Recording with a line in from acoustic electric
 

Sometimes I feel like recording and I don't want to set up and lock myself in my little spare bedroom and worry about my son's big feet walking upstairs, my dogs barking/chasing each other or my wife deciding to ask me what I'm doing when she knows what I'm doing.

I'm thinking about doing some recordings with my Gibson using a direct line-in to my Scarlett 2i4 and record using one of my DAWs (or my Zoom). Are there decent and inexpensive plug-ins that can turn that wonky kind of tone you get from a line-in to a half way realistic acoustic tone?

It seems like you are describing an Aura/ToneDexter/Voiceprint IR system in a plugin. AFAIK it hasn't been done (yet).

(I haven't explored this as I have the choice of ToneDexter or just the Dazzo if I'm in a hurry.)

It looks like there are some post-processing plugins to help shape your track:

QuickAG
Maserati-acg

So it looks like you would still need to record with a naff tone and then process it for playback.
(Edit: Unless you can monitor through the plugin, definitely doable with modern systems. Check your DAW manual on how they do it.)

Hopefully someone else has used these or other plugins and can give more information.

I'm looking for recommendations for a plug-in Larry, thanks. :)

The only plugin I know that is aimed exactly at what you want is the UAD Woodworks plugin. My results with it were not very good - pretty bad, in fact. I think some others have posted that it works for them. You could also use any convolution plugin - there are many and your DAW may have one, along with an IR - see Cuki and JonField's posts.

I also posted a long series of 15 examples of direct recording several years ago, that demos the woodworks, a bunch of processing techniques, etc:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=391491

Warning - none of these sound great, but it kind of runs the gamut of what you can do.

I also wouldn't be horrified if I had to record a demo direct out of my current pedal board, as in this demo:



But this takes a bit of gear and attention to pickups, etc.

Here's also my experiment with using ToneDexter to simulate stereo:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=472496

You could do the same with a stereo IR or 2 IRs/plugins. See Cuki's post from just a few days ago:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=621832

TBman, you're using Reaper, right? ReaVerb is actually just a convolution plugin, so you could load up whatever IR you had and it would do its thing--it' doesn't have to be a reverb. If you had Cuki make you an IR for your guitar, you could try that.

I do this ^^^. It's not perfect but it works well enough for sketching stuff out in a hurry or making half decent recordings from live band multitracks.

Don't forget to pull the Dry fader down and Wet up to zero (or balance to taste).

Cuki/Jon IRs work great for this.

Here's a thread I started with a couple of recording demos.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...45#post6775345

I'll have to look into all of this, thanks everyone. Doug your demo sounds good. Not as mellow as your mic recordings, but still professional sounding.

Hey, at least I sound like Ed Gerhard now, lol


Me:





Ed Gerhard:



:D :D

This is what you are looking for...and it's on sale:

https://www.nembriniaudio.com/produc...-guitar-preamp

A NUX Mighty Air might work and it's hardware:

Thanks! :)

Or for those times you just want to plug in direct.

#1 Take a deep breath ....... clear you mind of all thoughts (and pre conceptions and expectations ) except your breathing .

#2 Then embrace and just go with the pickup sound and have fun,, as Ed Gerhard or Craig Chaquico