Making a cheap USB interface sound decent

[Marston]

Sup. I have Ibanez BTB 405 and Behringer UCG102 USB interface. The latter is cheap garbage and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make this:

Fingers: fingers.mp3
Pick: pick.mp3


...sound more like this...






...by just using a DAW with VSTs. I use Reaper (Windows 10) with Voxengo Boogex, Blue Cat Triple EQ, Guitar Rig Pro 5 and TSE BOD. Can you suggest other VSTs and a simple way to set them up for someone who knows very little about recording music? Yeah, I know, I know. I'm not expecting much.

 

[juggahnaught]

Your gear isn't the problem. You'll need to be very careful about gain staging (don't go too hot into the interface, don't push the gain on the interface just to hear your signal in the DAW) and not overdriving or clipping any of the inputs.

In the fingers demo it sounds like you're overdriving the interface input a little bit - the highs sound fine, but the low notes in the E string sound a bit muddy. Back the gain down a bit to compensate.

Your EQ settings should be fairly "bright" to get closer to your desired tone based on the videos - high mid boost, roundwound strings. Consider a highpass.

Guitar Rig should be able to do most of what you're wanting (it does amp and cab sim, as well as pedal chains) - it's just a matter of setting up whatever signal chain you want for to achieve the distortion sound you're looking for.

Essentially, pay attention to your gain staging; turn things down at the inputs and turn up your speakers to compensate if you find monitoring hard. Boost your gain through the Guitar Rig signal chain using its distortion effects, not at the interface. Consider a highpass for EQ, and emphasize the upper mids.

 

[Marston]

The interface only has two settings for signal level - high and low. It's set to high at the moment, but it's still quiet. Should I set it to low and amplify it later?

This is what it looks like: Link Removed

Can I somehow control the sound of the strings being hit? I don't know how else to describe it...

 

[seamonkey]

It has a clip light. If it's on Hight and the light is mostly constantly on then flip the switch to Low.