Plan to buy my first pickup and accessories to it

MusicCrusader · March 16

Hello, musicians,

This community is very helpful. I hope this time it will help again.

I am an intermediate hobby guitarist. I am considering buying a Krivo Micro-Manoúche pickup for my D-hole guitar, a Saga Cigano GJ-15.

I have never worked with stuff that connects an acoustic guitar; I have only watched videos about it. I have a laptop and a TV with HDMI and some other audio input. I will need to buy several products to connect to the pickup. I plan to make a few orders online.

I have rookie questions, so I decided to go to the community.

I may work with four configurations. Before spending a significant amount of money to get the things, I want to make sure these configurations are possible with the pickup. I want to buy things wisely and have the versatility to later add new stuff to the initially bought things without the necessity of changing everything. The analogy can be the motherboard and processor for a PC.

The pickup +an audio interface to connect to my laptop. Where: at home
The pickup + a looper connected to my laptop. Where: at home.
The pickup + a looper, and a guitar amp. Where: At home and outside. And an energy source for them to play outside.
The pickup +a looper+ a mixer + speakers/monitors, etc. Where: at open-mics. I should have my pickup (as I wrote, I want to get the Krivo one) and the looper; the other stuff is the venue's property. I need to ensure that, on average, it will work well on a stage.

Initially, I want to apply configurations 2 with 4 or 3 with 4. Later on, my plan is to have everything.

I know that audio interface, mixer, and looper specifications can be different and have limitations. Can these configurations work in general? If you know some good examples of audio interfaces, loopers, or amps that work very well with the pickup or the opposite works poorly, please share this information.

littlemark · March 16

1. Why are you connecting to a laptop? Are you recording? Making loops? The krivo should work with any audio Interface designed for guitar. I currently use the zoom r16 to record but I need to know why you are connecting to a laptop before I recommend an interface/DAC.

2. A Looper should not have any effect on connecting to a laptop. I have used the boss rc3. Works well and has a drum machine included. I currently use the Digitech trio+. Love it. It learns your songs and adds drums and bass. Or it can just be a Looper but that would be a waste to not utilize the band in a box features.

3. If you are playing outside get a battery powered amp. I have used the Traynor TVM15 for years. There are many others. Roland makes good stuff. Roland Cube Street II has a built in Looper. Getting power to the Looper is harder unless your Looper can take a 9 volt battery. I have seen some battery amps that have the ability to power pedals. The boss rc5 can last 2 hours on a 9 volt.

4. A normal venue should be able to hook up to whatever you have. Most venues have DI boxes.

Hope that helps a bit.

voutoreenie · March 16

I like the audio interfaces from Focusrite, high quality yet affordable. You should definitely consider studio monitors for recording as well, relying on laptop speakers is not ideal (even the cheapest monitors will be vastly superior).

MusicCrusader · March 17

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120464#Comment_120464

Hello!

Thank you for the comment!

I don't have speakers, an amp, a mixer, or an audio interface, and I don't want to buy any of it in the beginning. Therefore, I want to buy the pickup with a looper. I will play home with the looper to get used to using it properly, and then I will use the looper at open venues. At home, I will need a speaker to play the sound. The plan is to connect the pickup to the looper and the looper to my laptop. Do I miss something?

Roland Cube Street II or Boss Cube Street II is for electric guitar, isn't it? I understand that an electric amp is for electric guitars, and for acoustic guitars, I need an acoustic amp. Am I wrong?

Thank you for the suggestions for loopers and battery-powered amps! I will check them out.

I will not hurry to buy an amp for outside playing.

P.S. I live abroad and rent a small apartment; I don't want to have a dozen kilograms that will be expensive to relocate or sell, so I have to be very choosy about my purchases.

MusicCrusader · March 17

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120465#Comment_120465

I understand that the laptop's sound quality will be low. I want to train using Looper at home before going with it to a stage. I don't need high-quality audio. I have a TV that connects to my laptop via HDMI; Connecting a looper to the computer that is connected to the TV will use TV speakers. I understand that the sound quality will be better than that of the laptop, but it is also low.

What do you mean by the cheapest monitors for recording? Speakers for the laptop?

