I Am A Little Confused About This…

For the people reporting noise issues with their plugins. Fix your electronics/room. For starter tey sitting with your back facing ypur monitor and watch if the noise is suddenly gone. Your monitor causes a ton of em field distortion..

Im having zero issues with the Bea plugin... it's now my go-to and default plugin now... i have almost every other plugin and this is by far the most versatile. People forget to adjust the interface and for me it's crazy... it's literally the first thing in the chain after guitar and cable...

So the "set gain just below hardest palm mute" was a lie ?? Damn you Misha,... damn you ;)

I stopped using amplitube because i set it up exactly like the internet said and it was unusable. This is why.

I mean my plugins then sound like shit if i do that...very thin and no balls...like various different kinds from NeuralDSP, to NAM, etc...

I'm going to be honest. I've been using guitar plugins for over a decade and I've NEVER heard the mention of just simply engaging the instrument button on your interface's input and putting the gain knob down to zero. I remember YEARS ago using a plugin and I was like "This is so noisy and sounds like like crap." and I never revisited it again. I'm sure I did as most of us have and turned the gain knob up while doing something like palm mutes to get a proper gain level. As many have been shown over the years. Yesterday I went ahead and did as you described, I can absolutely hear the difference. Thank you for making this video Rab ❤

I don’t think anyone without a studio background understood this until recently when a few videos on the subject started popping up on YT.

This sudden revelation about the input gain of your interface being too high or low is rubbish. The argument is that a real amp doesn't have a preamp in between guitar and amp but every amp sim has an input level. A real amp does not have this feature. The instrument input of any daw is clean up to the point of digital clipping, It's not saturated. Bring your level up on your interface before clipping and use the level controls of amp sim and dismiss this nonsense of turning your DI signal all the way down with a pathetic level and higher noise floor.

Hotter level more bit depth ratio used = greater perceived audio.

when I record I have a (sm57)Mic in front of a cab on one input (into a 2i4), and an emulated out from my head to the other input... kinda, because I put it through a mixer first, with Mic on one channel balanced left, and the emulated out balanced right, so the focusrite actually gets the output of the mixer. So how should I have my inst/line and pad switches? (I'm an old fart and very new to DAW's and Interfaces). I presume as a general rule I want whatever setting allows me to use the least gain?

I thought there was a little more mid top in the actual Kraken 2

Eh? How is this a problem? Just dont clip your inputs and turn the plugin input down if you need to??

Your sig looks so nice man! I use your plugin daily and I suppose I've been using it correctly. Woo

Bra, I can’t say thank you enough. I’ve been trying to figure this out for a few weeks as I’m a traditional amp guy trying to play with VST and was always frustrated by that really Gainey swarm of the sound. I clearly had my interface set incorrectly and I appreciate the way you presented this and how you did it. Thank you.

Nice video ... just thougth ... a no-brainer. But I'm to "techie" 😆 But pls. don't mix up "level" and "impedance". So mostly "instrument-inputs" are "instrument-level" and "high-impedance". For instruments you normally use "high impedance" - therefore you use DI-Boxes. Then you get low-impedance for mic inputs. So impedance --> solved. And you just need to level it as you said ... play heavy, peaks at interface input (digital) should be greater than -20dB and lower than -10dB (for some safety). And for impedance - most modern units have switchable input impedance. This will impact high frequencies. E.g. Helix can do this dependent on the first effect. Not sure, if this is suitable in every circustance - but it's cool. And having lower "high-impedance" - like 200k Ohms will result in lower highs - like with a longer guitar cable (basically ... not totally correct, but anyhow). And with higher impedance > 1 mega Ohm, you get more highs. And if you use active instruments - like some e-basses, most acoutic guitars and some metal-guitars (e.g. EMGs) - this difference in sound should vanish. Anyhow ... just some ideas

So i have a Line 6 HX running into a Scarlett 2i2 running into my DAW. Im a little confused, what should i do with that in terms of the “correct way” lol

I have an internal PCI card rather than a USB interface, and its dedicated instrument input is wayyyy too hot.
Even at the lowest gain setting, a passive guitar will clip the input, and I can get the archetype plugin to feedback just on internal background noise, without even a cable plugged into the instrument intput. It's the weirdest thing.

I guess that's what I get for using an obscure PCI interface, but I never had this problem with Guitar Rig. In my somewhat flawed setup, Archetype Rabea is definitely unusably noisy, while Guitar Rig somehow isn't.

I shouldn’t be so satisfied seeing Rabea sitting using the Rabea plug-in, but I am.

I leave it at 30% mostly on the interface and leave it at 0db input gain at the plug in. If I am adding gain, I turn it up on the virtual amp of the plug in, not on input.

I had always kept the interface gain at 0 since any other way it would clip.
I thought I was doing something wrong, yet I was getting a good gain staging threshold to work with plugins, turns out I was just doing it right all along.

Why is there an input knobs in your plugin then? The problem is that there is no shared standard, what works in your plugin might not work with other, impeadance is NOT input level. Also not al interfaces have 1 Meg resistance built in for the instrument inputs. Brands differ sadly

Even Misha Mansoor has had videos saying to crank it to clipping then back off. I know that was common knowledge at one point until now all of a sudden. Now everyone wants to act like they knew you were supposed to turn input gain down low all along. Lmfao

This is like saying when you use a DI into a preamp... don't turn up the preamp to make sure your level is good...


If you plug in and you have good level, fine, but understand gain staging and what good level is..

Feel like there's a lot of misinformation here.

Every instrument will have a different output level based on the electronics.

