Question

I'm running with AudioBox USB.  I'm running the output from my Fender Mustang headphones to channel 1, and I have a condenser mic on channel 2 with 48V phantom power applied.

I setup a song with one track listening to channel one (L) set to Mono.  It sounds perfectly fine when I play and record with this setting.   However, the moment I drag and drop Guitar Rig 4, or Ampire to the track, I get a very high level of white noise.

On the other hand, when I setup to listen to the Mic on channel two (R) set to Mono, and apply these effects to that channel, I don't get any of this white noise.

I removed the mic and plugged the guitar into channel 2 (R) while still having the Ampire effect set up and sounding good with the mic, making sure to turn off the 48V phantom power, and the noise is there again.

So, it seems the signal coming out of the amp headphone jack and into the AudioBox interface is pretty dirty, and any effects that amplify the signal generate this noise.

I'm looking for some help on how to best clean the signal before applying the FX to it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The first thing that caught my attention was that you are plugging a headphone level signal into an instrument/microphone input.

Headphones are just a smaller wattage speaker and the signal to drive them is pretty hot (especially compared to a guitar).

The other thing is that when you enable phantom power it is applied to both inputs (including the one from the headphone output).

Are you sure the track from channel 1 sounds good before you add the FX?  Try cranking it up just to be sure.