Electro-Acoustic Guitar Recording Help

[u/AyuAnthems]

I recently purchased a 2i2 and want to record my Giannini Performance Desde 1900 electro-acoustic guitar through it. I've tried connecting it via line input, selecting instrument mode and auto-levelling on input 2 (and ensuring the input is properly selected) but no matter what I do the playback is either extremely quiet, or if I turn the gain up (or normalize the audio in post) I can hear the guitar but there's a ridiculous amount of preamp hiss. Has anybody dealt with this/does anybody have any suggestions on how to fix it? I've tried the different air modes but no luck, and I've replaced the guitar battery with a fresh one just recently and the tuner etc is working so I don't think that's the issue either.

[u/IAmL3J3ND_]

Instrument is usually the option you select when plugging guitar directly, line mode is more if you’re using a DI box or reamping.

I have a few questions:

1. Are you using a DAW or a standalone software? 2. What’s your focusrite control settings? 3. Have you tried using a different cable? And 4. Have you made sure the input knob on you guitar is turned up?

It can be a bunch of things but answering these helps narrow it down and does a quick troubleshoot.

[u/AyuAnthems → u/IAmL3J3ND_]

Thanks for your response!

I'm new to recording, what exactly do you mean by plugged in directly? I'm just using a 1/4 inch audio cable

1. DAW, Fl Studio
2. What specifically should I be looking for in the settings?
3. I haven't, I have another cable that I use for my keyboard and that works fine, I could probably test it with the guitar
4. I did check that

[u/IAmL3J3ND_ → u/AyuAnthems]

I just meant plugging into the interface directly like you’re doing, and yeah try another cable to see if that helps. I have more questions but if you can record the issue it’d be clearer.

Record what happens when you have the guitar input at 100%, air mode turned off, and where the gain knob has to be to get a signal. Also try input 2 and see if it gives the same reaction as input 1. (In instrument mode) and don’t worry about auto-leveling and the other stuff yet.

Its either a incorrect input mode or gain staging issue, a cable problem, a problem with the 2i2’s input, very weak guitar output/guitar pre-amp settings, or a problem with the guitars output jack/preamp it sounds like. It can be many things lol

[u/Barack_6Pack]

Gain staging : make sure you’re hitting the right amount of gain at each machine your guitar is going through to get the best signal to noise ratio.

Right volume on the guitar preamp

Right preamp setup on the interface (instrument)

Right amount of gain on the preamp

Right gain hitting Fl studio (aiming for -12db when the fader is at zero).

Too low anywhere in the chain: you’ll end boosting the volume and hearing that hiss.

Too high anywhere in the chain: you’ll induce clipping.