Mixcraft 6 and an Asus ME400E Windows8 Tablet

[songsmith1950]

Finally found an OTG connector after looking around a few days. I am amazed that they are so rare with the amount of tablets out there.

Using Mixcraft 6 for now, as I am not sure I have enough memory space for a larger program or a lot more software synths or anything. Tablet has 64 GB with windows taking all but 31. This is NOT WINRT. But also have a 32 GB SD mem installed.

Note- I also have an M Audio (Avid) Fast Track USB, but since it is USB powered and since the Presonus 44VLS is self powered I chose this one. Another factor though has to be the sound difference. I think the sounds I can get with the 44VLS will indicate what quality can really be seen with the Asus Tablet.

First try - A (brand unknown, but the materials and build quality are great. The Telecaster sounded nice and actually warm for a tele, though it does have the standard pickups installed. It seemed all was pretty well until I got started good, then realized there was a static sound in the background. Not a foreground pop like digital devices normally introduce, but more like an off-station AM radio. Also noticed that the more active the guitar was the more that "static" was present. So quiet it was almost okay, except that my own preferences, or should I say demands, dictate silence except for desired signal sounds. I had found this same noise in a Telecaster my studio more than once before, usually bringing about a trade for a quiet guitar though now and then a ground wire from the volume pot housing to the rhythm pickup has brought the desired effect.

Second try. This time I used a Parkwood PH-4, but leaving the piezo turned off and using the Seymour Duncan minibuckers that came on it. This time the difference was incredible. There was zero noise from instrument or recording system. The sound was full and perfect. I tried different settings on the buffers and all, (as much as possible), and found no difference.

Lag was nonexistent as well. This was almost unbelievable to me as I had expected at least some. The nice thing here is that lag is not a factor using the 44 VLS as you can use the VLS feature to totally defeat lag. Didn't even need to do so. Since it was 1 AM I could only use my Shure headphones, (medium to higher grade models). The sound was wonderful. Full, complete, no noise of any kind.
I did add another track with the little time I had left. Results was the same. No noise, no lag.

I have eight other guitars and will try some of them as well. Also have a Korg Kronos that will get a good workout in the process of recording a full arrangement of perhaps eight or ten tracks. I know there will be a limit to the number of tracks I can get on this system, but want to find what that limit is. I also want to find out how many instruments I can record. I believe it will do all four the Presonus 44VLS I capable of simultaneously, but will have to wait to prove it.

If any of you have any tricks or things you want me to try as I continue my evaluation I will be happy to try. Also if you have any cures for my Tele I would like those as well. It is a beautiful Candy red, with a mahogany body with the thick maple cap of a Les Paul, and a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. It is, like it or not, the best sounding and sustaining Tele I have ever had. I have owned six Telecasters of all styles including AmStd and AmDel ( wish I had kept). But even with that this is the finest I have ever played. Gonna find a Fender decal and use it, and maybe a Custom Shop as well. Yep, I am that bad sort that would do that. The guitar does rate it.

Any comments, suggestions, or tips would be greatly appreciated as I continue. I will leave more notes here on what I find to be the reality of it all.

Will add at this point that Mixcraft 6 is perhaps the perfect DAW for this system. There is no sacrifice to using M6. The sound is capable of being as good as any, since the quality is controlled by the digital hardware involved to the greatest degree. Mixcraft gives you most anything you want anyway. Again, even compared to Sonar X2a Producer and Presonus Studio 1 ver 2 Professional I don't believe you lose much if anything. If this is the best this system can do it is more than acceptable to me. You COULD make a hit record on this system with this DAW.

Thanks for reading

Songsmith
Songbird Hill

[bbdrmz]

I've had the same problem with the tele in more than one d.a.w.
In one instance it was actually the electric dog fence at the clients home. The rest I blame the guitar.
I have heard of guy's pulling the pickups out and putting wax around the coils which could help with excessive noise. Although I have never tried this,I've heard it works well. I'm sure they were referring to older guitar's.

[omtayslick]

Here's something to check out:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php

Most single coil guitar pick-ups suffer from this problem to varying degrees. Also, try swapping out the guitar cable. Some poorly shielded cables can introduce noise as well, and pick up stray RFI. (Radio Frequency Interference)

OOPS! Old thread I stumbled upon during a search. Oh well, maybe someone can use this info anyway.

[outteh]

A simple DI box will clean up the noise and the interference. Single coil pickups are notorious for noise (part of the beauty of single coil pups). You can get powered or non-powered (battery) and they have a ground control switch and some have RFI filtering. Some guitars are built with a reverse wound pickup in the neck position. When you go dual pickup the reverse wound combined with the normal wound cause a noise canceling effect. Not sure of your tele is built this way but you might look at replacing the neck pup with a reverse wound.

[gypsy101]

and get way away from the monitor screens,tv,speakers,etc. w/ any sc or P90 pup guitar.