How Do I Prevent Clipping?

[Eldaar]

My guitarist and I were recording scratch tracks in our home studio a couple of days ago and could not seem to find a way to prevent his guitar signal from clipping. Before I describe the problem further, let me mention what kind of gear and software we are using:

Ibanez RG 7-String (with one pickup, which is active) plugged into the second input of a PreSonus Audiobox USB 2x2 (PreSonus). The Audiobox is then plugged into our computer, and we are using Reaper recording software. Within Reaper we were using a plugin that distorts the signal so that it sounds more like it actually will on the final recording.

So we recorded some riffs but quickly saw that the signal was clipping. We tried lowering the volume of the input signal by turning down the knob that controls the volume for the second input only. We also tried lowering the volume by turning down the knob that controls the volume for both inputs. We tried lowering the volume of the signal in Reaper itself. We tried using the first input of the Audiobox instead of the second. We tried turning off the distortion plugin. But none of these attempts prevented the signal from clipping.

I should also mention that the signal wasn't clipping constantly - it mostly clipped only when playing chords, whereas it rarely clipped when playing one note at a time. I'm pretty sure we even tried turning down the volume on the guitar, since the active pickup could be a problem (though it shouldn't be).

Is there anything else we can do to stop clipping? Where might the problem lie? Thanks in advance for any help!

[paul999]

There are some active pickups that distort and crackle and are really only meant for distortion. The first time I heard a set of semor(sp?) duncans do this I was horrified. Try another guitar. Plug that guitar into an amp clean and see how it is. Don't rule out pickups or the mic.

[ryanoliver]

I'm at a loss for this one. You should be able to turn the gain down enough on the interface to avoid clipping. However, Presonus does make a nice compressor for 100 bucks that would solve this problem.

[Audio~Geek]

Active pickups have loud outputs.
There's a few things you can do to help, lower the pickup in the guitar, or turn down the volume on the guitar.

A low battery in the guitar may give you a distorted signal, but it wouldn't be clipping your preamp.

Turning down the level in reaper will do nothing because it's after the preamp.

[brandondrury]

I record hot guitars all the time via DI. It shouldn't be an issue...unless you don't have an input pad on the preamp you are using.

Brandon