Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
Led_Zeppelin_IV
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:00 pm

Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by Led_Zeppelin_IV » Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:15 pm

I've got my guitar hooked up to my Universal Audio Arrow. The signal coming through sounds great and the UA console meters display healthy signal strength (see first image https://imgur.com/a/63FSOKO). But in Ableton, the signal in the audio track is very weak (see second image https://imgur.com/a/63FSOKO). Cranking up the gain on the track only marginally boosts the signal. Turning up the gain on my interface causes the signal to clip. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pitch Black
Posts: 6708
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:18 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Re: Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by Pitch Black » Sat Jan 29, 2022 1:15 am

Are those meters on the UA in your first pic showing your Input level? I’m wondering if you might have some post-input processing on your guitar inside the UA to get it to that level?

I say this because you’re right, the waveform of the actual recording in Live is very low. Are you using anything such as an amp sim or UA effects on your guitar that aren’t actually being recorded by Live?

In other words, perhaps there’s a routing issue. Maybe you’re monitoring through great UA effects but only the dry input signal is being sent to Live?
MBP M1Max | MacOS 12.7.2 | Live 11.3.20 | Babyface Pro FS | Push 3 (tethered) | a whole other bunch of controllers
Ableton Certified Trainer
Soundcloud

Led_Zeppelin_IV
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:00 pm

Re: Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by Led_Zeppelin_IV » Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:23 pm

Thanks for the reply. Yes, those meters on the UA are my input level. I'm not using any sims or effects, so it should be a completely dry signal coming out of the UA console into Live.

Pitch Black
Posts: 6708
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:18 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Re: Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by Pitch Black » Sat Jan 29, 2022 9:57 pm

Hmmm, do you have any other DAW/audio app you can try it with on your machine instead of Live and see if the problem persists?

You definitely have the correct UA output selected as the input to the channel in Live?

The UA console pic you posted is showing the UA Output meter.
Could you post a fuller screenshot of the whole UA console showing your guitar level at the Input + and maybe also one of your Live audio prefs?

Image

Sorry to pepper you with questions! I still think it's most likely a routing issue of some kind. Sorry I don't own any UA gear.
MBP M1Max | MacOS 12.7.2 | Live 11.3.20 | Babyface Pro FS | Push 3 (tethered) | a whole other bunch of controllers
Ableton Certified Trainer
Soundcloud

fishmonkey
Posts: 4478
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:50 am

Re: Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by fishmonkey » Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:29 pm

that top pic is definitely the output meter of the Apollo Console, not an input meter. you have a lot of routing options, including dry/wet switches in the Console. most likely you have things set up so that Live is seeing the input signal going into the Arrow, not the boosted processed signal that you are seeing on the Console output meter.

learn
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:23 pm

Re: Need Help. Guitar Signal is Too Weak

Post by learn » Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:16 pm

OP, did you fix this? if yes, please share - peace.

Post Reply