Getting noise-free input recording guitars direct

[jonathanbeilmusic]

Hey everyone. Really frustrated with this simple issue of getting a clean signal when running guitars direct to VST amp sims. My current interface is an Audiophile 2496, with a Behringer Xenyx 1202FX for inputs and preamps. I already know the crappy mixer is a huge part, if not totally the cause of this issue. It's gonna be gone soon. I figure the Audiophile is fine, but I just need some way of getting a noise free signal to it. I was considering the AudioBuddy, as I just need a cost effective simple solution and my only current need is to record single guitars and vocals occasionally. The only problem with that is I have no way to monitor thru headphones then. I also considered a Fast Track Pro or something similar, but that'd be kind of redundant considering I already have a decent card. I also need really low latency, which I already have with the 2496.

Basically...what's the best route to DI with minimal noise floor, and still be able to monitor with headphones? Would a quality mixer be my answer? If I could utilize the 2496, great. If there's a better way without it, that'd work also.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

For starters there is absolutely no such thing as noise free. YOu can reduce noise as much as possible, but you will never get rid of it, just the physics behind electronics. Behringers are absolutely horrible for any type of DI signal. I have a mic pre that they claim can be used as a DI, try running a high gain amp sim on the clean DI recording and the amount of noise makes the tracks completely unusable.

The Audiophile 2496 isn't that great, getting a fast track would be a large improvement although it is USB. As long as you aren't doing large productions with 40+ tracks and don't need extremely low latencies post processing (the fast track has zero latency monitoring) then the fast track will be an improvement.

 

[jonathanbeilmusic]

Yeah I'm surprised I managed to record for so long with the xenyx. God awful. I know I can't literally get "noise-free", but anything is an improvement over this.

Well I'll probably go with some version of the fast track, or a firewire equivalent. Seems to be the best route. You can let this die now

 

[ahjteam]

if you can afford it, get profire

 

[mburton21]

if you can afford it, get profire

+1
It's what I did and the Profire is truly bone-riffic.

I also own a Radial J48 that I use for DI'ing although the Profire is totally capable of it too.

 

[mva801]

+1
It's what I did and the Profire is truly bone-riffic.

I also own a Radial J48 that I use for DI'ing although the Profire is totally capable of it too.

+2. I usually use a Radial Pro DI into my pro fire, but the pro fire's DI input seems to be just as good...