I'm not sure if this should go in "here to there" or "in the studio", but I'll try here.
Has anyone played with one of these?
I saw some on the shelf today while I was snooping around one of the local music stores.
The guy behind the counter didn't know much, other than that they had just arrived in the last couple of weeks.
They were priced at $32 (CDN).
I also saw the XLR to USB cable from the same company, for the same price.
They look like interesting toys if they work as well as the advertising says.
Anyone?
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
They probably work -- no reason they shouldn't. The price is cheap enough to give someone a taste of recording.
Caveats I noted:
To deal with latency issues, the unit comes with an analog splitter to divide the signal between a local monitoring source and the in-cable convertor. This may or may not work very well, though it's a basic form of local monitoring used in other systems. The drawback is the guitar gets doubly loaded unless this splitter is very level lossy (doubt this). The amp loading in parallel with the lightsnake will drop the impedance to 500k or less. Might suck out a little treble, but not a big deal.
There is no way to adjust for overloading of the lightsnake ADC except through use of the guitars volume control. Some guitars might need significant roll-off to protect against nasty digital clipping (which nobody wants except for annoyance value). Roll off the volume => roll off the tone on many guitars.
The cable might be a bit fragile, as there is not much in the way of strain relief.
I find it suspect when anyone uses tenths of a dB precision when spec'ing distortion or dynamic range of an audio device. Makes me think the specs are calculated values rather than guaranteed limits based on measured performances. One would hope the specs are an indication of the worst allowed measured performances, not some calculated number e.g. = 6 dB*<number of ADC bits> + Reference level (dBm) - implementation loss ... blah, blah, blah.
but then it's only $32 Canadian. That's pretty dang cheap!
-=tension & release=-
They probably work -- no reason they shouldn't. The price is cheap enough to give someone a taste of recording.
...snip...
I find it suspect when anyone uses tenths of a dB precision when spec'ing distortion or dynamic range of an audio device. Makes me think the specs are calculated values rather than guaranteed limits based on measured performances.
Yeah, I noticed the specs looked like they came off a spreadsheet, too.
As to headroom, if the numbers can be trusted (and if I remember how to do this kind of calculating right - college was over 20 years ago), their stated 2.8 Vp-p works out to around -3dBm, assuming a pickup impedance around 8K
And it is real cheap, innit.
Hmmm... cheap GAS relief, or potential buyer's remorse? 
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Hmmmmm, with my recent lightning induced loss of my home studio, i might look into this.
#4491....
I'm definitely going to get one of these. If anyone has one, care to review it?
Also, the thread starter mentioned they were available for $32 cdn.. the only place I've found them online is http://www.music123.com/SoundTech-LightSnake-USB-Intelligent-Instrument-Cable-i427337.music for $39 American.. anyone have any place cheaper?
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
I've got one of these on the way. Or, at least ordered -- music123 is out of them but should have them in eventually. I'll give a little review and some sound samples in comparison with the setup I'm currently using -- just a .50 cent out from a small practice amp.
I've also read a bit on the soundtech message board for these things, it sounds like a batch came out that were flat-out poorly manufactured.. so hopefully, considering this one is on order, I don't end up with the same problem.
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
That Soundtech USB Cord came in, the FedEx guy tossed it on my garbage can while standing about five feet away at the gate (unless he opened the gate and tempted my dogs, which I doubt). I was away and wasn't asked to sign for it, so the guy figured he would give it a good toss, I guess.
Luckily, the dogs didn't get at it, and when I got home I cracked it open and plugged it in and played around with it. There doesn't seem to be any defect in the cord like some on the Soundtech message board were noticing, so far so good.
It's pretty well constructed, the ends of the 10ft cord are wrapped in a kind a tough plastic, more of a gel type thing. I still wouldn't beat the thing around though, the USB end can't possibly be as durable as the regular guitar end. One end went into the guitar, the other the USB port on the front of my computer tower, the computer recognized it immediately and with a couple tweaks of the options in my sound settings, it came blaring through. Really easy set-up. I didn't install any of the software that came with it.. just ported the guitar right into audacity.
Here's a couple sound files using a Artcore AFS75T:
-- one with the new USB cord: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=652530&songID=4970093
-- one without: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=652530&songID=4901280
It definitely got rid of that high-pitched squeal in the background of my original recording, though I think with a little more trouble-shooting I could've gotten rid of that if I had put a little effort into it. I'd venture a guess to say there really isn't much, if any, of a difference between the USB cord and just a .50 cent adapter out of the practice amp. To be fair, I do have a pretty shitty soundcard, so it goes to follow that if I had a better soundcard it might sound better, but I would also imagine my .50 cent out set-up would sound better, too.
I also have it tuned down half a step, so keep that in mind. I didn't spend too much time working around with the settings, either.
I primarily bought it to move my practice amp to another room so I could avoid having to hook it back up every time I wanted to record. The portability of the USB cord is a big plus. I also bought it because it works with a bass guitar (though I haven't tested it yet). I don't have an amp for my bass, so this would pretty much just be a way to dink around on it in the meantime.
Would I buy it again? I don't know. For forty bucks, it's a decent little tool to get your recordings out there quickly, but it's basically the equivalent of the .50 cent jack a lot of people start out with. Does it produce studio-quality stuff? I'd say no, but than again, as I mentioned earlier.. my soundcard sucks. But I can't imagine a better soundcard making all that much a difference.
With that said, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to just start recording quickly with no strings attached. This cord and a free shareware copy of audacity is enough to start laying down music right away.
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
Well, if you directly connect the guitar to the pc I think you're kinda supposed to use software amp modeling, something like GuitarRig. On it's own it's kinda... bland. :D
but it's basically the equivalent of the .50 cent jack a lot of people start out with.
Last time I bought a jack adaptor, I didn't get a free practice amp (which, btw, cost more than $40) :wink:
Well, if you directly connect the guitar to the pc I think you're kinda supposed to use software amp modeling, something like GuitarRig. On it's own it's kinda... bland. :D
I looked up Guitar Rig. Guitar Rig costs more than my actual guitar rig.
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
It was just an example. There are tons of free ones, like these (some also for bass):
http://www.audiomastermind.com/browse-amps___amp_simulators-5887083-1.html
Try some of them, you'll probably find a massive increase in sound quality as you can put the LS to full use. 8)
It was just an example. There are tons of free ones, like these (some also for bass):
http://www.audiomastermind.com/browse-amps___amp_simulators-5887083-1.html
Try some of them, you'll probably find a massive increase in sound quality as you can put the LS to full use. 8)
Thanks for the heads up. I went to the X-Amp website.. and downloaded
"X-Amp - Virtual Guitar Amplifier - Beta 0.84 - Jan.31, 2004"
and all I got was a .dll file with a readme about all the upgrades to it. What do I do with the .dll file?
Not sure if you've ever used X-Amp before, but maybe someone who has can help me out a bit.
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
If your software allows vst's, look for a VST and/or DXi folder in it's directory and slap it in. I know some programs make you "re-fresh" your plug-in list before you can use it.
Does Audacity support that type of file? I dragged and dropped it into the "Plug-Ins" directory, but that didn't seem to do anything.
Used to be, was a part of me felt like hiding.. but now it comes through. Comes through to you.
Does Audacity support that type of file? I dragged and dropped it into the "Plug-Ins" directory, but that didn't seem to do anything.
Here's a link to a VST enabler for Audacity. I haven't tried it, just had it bookmarked.
http://audacityteam.org/vst/