To all the wonks arguing in the comments: there is no correct method. Generally you will get a good result if your input isn’t clipping. Some people may want that sound; good for them. Argue less and play more, for fuck’s sake.

This guy never watched Spinal Tap. Turn everything up to 11.

Like, it would be common sense not to send an already clipping signal into an amp simulation.
Sending at 0db max peak is the way. Rest is all from the plugin's settings, that's why the input knob is in there too.

Loving your signature plugin with NDSP and the rest of their stuff, too! Haven't looked back since swapping to plugins.

I thought when you push speakers they do change tone. Celestion have different irs for low and high gain

Depends on the guitar, depends on the DIY. I’d prefer a target peak level so I can set it regardless of what I’m using.

I gained a lot from this video… thank you…

Does this apply if using Guitar Rig by Native Instruments as well?

So does this mean I set my interface to a smidge before clipping like usual or turn it down further? I have noticed my plugins are pretty noisy but I don't touch my DI signal, just in the amp Sim itself as if it were a real amp.

Remember, kids, gain staging is your friend!

Dont listen to Rabea. If you do, you will most likely have wrong input levels UNLESS you use UAD interface ( 12.2dBu of headroom at 0 gain) and the Neutal DPS Plugin. Input levels set to 0 on the knob is different on almost all interfaces. Also the plugins levels are totally different depending on the manufactorer. @eds4754 have made a video explaining this and can be followed. This video from Rabea Massaad should be deleted. It will litterally make more people frustrated as most likely only 1% of viewers are using UAD interfaces and NDPS plugins.

Im confused now. Im using a 3rd gen focusrite scarlett solo. I have inerface gan zero, input on rabea plugin zero. In this video, his amp is set up wth all controls at noon. His sound is good. Mine still sounds like a very weak signal, nowhere near the gain level he has... Any suggestions? Or is this the REAL difference between using a $175 interface compared to using a $2000 apollo interface?

Unscientific af. Some of us want numbers from these manufacturers

This whole amp sim world is completely new to me, but I guess I understand the point why the gain should be adjusted from the interface to zero. I just don't understand why the developers advise otherwise. But I also have a problem with it. When I adjust a gain to zero from my audio interface, my DI signal is so weak that my audio interface's mixer application and my daw are just barely able to recognize it. That's why the amp simulators don't work at all with these instructions. I've tried using amp simulators with Daw and in standalone. My guitar is a fairly new 7-string Schecter with Seymour Duncans active pickups (can't remember the model) and my audio interface is an audient id24 which works with IDmixer app. Amp sims, I've tried Neural DSP: Archetype Gojira X, Rabea, Nolly, Fortin Cali and now I'm trying Mixwave: Spiritbox - Mike Stringer. Where the issue might be?

I have a scarlett 2i2 gen 3. And the level that the chart thats been going around shows that it is at 12.5 max. But thats with the instrument button turned on. If i turn that button on my guitar clips the signal even with the input gain turned all the way down. What should i do?

This is complete bullshit and just wrong. You need to turn your hi-z amplification up to get a good signal to noise ratio, but more important to get the best dynamic range possible. In other words-to get the most out of the design of the amplification. You can turn it down afterwards if you feel your amp sims sound better that way. But not turning the input gain up is just comically wrong.

all this talk about the input settings !...I understand better now but is the optimum 48Hz and 128 samples if no crackling please Bea ? and is it ok to play with the output for some more dB :)

NeuralDSP plugins are the best!!!

Not a scooby! I'm just not interested in all the tech behind it. I love all the options Neural plugins give you, so I bought a Volt 1, some speakers and just plugged in. It had a gain knob and a clipping meter. I made sure when I played it wasn't clipping on the front of the Volt 1 and just cracked on. I think there are a lot of hobby guitarists like me who couldn't give a monkey's toss about all the tech, just want some good sounds.

I don't have your plug-in but I have another one from neural and I did raise the input level of my interface be cause neural dsp wrote that instruction in the manual and on its own web site! The company that makes the plug in told us too raise the input level in its own user manual.
That's why we raised our input levels.

When I lower my input gain on my Scarlett, I stop seeing my audio signal. I can get my guitar clipping with input level and gain on your plugin before seeing any peaks. Any ideas?

so that's what that instrument button is for...

This topic sparked a question in my mind: Does the same thing happen, or would the same "rule" apply, when recording vocals through a pre-amp plugin? I mean, are the pre-amp recreations reacting as they should? What levels should we actually feed them? Or am I being nonsensical by having these questions in mind?

Using my Audient Id44 input level at 0 with a strat I get super low di input around-40/-35 and if I play really really hard, it gets to about -25 max that too low, and the plugins sound too quiet and not good. This is not working for me, any idea about that ?

literally said to crank the input as loud as possible without clipping or distorting on the neural dsp instructions lol

So after watching the video and reading comments do i still need to turn the input knob on my focusrite up till clipping and then back it off until it's not when using instrument input? I dont ever touch the gain of the interface in my daw and i might mess with the input knob in a neural plugin to get a little more saturation here or there.

Thanks for watching guys.

Just want to point out that the desired effect of this video was to say you shouldn’t need to be turning up a DI signal. If anything use the input signal from the plugin you’re using rather than the interface.

Most modern interfaces will have compensation when using a line/inst input to achieve the right levels. If you’re curious about your specific interface to achieve this check the manual.

As I said, focusrite and UAD have built in compensation as do many modern interfaces. But most importantly. - try to leave the DI where it is, so you don’t run into inaccuracies when using guitar plugins.

Cheers