrite?

Thanks for your help!

[Wonks]

Hi and welcome.

You haven't mentioned if you've got the instrument button activated on the guitar input channel. It's certainly going to sound muffled if the button isn't pressed as the input impedance will only be 60k ohms instead of the 1.5 meg ohms in instrument mode.

The direct guitar sound is never particularly inspiring on its own. It really needs to go through an amp simulator before it comes alive. Have you got one set up in Ableton? It means you'll have to monitor the sound using software, rather than using direct monitoring, so there will be a bit of latency, but it should sound a lot better.

[yeroc]

Wonks is right and has good suggestions! A DI'd guitar sound definitely needs some processing and there's many routes to go.

Are you using a Mac? You can easily choose some guitar amp presets in the free and included Garageband to further experiment and process your guitar signal.

[Mortenz]

Thank you for the answers.

Yes, the instrument button is active on the guitar input channel.

I tried switching off direct monitoring and used the software (Ableton). I set the input to external input and directed it to the master output. However, I'm unsure if this is considered an "amp." (the sound still the same). I'm using a Windows. Do i have similar to Garageband for windows?

Thanks again for your help!

[easyrider]

Try these for free

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_FreeAmp

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/a ... php?p=gear

Others

Amplifikation Lite
Blue Cat Free Amp
Voxengo Boogex
HyBrit Head
LeXTAC
The Anvil
AmpliTube Custom Shop
Amped Roots Free
Diode Amplifier
Ace
NRR-1
Crunck V2 Guitar Amplifier
Audiority
Guitar Rig 6 Player
PA FREE bx_rockrack V3 Player
BlackShow
GrindMachine Free
LeCto

[Wonks]

No, the sound will just be the same, as you noted. You need to insert an amp simulator plug-in on the channel you are recording to.

Easyrider has provided a list of free plugins above you can try out if you don’t have any.

[garrettendi]

Other free amp sim options:

Ignite Amps Emissary + NadIR cab sim
Audio Assault Amp Locker (one free amp and the rest are affordably priced in sales)
AcmeBarGig HeadCase (the author recently died sadly, great guy I spoke to him quite a few times. Before he passed on, he released it as freeware on Facebook. Windows/32-bit only)
Vadim Taranov has several free Windows amp sims
Lepou SoloC (Windows/32-bit only)

I'll come back and add any more I've thought of. I use Mac now, but I used to use Windows so I have a stash of ideas for both platforms!

[Mortenz]

Thanks for the answers.

Quick question: should I integrate all of these amp sims within Ableton?
So Ableton is always the main source of anything?

Thanks!

[kindlelover1947]

Hey, I'm facing a similar issue since past 8 years. Never could really figure out what's going wrong.

My situation, Electric guitar sounds very very dull, lifeless, muddy, flabby as if wet blanket on speaker. I play through amp sims in DAW (Reaper) and also tried Studio one 5.

Here's my setup and trouble shooting so far,
Electric guitar (tried with 10 different)
Volume and tone knob at max
RME Babyface Pro FS and also a Scarlett solo 2nd gen

Windows 11 laptop with i9 13th gen H series processor + 32 GB ram
I've tired with 4 different computers (2 laptops + 2 desktops)
Also tried using power conditioner.

I'm sure I plug in high z (instrument input) of the interface.
I'm sure cab sim is always ON in all the amp sim plugins I've tested so far.
Also various input gain settings have been tried on the interface and I'm sure I'm not clipping.

No matter which plugin, Neural DSP, helix native, NAM, Tonex, Amplitube, ML sounds, everything sounds very muffled as if tone knob is completely rolled off on guitar (even though it's not).

I monitor the sound using a SINGLE (not pair) KRK rokit 5 monitor.

When I play any youtube video of a plugin review/demo, it sounds absolutely fantastic on this same speaker. But the live sound I get while playing is very very horrible.

Just 2 days ago, I got a Tonex One pedal. I thought it might be some setting in computer that I'm missing, so lets try with a real pedal. So I connected my electric guitar with TS cable to Tonex One and a TS cable in it's output to my single KRK rokit 5 monitor. It still sounded the same, muddy, flabby, lacks gain and as if wet blanket on speaker.
It's been over 8 years I'm searching for answers. No success.

If anyone can help, I'll be forever grateful.
Thanks!

[Wonks]

Hi and welcome.

I presume the guitar(s) sound just fine when plugged into a guitar amplifier using the same guitar lead?

[Wonks]

The specs for the Babyface Pro FS line inputs 3-4 are unbalanced TS inputs, with a 1 Megohm input impedance, so should be fine for plugging in a passive guitar with a standard TS to TS guitar lead.

When using the Babyface Pro FS, is there any chance you might be mixing a direct monitoring of the guitar input with the output of the amp sim somewhere in Totalmix? Because of the latency involved, the two signals will have significant phase delays, so could cause a lot of cancellation in the sound.

But if you are plugging in to the Tonex pedal and getting a similar sound, then that couldn't happen in that situation if it's just guitar>pedal>monitor signal path.

I'd double check your guitar lead is working properly. The type of cable used might be playing a part here. Some leads are made up with a conductive signal wire core, then an insulating sheath, then a conductive sheath, then a drain wire and then the outer protective insulating layer. The conductive sheath and the drain wire give full shielding, whilst the conductive sheath carries the ground signal and grounds the sheath.

The sheath has a reasonably high resistance - it's a lot higher resistance than the copper drain wire, but that's fine for shielding purposes. But if this sheath isn't cut back fully when the core wire is soldered to the jack plug, then it can slide forward and you get a fairly low resistance path from the signal to ground. Apart from weakening the signal, it gives a very low impedance connection to ground for the pickup, which results in a huge loss of treble. It does sound like this could be your issue.

I the picture below, you can see the white insulating sheath around the central signal wire, then the black conductive sheath, then the copper braid drain wire.



Here, the black conductive sheath is cut back so it can't touch the signal wire or jack plug connection. But if the black sheath is the same length as the white insulating layer, then you get it touching the signal wire, and really messing with the guitar signal.

If you don't know about the conductive layer, then you can open up the jack and see the signal wire and screen both soldered nicely and all looks fine.

So definitely worth having a look at your guitar lead!

[Wonks]

Note that not all guitar leads have this construction. Some have just the copper braid (sometimes two or more layers). But you should be able to see if there are two layers of insulation around the central wire or not.