If the quality of the connected Looper via my TV speakers is too low for my ears, then I will buy an audio interface or/and speaker or monitor if I understand that it is worth it.

voutoreenie · March 18

@MusicCrusader Are you familiar with latency? If not, that's when the audio you're sending through different sources becomes delayed in comparison to real-time recording and that would be a pretty big concern when moving between interface-to-laptop-to-TV (and that's not even getting into potential clipping issues as well).

A good audio interface solves this through real time sampling, which either eliminates latency or reduces it greatly down to levels no longer detectable by human ears. The studio monitors come into play when optimizing sampling rates back and forth from audio interface, audio interface software and whichever DAW you're using (audio optimization is a requirement for all recording setups before you even get to the actual recording point).

Honestly, I'm hardly an expert in any of this but I've done enough home recording to have learned how to at least set up a decent rig and what's needed to do so; to that end, I would actually recommend visiting a local music store with a decent pro audio dept. to see if they have any home recording basics courses available or look on youtube for some instructional direction. And I'm not saying you can't make your ideas for all of this work but from my perspective it might make more sense to tackle each variable in your OP one at a time instead of looking to find solutions for everything at once...at the very least, could potentially save you lots of time spent troubleshooting.

Buco · March 18

I use headphones at home instead of powered monitors. They're a high quality headphones in my case but you could buy a good pair for not a lot of money.

If I'm understanding correctly, you want to be able to use the looper at home. You can get an amp with headphones output and practice that way. A lot of modern amps will have headphones output.

Which brings me to the amp. The route I went is instead of buying a battery powered amp to perform outdoors, I bought a battery power station that I use with my existing amp. Both are small, light and portable. The one I bought is $160 on Amazon now. So this way you can buy whatever amp you like. And battery power station is useful for many other situations.

If you're not planning on recording at home then you don't need audio interface. If you do or want to eventually, then already mentioned Focusrite is sort of a standard for home recording.

MusicCrusader · March 20

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120501#Comment_120501

Hello,

Thank you for the comment!

I don't have plans to record performances. I need a looper with backing tracks to perform on a stage. I plan to record backing tracks on the looper on the stage or prepare them at home recording with the looper (depends what looper I buy). To practice using the looper at home, I need an electroacoustic device that will convert the signal to sound (laptop/TV/amp or headphones). I will record a rhythm section guitar on the looper and then play solo with the looper at home. I need to hear how it plays. Therefore, I don't have a high bar for the audio quality. With the community's help, I am trying to find the optimal solution in my case.

MusicCrusader · March 20

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120500#Comment_120500

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about my configuration plans.

What does OP mean?

I want to highlight that I live abroad and rent a small apartment with a little space and a little furniture to live without making a small studio with devices; I don't want to have a dozen kilograms that will be expensive to relocate or sell, so I have to be very choosy about my purchases.

In the comment above, I wrote that I would record the rhythm section on the looper. Maybe I don't understand something. But I don't need special software or hardware to record except the looper if it has memory to store a track or a few. I need a device that will play audio recorded at the looper to listen and train to play with the looper at home. Then, I can play with the looper on a stage.

I know a little bit about latency. I used Jamulus in the past, recording my guitar on a Yeti microphone and combating the internet latency via a cable and the nearest hosts to my location. When it was below 45 ms, it was good to play with someone.

I am unsure that Focusrite will work well with my 8-year-old budget laptop with an entry-level CPU. Therefore, buying a good quality audio interface could trigger a necessity for buying a new laptop. Again, I want to avoid it and choose the common sense option without spending a lot of money on my stuff. I don't make money on music.

Altogether, it makes my case very specific.

Buco · March 20

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120512#Comment_120512

Then you don't need any of the stuff you listed in original post, except what you listed in #3: a pickup, an amp and a looper pedal. A pair of headphones would come in handy to quietly practice at home (amp needs to have a headphone out of course). That's it.

OP is original poster.

littlemark · March 20

Agreed, all you need is the pickup, a looper and an amp.

The boss cube Street can be used for acoustic, electric or with a microphone. Putting a krivo pickup on your guitar essentially makes it an electric. It is battery powered and has a built in looper.

Don't bother trying to hook anything up to your TV or computer.