Hello my fellow shredders!

Wassup? Skill gitar semua dah hebat? Well, I’m sure that most of you guys had been practising all this while. Hopefully they all worked out just fine for you.

Sekarang ni aku nak cite pulak pasal basic PC Recording. Topik ni panjang gak, so bear with me. And aku tulis tips ni based on bende yang aku dah try.

PC Recording

Okay. At some point of your guitar-playing life, korang mesti rasa nak record ape yang korang main, kan? Especially kalau nak dengar balik sama ada skill korang clean ke, atau ade lagging speed kat mane2 solo lick korang ke. Or even, nak buat your own one-man-band album. No doubt memang banyak cara korang nak buat recording. But the one that I’m going to share with my fellow shredders now is PC RECORDING.

Advantages:

• Kalau korang ni jenis yang busy dan takde masa nak commit utk band, but still minat nak buat your own album, this kinda thing memang berguna.
• Takdak band? Jam with yourself using PC recording.
• Pernah terpikir camna orang lain dengar korang main? This can help.
• Quite murah untuk album recording purposes. Well.. untuk orang yang dah ada PC with speakers and electric guitar. You don’t need amps, stomp boxes, mixer, drum, bass, keyboard and other stuffs..
• Can easily eliminate sound polution. Pakai earphone daa..
• Boleh develop skill macam sound engineer!

Disadvantage, kena on PC la setiap kali nak main gitar.. otherwise just switch back to your conventional amp and gadjet. At least korang ade due system sekarang. Digital mode dengan Analogue mode utk main gitar.

Tools and Hardware

First of, korang mesti ade PC untuk buat ‘PC recording’. Otherwise it’ll only be ‘recording’, aight. And this are the minimum specifications of your PC:

• At least 1GHz processor kalau nak puas hati. Kalu tidak memang hanged. Especially when we deal with the software.
• Memory kalu, at least 256MB.. kalau taknak sangkut2.
• Any soundcard with Speaker, Microphone and Line-In inputs. Preferrably, not an on-board sound card. Kecuali kalau korang ade latest motherboard yang equip sekali dgn SoundBlaster laa..
• Speaker. Lagi tinggi power (dalam Watts), lagi baguih. Tapi kalau ade yang 25 watts pun dah ok. Otherwise pakai earphone.

Ape lagi? Well, kalau nak masukkan gitar direct to Line-In memang boleh, tapi quality very low. And we don’t want that.. So, kite kena ade bende yang akan jadik interface antara guitar dan PC. And for that, aku akan discuss dalam satu subtopic lain.

Guitar and PC Interface: M-Audio JamLab.

Ini adalah salah satu daripada berpuluh2 recording tools yang ade dalam market sekarang. Kenapa aku pilih M-Audio Jamlab?

Mula2 pasal, company aku ade buat installation untuk radar system, and dalam system tu ade satu part nak record radio communication between vessel, and we used M-Audio Delta 1010 for interfacing. Die punya quality recording memang cantek. And that got me thinking – mesti ade produk M-Audio untuk low cost and few inputs recording.

Lepas puas survey, last2 aku jumpa interface yang paling murah dari M-Audio, JamLab la tu. Carik punya carik, jumpa pulak supplier M-Audio kat Malaysia ni, which brought me to Berjaya Time Square. Here’s the address of the shop:

SMX Electronics Sdn Bhd (A Division of Sinamex)
7th Floor, Berjaya Times Square,
Jalan Imbi,55100
Kuala Lumpur

Korang buleh beli Jamlab dengan harga RM290. Aku tak tau la produk yang lain berapa harga. Mungkin ade lagi yang lebih murah. Tapi bile aku masuk kedai tu, aku buat2 la tak reti pasal memende ni, and they still recommend JamLab, which is also a soundcard.

Jamlab ni datang sekali dengan software GT Express. Die ade virtual stomp boxes atau gadjet. So kalau sape yang takde gadjet, pastu nak beli sampai harga RM300 tu, I think you better consider Jamlab or other kind of Guitar and PC Interface.

The Software - GT Player Express

Macamana Nak Setup?

Mula2 kita tgk rupe JamLab ni. Input / Output Spec die camni:

• Satu cable untuk USB.
• Satu input socket 1/4 inch phone dari guitar.
• Satu output socket 1/8 inch stereo ke speaker / microphone / stereo device.

1st try:

Bile aku install je JamLab, bende ni akan jadik default soundcard untuk PC aku. Aku on jek GT Express, memang dapat sound best gile. Effect Distortion pun ok, siap ade choice untuk Metal. Ade Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Noise Gate controller.. kire ok lah tu!

But then bile aku nak jamming dgn application lain macam RealPlayer atau Guitar Pro, satu sound jek yang keluar! i.e. Kalau aku main lagu kat RealPlayer, guitar aku tak bunyik, and bile aku main kat GT Express, RealPlayer lak tak bunyik! Huish.. mana buleh macam ni. It’s either Jamlab aku beli memang kong, atau memang soundcard JamLab takleh nak support due application punya sound.

Tak puas hati punya pasal, aku baca manual sampai lebam. Last2 aku dapat tau, kalau aku nak due application keluar bunyik sekali gus, aku kena ’synchronize’ JamLab punya soundcard, dengan soundcard lama aku (cikai je – Aureal Audio), so called ASIO Multimedia Setting whatever-craplah.. So aku kena setting camni la:

Guitar - Jamlab - Sound pusing2 dalam PC - Masuk Soundcard lama - PC punya Speaker.

Ok, fine.. takpe, I’ll go along. Tapi lepas setting, jalan memang jalan. Tapi banyak problem. Dengan latency sampai 2 second! Umm.. by the way.. latency tu maksudnya delay atau lagging la.. petik gitar, 2 saat lepas tu baru keluar bunyik kat speaker.. takleh pakai cara ni.

So aku pikir cara lain..

2nd try – The One That Works!

Ni setting aku sekarang.

Okeh. Setting baru aku sekarang ni, instead of connect 1/8 inch stereo output socket JamLab ke speaker, aku beli satu stereo-to-stereo cable harga RM 5 (both end stereo 1/8 inch male connector), masukkan kat 1/8 inch stereo output tu ke Line-In sound card. That’s it for the hardware connection, basically.

Sekarang masuk pulak kat :

Start Menu - Setting - Control Panel..

..Pastu click kat ‘Sound and Multimedia’ atau ‘Sound and Audio Devices’ (depends on Windows version mane korang pakai) punya icon dan die akan keluar tab nih:

Click kat tab ‘Audio’ pastu tukar balik semua setting soundcard (Sound Playback and Sound Recording) ke original soundcard aku (in this case – Aureal Audio).

Having done that, pegi pulak kat:

Start Menu - Programs - Accessories - Entertaintment - Volume Control.. pastu uncheck ‘Mute’ kat Line-In.

Pastu, gi lak kat GT Express, Click kat Option, pastu Preferences. Korang akan tgk ade keluar window lain, click kat ‘Audio’..

Setkan Device, Input dan Output ke JamLab Audio.

That’s it.. Onkan power GT Express, and there goes my guitar sound. Bukak lak application lain, sound pun keluar! Great! As you might notice, latency hanya 5.8ms!

Ok guys, korang try cara korang dulu. Kalau tak buleh, try pulak cara aku ni.

Until then, Rock On!