Questions & Answers

Electric guitar direct input sounds weird

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asked May 15, 2020 in Thunderbolt - Quantum by marcoramo (120 points)
Hi everybody,

I just got a Quantum 2, which I use to record electric guitar directly into a guitar amp sim plugin (Helix Native) in my DAW (Logic).

Problem is, the sounds I get is incredibly weird, in a bad way, to the point that I am thinking I might be doing something fundamentally wrong in the way I am using the Quantum. The way I could describe the sound is extremely jangly, metallic, thin, hollow. I have also tried with an electric bass and there I also get an odd kind of clipping-like distortion on loud notes, but can't see anything actually clipping anywhere. As a comparison, I was previously using a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP, also via Helix Native in Logic, and my guitar with the Saffire sounds like a different instrument.

I am plugging from my guitar directly into input 1 of the Quantum 2, with a gain of around 25. Would anyone have any idea of what I might be doing wrong?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered May 16, 2020 by matthewritenburg (17,320 points)
It’s the input impedance.  You want to stick a direct  box in between your guitar and the quantum.  An alternative is sticking Pro EQ in your input channel and rolling off the high end until that undesirable quality is gone.  The EQ approach is not perfect.  It’s better to get the input impedance correct so that it’s more like a true guitar signal chain that naturally rolls off the high frequencies.
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