I know, most of this is probably answered already in other places, but I kinda wanted it bundled for my situation. So first the gear I have so far:
Bass: Ibanez SR300EB
Amp: Fender LT 25 (without switch pedal)
Cabel: AUX 6,3 obviously, as well as 3,5 to connect my phone to the amp
Headphones: Teufel Massive
Mic: Tonor TC30 (kinda cheap condensator mic)
To record myself I used Audacity, but the quality is really not that great. Probably because of the mic, which I just put in front of the Amp or me not knowing what I’m doing
Now I think about getting a DAI, like the Focusrite. To my questions:
Would it be sufficient to just get a better mic?
When getting a DAI, I guess I need an AUX 6,3 to XLR cable? And then output to my amp as a monitor?
Does it make a difference that my bass is active?
When it comes to DAW I only ever used Audacity, and since I’m on Linux I’d prefer smth FOSS preferably, Ardour however looks very intimidating. Are there other good options or should I stick with Audacity?
In summary I just want to know what the logical next steps would be, with the gear I have, when I want to make recordings to avoid GAS and getting stuff I won’t need (yet).
For Linux DAWs I would suggest Reaper or Bitwig. For you I would say Reaper.
Audacity is not actually a DAW, it’s an audio file editor and track recorder. While it superficially looks like a DAW, and they like to cal lit one, it functions very differently than what people expect from DAWs.
As another linux user I also will happily recommend Reaper. It’s not FOSS (and neither is Bitwig), so if that’s what’s most important to you then go with Ardour. But Reaper is fantastic and very well supported, with tons of video tutorials on their website explaining anything you might want to do.
I will also say though, that linux’s audio support is just plain not fantastic for real-time audio recording and production. Across multiple of my systems, desktop and laptop, running different distributions (Fedora and Manjaro), through many months of updates, I get clicking noises and other interference in my recordings on linux that simply isn’t there when recording in Windows. I’ve followed every guide I can find for optimizing pipewire, I’ve replaced hardware, I’ve added ferrite cores and USB ground isolation, all of that made improvements but the clicking and popping still won’t go away.
Aside from OS, the only thing I haven’t changed is my interface (Presonus Audiobox USB 96). Maybe if I swapped that I’d have a better time. But I’m tired of chasing it, and especially of throwing away money chasing it. Not really happy to bring Windows back into my house after excising it a couple years ago. But the noise means I can’t make clean recordings, so it’s that or get a mac, and I’m really not sure which I’d rather do.
You should definitely try it yourself. Maybe it’ll work great for you out of the box. But if it doesn’t, it might not be you.
FWIW I have heard good things about Arch as a distro. But yeah, driver support will not be the greatest for Linux, even for USB class compliant devices.
I have the 4th gen scarlett solo. Can’t say I’ve had a particular need for it, but if you go this route and want software access to interfaces checkout alsa-scarlett-gui.
DAI, I guess I need an AUX 6,3 to XLR cable?
It depends on which one you get. The scarlett solo, 2i2, etc. have the 1/4" (6,3mm) jack in the front so you just need to plug in an instrument cable and hit the “Inst” button for voltage. You can bypass the amp/microphone entirely using this setup.
If budget is an issue consider Reaper. I’ve only heard good things about it and the license is only $60. Personally speaking, I use Bitwig on Pop! OS as a casual Linux user and have had no issues. Nothing against Ardour, but I hardly see it being used.
Audacity is supposed to be getting major facelift with 4.0, but from what I’ve heard the alpha is still missing a lot of features so there will probably be a wait.
Honestly, I’d start learning a DAW. Audacity is great and I still use it for a lot of things, but iirc all of the effects are destructive in the current version. DAWs are are overkill for a lot of simple tasks, but they are swiss army knives that usually support non-destructive editing. If you want something like an effect or a backing track it’s very easy to put one together at little to no cost in a DAW and you won’t get constrained to janky youtube loop hacks or sample packs.
Thanks for the replies, Reaper really sounds line a good option. When looking for FOSS software, cost is not so much of a factor, but I really try to avoid vendor lock-in.
I also just discovered, that the Fender Rumble LT25 has the option to record over the usb port. I probably should read the manual more often I also only recently discovered the additional 20 effects
The challenge will be to find a micro-usb cable thats long enough, but I’ll try that out for sure
I have replaced almost all my micro (and mini) USB cables with adapters that I can plug on my USB-c cables. Just use a long USB-c cable and put the adapter on it.
3-5€ at Amazon.
My guess is your biggest issues stem from micing the amp improperly or not nailing the input levels on Audacity. I would look into those potential issues before spending a lot of money on an interface, new mic and/or DAW.
Looks like you might have found some information on it, but I’d google some youtube videos on how to mic an amp, distance from the amp to the mic and mic placement with respect to the speaker. Going out of the Rumble over USB into your computer will also help as you won’t have to mic it at all and remove one potential area for missing some audio quality.
Then it’s just a matter of getting the input levels good. Again, google some videos on that. Try to play as consistent as possible and notice the highest volume/input level in Audacity. You don’t want it going over 0. I typically aim for -12 on my DAW. (never recorded into audacity, but use audacity for some other music-related stuff) There may be something to monitor for the Rumble connection as well which might show it clipping, or going over 0 on the input. You don’t really want it less than -18, and over -6 might be a bit too close to clipping in some situations.
So, to kinda log my progress here:
I tried to connect my Rumble LT 25 via USB, no luck from the start.
I’m getting used to Reaper, getting an input via USB just ain’t workin, it won’t appear in the Preferences → Devices. Tested it also on my Mac I have for work, same story, even Garage Band won’t recognize it.
Usually I have no problem finding drivers (learned I’d need ALSA instead of ASIO for Linux though).
As a last resort I installed Fender Tone on the Mac and guess what, no device found. I followed the introductions to update firmware, no luck as well.
Then I had the glourious idea to try the only other micro-Usb cable I kept.
And. That. Did. The. Trick!
Firmware update ran through, the amp is recognized by Fender Tone, Garage Band and Reaper AND in Reaper on Linux as well.
Took me some hours but I hope this will help some poor folks that have a fender LT amp. Check your cables, update your firmware!
All editing is destructive in it period. I really wish they would stop calling it a DAW and just embrace what it is actually good at.
I actually watched a video recently from the new head of Audacity and his message seemed to be firmly that Audacity isn’t a daw. It seems like it’s in good hands and they are redesigning it from the ground up to solve a lot of its issues, including non destructive editing.
Worth a watch if you’re interested in the program or software design in general.
