Playing along with Justin

[Tiger88]

So, what I want to do is to play my guitar on the computer while watching Justin's lessons.  I've already got several real-life amps, but I would like to get everything integrated onto the computer.

I'm pretty sure I'll need a hardware interface, like the Behringer or Focusrite units.  That's not really a problem.

What I'm not sure about is getting some kind of amp simulation software that will continue to work in the background while I'm watching Justin on video.  I know a lot of software will turn off the audio if another program has the focus.  Any recommendations?  Simple is fine, free would be nice.

The computer is i7 with Windows 10 64 bit.

[sdd56]

That's exactly what I do.

I've got a Focusrite Scarlett interface connected to my Windows 10 PC. With the guitar plugged in, I can play the guitar through the speakers while also playing a Youtube video.

You don't have to have any simulation software, but if you want something more than just a clean tone, I use the free version of Guitar Rig 5.

Once you have an interface, you can also use something like Reaper or Audacity to record yourself.

[Majik]

Also look at some of the multifx units. Many of them will act as as a USB sound interface so you can record using the unit's on-board fx and amp emulation without having to worry about monitoring and latency issues which can arise when using computer plugins.

Cheers,

Keith

[J.W.C.]

I think Amplitube has a free version.

[Tiger88]

Ah, thanks guys, every one of your answers really got me thinking on a different tangent.

I guess I did leave out one important bit of information in my original post.  A big reason I want my guitar going through the computer is so that I can put in some late night practice using headphones.  So, no external speakers.

The goal is to listen to both Justin and my guitar on headphones plugged into the computer.

[sdd56]

Just tried with headphones.
With my setup, if I plug headphones into the PC, I hear Youtube in the headphones, but the guitar still comes via the speakers.

Or if I plug the headphones into the Focusrite, the reverse happens.

I guess you could use a cheap mixer e.g. Behringer or Alto, with a couple of Y leads, but this will add to the cost.

[jono]

You need to adjust the audio settings of the PC and change the default audio input to be the focusrite

Sent from my [device_name] using JustinGuitar Community mobile app

[sdd56]

Jono is right - changing playback device (output device) to Focusrite instead of Speakers means that with headphones connected to the Focusrite, all sounds will go to that output. Without headphones, sound still comes from speakers as normal.

[Tiger88]

Thanks again for the responses.

I'm still not sure if I can use custom tones while listening to Justin, but I guess only clean tones will be ok for doing the lessons.

After tons of research on YouTube, last night I ordered the Steinberg UR22MKII USB interface.  One feature I like is that instead of a switch to toggle direct input it has a mix knob to blend direct input with the sound from the computer.  That might prove helpful.  The Steinberg should arrive tomorrow, can't wait.

[Tiger88]

I got the Steinberg USB interface.  With all the help you guys have given me I thought I should give you an update.

The good news is that it is working!  I can hear YouTube and my guitar at the same time.   It even works with Amplitude, so I can have custom sounds while doing lessons.

A small problem is that, because of the drivers, I can't plug the headphones into the computer, only the jack on the interface.  That means I can't use my favorite wireless headphones, at least for now.  Maybe I'll be able to figure out a solution for that in the future.

Still, on the plus side, the sound is excellent and having the mix knob instead of a direct input switch is cool.

So, now that that's done it's time to get cracking on those lessons.  :-)

[Peakoverload]

I know this is an old(ish) post but this is something I've seen come up a number of times in the past.

The thing to remember with recording audio into a computer, be that a PC or a Mac, is that both the operating system and, generally, the software application you are recording into/playing through will have settings to determine which input/output to use (where to record from and where to play to).

In Windows you go to Control Panel>Sound and you will see all the sound devices on your computer and tabs for both Record and Playback (Windows 7) or drop down lists for Sound and Input (Windows 10). On a Mac it's System Settings>Sounds and you'll see your devices and tabs for Record and Playback.

Generally speaking you can set the Record/Input to be the device you have plugged your guitar into and set that as the default device. The key thing to remember here is that all you have done here is to tell Windows to record your guitar and that doesn't necessarily mean that DAW's or Guitar Apps will then be able to 'hear' your guitar. All this setting does is define which input to use for applications that DON'T have their own settings.

For playback it really depends where you want to hear your guitar but the thing to remember is that you will also hear ALL system sounds and things like YouTube etc. So if you set playback to be your audio interface then you will only hear ALL sounds via the audio interface. That may be fine if you have a pair of speakers attached to the audio interface or are happy to use headphones but it may not suit everyone.
More on this in a second.

Now, dedicated DAW software and good guitar apps will have their own Audio Settings that are largely independent on the ones in Control Panel/System Settings. If you look at these you can usually select your Audio Interface as being the Record Device and the Playback device or choose something else entirely for playback. It's worth noting that not all programs allow you to use a different device for playback to that of recording, most do but there are exceptions and this can be annoying.

So if you wanted to play along to a video of Justin but you wanted to hear both your guitar and Justin's video over your computer speakers you need to set Windows>Control Panel>Sounds to use your built in sound card (the one inside your PC) as the default Playback device. On a Mac choose Core Audio for playback. In your DAW/Guitar App, set your input device to be your Audio Interface but set your Output Device to be your built in sound card.

This way your signal path is Guitar>Audio Interface>DAW/Guitar App>On board/Built in Sound card>Computer Speakers.

Now technically there will be a bit more latency (delay between playing and what you hear) but on a modern computer we are talking something along the lines of 15ms (milliseconds) so not enough to worry about if you are just jamming along.

Hope that helps.