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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 24
Location: Austin, Tx | I've got a problem that I hope someone here can help me with.
I have an Ovation 1866 legend with an OP-24+c pre amp. It sounds great through an amp, but now that I'm trying to record with it I'm getting some distortion on the recordings. I've tried to eq it out with some success, but it's still there.
Is my pre amp screwed, or is there something I can do to fix this?
Please help me. I love my guitar, and I would rather throw myself off a cliff than stoop to using a (gasp) Taylor just to record. |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 382
Location: USA | Id like to know this answer as well. I have the same problem with my Celeb. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 24
Location: Austin, Tx | Maybe we could storm the Factory and threaten to sing "I'll take you home again, Kathleen" until we get an answer. |
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Make sure you are using a Directbox and go directly to an input from that. You should be able to get a clean signal using the direct box.
Teh other option and one that I and others prefer is to use two goos condensor type mics and Mic the guitar. One direcly in from of the guitar and one between the Peghead and fretboard.
Usually comes out with some greta acoustic sound. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 24
Location: Austin, Tx | Pardon my ignorance...What's a directbox? |
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Lets see if i can explain this correctly.
A Direct Box is also refered to in some circles as a DI.
the DI serves a couple of purposes, such as cleaning any ground interference, maintaining the proper line voltage and impedence matching.
there are several options on the market and I really don't have a personal preference myself.
search around the net or at your local music store for the options. Hope I've at least helped some. |
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Joined:
October 2004
Posts: 180
Location: Chicagoland | Your volume on your preamp is probably up too high. Try lowering it down until the distortion disappears. You do not need a direct box, I record many things (including my Celeb) plugged directly in to my soundblaster live, and they sound fine. Let me know if you want some sound samples. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I have spent most of my life trying to get my guitar to sound distorted and now you want to take it away?????????????? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Regardless of whether you use a DI box or not, the most important aspect of recording is learning to use the meters & set up correct input gain structure. It's very straightforward: Set the master fader and channel fader to 0db (around 7 or 8 on a scale of 10) set the guitar output to around 7 and while playing adjust the channel input gain (sometimes called "trim") until the meters read 2 or 3dB over zero when the guitar is played moderately hard. (ie, stay out of the red, but show a couple of amber segments) It's worth learning to use a compressor, which can be set to reduce the signal and keep it from clipping the input when the guitar is played hard. It doesn't matter what system you are recording to, computer, digital multi-tracker or whatever, the gain structure principle applies in all cases. To really improve your recorded sound forget the pickup & use a couple of good mikes. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 24
Location: Austin, Tx | Funny...I thought for sure Alpep would have something more helpful to offer.
Thanks for the advice, Paul. I hope your right. I'm buying a new fishman preamp this weekend that has comp on it. I'm sure that the level was set to 0db. Both my brother and I both set our volume to 6 of 8, but his sound was fine. I guess I've got a bad ass loud guitar.
I tried some stuff on my 4 track at home last night with lowered volume, cuting out the eq on my preamp, not using shape or midshift; anything I could think of that might help. I even took the strings off and checked the wiring inside. I got much better sound with my preamp at half volume, but you can still here slight distortion in the higher register.
I hope the fishman preamp works. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | try changing the battery use duracells not a house brand. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 24
Location: Austin, Tx | Unfortunately, the Fishman didn't work. I'm going to have to get my preamp replaced. Has anybody here ever updated their preamp? example: going from a OP24+C to OP-pro |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | it's possible to interchange any of the oblong preamps (3-band FET3 up to Optima) but not between those and the latest kidney-shaped Op series. The hole is in a different place and is a different shape |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Yes, make sure the batteries are fresh. They can do funny things as they start to fade. |
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distortion on recordings
