Instrument Input (Mic fine; Guitar nothing) SOLVED

[J_R]

I have no idea what I’m doing wrong!

My microphone’s plugged into Input 1 and everything’s working as expected, viz:
Input Channel: 1 Shows input bar when tapping mic
Monitoring: Auto or In
Arm Recording: When armed shows input bar in mixer section.
Recording audio tracks is no problem either.

My guitar’s plugged into Input 2 and nothing’s working as expected, viz:
Input Channel: 2 Shows no input bar when strummed
Monitoring: Auto or In
Arm Recording: When armed (strummed) shows no input bar in mixer section.

I don’t know what else to say! I can’t figure out how to get a response from the guitar.

RSVP

Hardware Configuration:
* DAW: Ableton Live 11.1 Suite
* Audio Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
......- Microphone connected to Scarlett (XLR)
......- Guitar connected to Scarlett (1/4” phono)
* Output to headphones or stereo amplifier (to speakers)
* System: Windows 10 (3 monitors)
* MIDI Controllers:
......- AKAI Professional APC mini (to control tracks and clips)

[AbletonMASCHINE]

Hi,

Might be wrong settings of your 2i2.

Guitar input switched to INSTrument? Du you get a green LED ring while playing?

[Da hand]

Basically check each step of the audio signal chain for potential problems and confirm to yourself one by one that they are indeed working.

- check if the guitar volume is above 0
- check if the guitar cable is good. What if you plug in the guitar elsewhere (input 1 for example), do you hear it?
- check the Focusrite soundcard settings - as mentioned above by AbletonMASCHINE
- in Ableton Live do you have channel 2 activated in preferences?

[J_R]

Guitar input problem solved
Thank you—both AbletonMASCHINE and Da hand

[Mark Williams]

Guitar input problem solved
Thank you—both AbletonMASCHINE and Da hand

Would be helpful for other users to post the solution that worked for you.

[J_R]

You tell me Mark.
Would it be helpful to admit you'd plugged the guitar into the headphones jack?
(and if I'd remembered the jacks that take the 3-pin (microphone) plug also accommodate a 1/4" phono jack I wouldn't have made the dumb mistake...)

[miyaru]

You tell me Mark.
Would it be helpful to admit you'd plugged the guitar into the headphones jack?
(and if I'd remembered the jacks that take the 3-pin (microphone) plug also accommodate a 1/4" phono jack I wouldn't have made the dumb mistake...)

Could happen to anyone, but is a good lesson for all of us to read manuals once in while......

[Tarekith]

Reminds me of the time I spent 2 hours pouring through the manual and YouTube trying to figure out how to control the headphone volume on my sound card with it's monitor volume knob. Only to look 2 inches to the right of it and see there was actually a dedicated volume knob already for the headphones.

[Da hand]

You tell me Mark.
Would it be helpful to admit you'd plugged the guitar into the headphones jack?
(and if I'd remembered the jacks that take the 3-pin (microphone) plug also accommodate a 1/4" phono jack I wouldn't have made the dumb mistake...)

Glad you got it to work!
And yes, I think it is helpful that you told us what happened, as it is one of the 'tests" we forgot to suggest to you - i.e make sure you are plugging your instrument into the correct input (or an actual input and not an output). So anyone else reading this in the future will have that suggestion to try as well