recording guitars with a delay pedal

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Member Since: Jul 20, 2009

I'm pretty new to home recording, and I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer. I'm trying to record a guitar track through a line 6 dl4 delay pedal, but I want to record the track dry and add the delay so that I can adjust the level when mixing. I guess my question is, how do I go about recording both a dry track and wet track using this pedal? I'm using a behringer mxb1002 mixer for the mic pres, M-audio Delta 44, and sonar. For most tracks I would just use the sonar delay plugins, but I want this specific lo res delay from the dl4 for this track. I greatly appreciate any help.

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Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Jul 20, 2009 12:47 pm

You wouldn't need to record a wet track, i'd think, though you could if you want.

Record your dry track as normal. Then, play back your track, sending out your 44 output, connect cable from 44 output to the delay pedal, then out the delay pedal back into a 44 input.

In software, record a new track coming from the 44 input. Now you should have 2 tracks, both identical playing, but one with delay, the other not (dry).

If you want to record both dry and wet at the same time, plug your guitar into the mixer input. tap signal out from the mixer on the channel insert, and send this to 1 input on 44. Connect the delay in the aux loop of the mixer, and adjust up the level so it's pretty wet. Send the aux output out to the mains, but only mono / left. Connect from mains (left) out to your 44 input 2.

in software, tell sonar to record on 1 and 2, so you'll have 2 tracks, one dry, and the other wet. adjust to taste =).

Hopefully that gives you a few ideas.


Member
Since: Jul 20, 2009


Jul 20, 2009 02:01 pm

That sounds easy enough. Thanks a lot for the help.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Jul 20, 2009 02:11 pm

ya, no prob.

if you're doing this way [quote]Record your dry track as normal. Then, play back your track, sending out your 44 output, connect cable from 44 output to the delay pedal, then out the delay pedal back into a 44 input.
[/quote]

then you'll have to adjust the two tracks together, to adjust for the latency you'll incur. Just zoom WAAAY up and align the two tracks start point, so they're exactly on. Otherwise, you'll end up with comb filtering, which can take the body out of your signals.

This may be true for the second method too, as the phase may be inverted with one not going through the mixer, and the other signal is.

Check it out, if the two tracks sound kinda lifeless. The phase may be screwing you up. Sliding one back or forward should align the phase again.


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