Guitar audio low quality in playback and monitoring

[Joel Watt]

I use an HX STOMP to record my guitar into my laptop via USB. The tone is great monitoring through the HX stomp, but monitoring through cakewalk and on playback of recordings the audio is much lower quality. Any way to fix this?

My driver mode is ASIO, my audio drivers bit depth is 24, my sampling is 4800, and my buffer size has been moved to the far right.

[57Gregy]

Welcome to the forum.
If you are using your computer's onboard sound and not an audio interface, don't use ASIO (unless it is ASIO provided by Line6). Try WASAPI instead.
If you have an audio interface with ASIO, you may get better results by dispensing with the USB connection and plugging the box's audio outputs directly into the audio interface.

[Joel Watt]

4 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

If you have an audio interface with ASIO, you may get better results by dispensing with the USB connection and plugging the box's audio outputs directly into the audio interface.

How do I do this?

[Starship Krupa]

The HX Stomp is an audio interface with a USB connection and has an ASIO driver.

That is how you should be using it, if you are, then you've got the concept right.

So what is happening is that you are recording your guitar using the HX Stomp as an audio interface going into your computer via USB at the settings you described. If you monitor yourself on headphones or speakers while you're recording, it sounds great, but when you monitor it through Cakewalk or listen to what you record, it sounds poor by comparison.

First, we need to know more about what you mean by "low quality." Is there noise, distortion (the bad kind), off kilter tonal balance (muffled or shrill highs, boomy or thin bass) or something else? Are you seeing a good strong level for input, or is it very low or too loud? I'm not directly familiar with the HX, but with most audio interfaces, it's possible to send too hot a signal to their analog-to-digital convertors, which will result in bad-sounding audio. You want a healthy signal in the middle of the range, but not so hot that it slams your A/DC's.

There are many different ways recorded audio can sound that fit the description "low quality," so we need to know exactly what it is.

[Joel Watt]

10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

First, we need to know more about what you mean by "low quality." Is there noise, distortion (the bad kind), off kilter tonal balance (muffled or shrill highs, boomy or thin bass) or something else? Are you seeing a good strong level for input, or is it very low or too loud?

The audio is slightly distorted and the audio input is low. It's not noticeable with distorted tones but with clean tones it is, especially with reverb.

[John Vere]

On the audio track you recorded to what do the meters show when you set the track in record standby and play? 

[Joel Watt]

21 minutes ago, John Vere said:

On the audio track you recorded to what do the meters show when you set the track in record standby and play? 

I'm new to cakewalk, what do you mean by this?

[John Vere]

This is a midi track but the meters look the same. 

[Joel Watt]

29 minutes ago, John Vere said:

This is a midi track but the meters look the same. 

When I play the guitar it goes up to -12dB

Edited May 16, 2021 by Joel Watt

[John Vere]

OK,  that is more or less the perfect level to record at so that is not the issue.

This rules out that you are not overdriving your pre amps or the A/D convertors.  

So this only implies that your monitoring system is defective. What are you using for playback monitoring?  

[Joel Watt]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

So this only implies that your monitoring system is defective. What are you using for playback monitoring?  

I've just been pressing the play button in cakewalk to listen to what I've recorded

[John Vere]

Sorry I guess your not familiar with audio terminology. 

What are you using to listen to the playback?  ( monitoring)  

 

1- What is your Master Buss Output sending to - Your computer speakers ( on board audio ) or your Zoom audio interface ( ASIO ) . 

2- Are you using the same speakers/ headphones to listen. 

Screen shots of your audio settings might help us figure this out. 

Take a shot of the Devices, Driver settings, and playback and recording tabs. 

If you don't know how to make a screen shot you just press the Windows key and prtscn  it will save to your Pictures library under screenshots. 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by John Vere

[Joel Watt]

59 minutes ago, John Vere said:

 

Screen shots of your audio settings might help us figure this out. 

 

[John Vere]

On 5/13/2021 at 6:46 PM, Joel Watt said:

I use an HX STOMP to record my guitar into my laptop via USB. The tone is great monitoring through the HX stomp, but monitoring through cakewalk and on playback of recordings the audio is much lower quality. Any way to fix this?

My driver mode is ASIO, my audio drivers bit depth is 24, my sampling is 4800, and my buffer size has been moved to the far right.

Here you say you were using ASIO but your screen shot say's WASAPI Exclusive?  Change back to ASIO for the troubleshooting. WASAPI probably is fine but not all audio interfaces support it.  Sorry if my screen shot implied you should use WASAPI, I just grabbed it from a folder I have with screen shots. WASAPI is for using on Board audio. 

And you didn't answers my questions #1 & 2. 

[Joel Watt]

Oh my settings probably reverted back to WASAPI, I was using ASIO before.

1- What is your Master Buss Output sending to - Your computer speakers ( on board audio ) or your Zoom audio interface ( ASIO ) . 

My output is sending to my audio interface, but I've tried disconnecting it to see if there was a difference in audio and there wasn't

2- Are you using the same speakers/ headphones to listen. 

I swapped between the headphones and speakers on playback to see if there was a difference

[John Vere]

Ok so it seems like your playback system is working properly 

Then only thing left would be either of two things 

1. You have added processing in Cakewalk that alters the sound 

2. The monitoring of the sound at the interface is not what is being recorded. 
 

[Joel Watt]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

Ok so it seems like your playback system is working properly 

Then only thing left would be either of two things 

1. You have added processing in Cakewalk that alters the sound 

2. The monitoring of the sound at the interface is not what is being recorded. 
 

I'm not really sure how to figure out which one is causing the problem and how to solve those problems

[John Vere]

Regarding #1- Did you add anything to the project you are recording to. That's what I mean when I say processing. That implies there could be effects added to the track , bus or master bus that would make the sound different. 

Regarding #2 - You will need to read the owners manual and see what options are inside the box as far as signal path.  You might find more out by posting a question on the Line 6 user forum.  This is not really a Cakewalk issue. It's user error in setting up a device or user error in Cakewalk signal chain. 

We've seen lots of posts with a similar title to this thread only to find out 25 posts later the user had added an effect that was causing all the issues. 

Because you haven't started with all the information about what your doing it takes a lot longer to get a solution. 

I did just notice one thing from your first post .

On 5/13/2021 at 6:46 PM, Joel Watt said:

My driver mode is ASIO, my audio drivers bit depth is 24, my sampling is 4800, and my buffer size has been moved to the far right.

Your buffer setting might be to high. Somewhere in the middle like 256 is normal. To high a setting can cause trouble on some systems. But that wouldn't cuase your issue.