VST plugin not affecting guitar sound

[Lovi]

Hey, a few days ago I got the idea to pick up electir guitar with absolute no previous experience. Today I received my electirc guitar and for the past couple days I was tackling with installing Cubase because there were all kinds of problems, and for good reason I only expected the problems to start after finally setting it up along with the plugin I got with the audio interface Lexicon Alpha.

Basically I could hear my guitar from my headphones just fine without touching any plugins. Then I got the Pantheon reverb plugin to work after a while, and by working I mean the interface pops up in Cubase but it doesn't add effects like distortion into the guitar sound. I tried a couple of free plugins as well and in their interfaces they have more buttons that I recognize from some video in creating more the type of sound I like that the Pantheon plugin was missing, and after fiddling with all the buttons there's still no effect. After googling around for an hour there were no results with similar problem so I decided to ask here.

Incase relevant, I'm running Windows 7 64bit, Cubase LE 5, Lexicon Alpha interface, Pantheon reverb plugin and a bunch of others.

[Ah_Dziz]

Many interfaces have what is called "direct hardware monitoring ". Or something similar. It routes the inputs directly to the outputs so you can hear them with zero latency. It will also bypass any processing going on in your DAW . There will be a software checkbox in your interface control panel or a knob on your interface to disable it. Then you'll be able to monitor through your software with all effects intact but you will be delayed by whatever your asio buffer is set to.

JJ

[Lovi]

Thanks for the reply. I'm familiar with this feature and on my physical interface I have this knob labeled "monitor mix" and when turned all the way to right, playback, it doesn't play any of the analog input sounds which is what I want. I had it somewhere in the middle to get highest volume and I turned it to playback. I couldn't hear anything from my headphones until I turned both the line1/instrument knob and volume knob to full, and even now I can barely hear the sound, though still uneffected by the plugin. The plugin also has a volume knob that I tried to turn to max, but it makes no difference.

In case I've missed some obvious step earlier, here is what I've done to set this up.
run Cubase, start a new project, double click on the side to get "Audio 01", from the inserts (after adding the path to the plugin etc so I can find it from here) I open the plugin, it pops up the interface with the knobs etc.

[Lovi]

I've been experimenting with the default insert thingies found in Cubase on the inspector menu thingy as well as the audio channel settings window, but nothing is affecting the guitar sound. It is a physical guitar that cost me 200 euros used and is in flawless condition. I tried turning on the monitor button but it makes no difference either.

To be clear, I don't want to record anything, just start to practice and all the tutorials focus solely on adding effects on already recorded parts, and I can't even record anything even though I hear some very faint sounds through Cubase when my Monitor Mix knob is set all the way to playback. When it's on Direct it's at its highest because it's just skipping my DAW entirely. I just tried to switch the instrument cable into Line 1 slot from Instrument, but it makes no difference.

I would really like to get an answer to this as I assume several of the people who have read this have a working setup already and it wouldn't take that long.

[arkmabat]

The sound is probably the box and not cubase. Turn the interface direct monitoring all the way down. Now click on live playback or whatever it's called in Cubase. Open a vst like emissary, and flick it's distortion switch on!

[Lovi]

If by direct monitoring you mean the knob that controls whether I want to hear direct or the sound after it has gone through my DAW, I have it on playback which means it doesn't play any of the direct sound, but only the sound after it has gone through my DAW. I pressed the small "monitor" button in Cubase as there isn't any other button name live playback so I assume that's the one. Then I opened a plugin interface with treble, bass and a bunch of other knobs and turned them around but it still doesn't affect the sound at all. Not even the master volume knob in the plugin interface affects the sound at all. And why is the volume so low when my physical interface knob is on playback even when my volume knob is at full and PC volume is at full as well?

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

maybe in windows' control panel, you have to set the output device to the alpha?

[Lovi]

I have it set on it, I doubt I could even hear the guitar sound at all without having it set right.

[Lovi]

The problem is most likely on software side because I can hear the regular guitar sound via Cubase with absolutely no direct feed coming to my headphones, only playback. The volume is guite low even with the physical guitar's volume knob set to max and my physical interface knob set to max and my PC volumes set to max, but no insert effect or any other plugin on the audio settings window is affecting the sound at all. It's starting to feel that this was just a huge waste of time if I could have just bought an acoustic guitar for a lot cheaper, but I wanted electric for the sound but can't get it.

All the suggestions so far are things I had taken care of even before messaging here and even stated so in my first messages.

[whyterabbyt]

Maybe you could (temporarily) try a much simpler plugin host, which would maybe allow you to determind if the problem is with the software side of things or the hardware.

For example I'd suggest the demo of Chainer, which is remarkably easy to set up.

(To use it install it, make sure you point it at your VST plugin directory when its installing, and then set the ASIO driver for your Lexicon.

Finally, make the first, leftmost slot an INPUT, and put your chosen plugin in the next slot below that.)

[thecontrolcentre]

Many people use Cubase to record (and play) electric guitars. The problem you are having will be fixable. You are likely doing sometwhing wrong. I noticed in your first post that you expected Pantheon to provide distortion, when (I understand) it is a reverb plugin. Possibly you have things connected or set up wrong. Do you have the gain (input) turned up on your audio interface?

I don't use Cubase, but I regularly plug my telecaster into Ableton Live (via my audio interface) without any problems with the audio.

Hopefully someone who knows Cubase will chime in. In the meantime I would suggest you read the manual. BTW why, as a beginner, did you choose Cubase to get started, rather than a simpler, and cheaper host?

[whyterabbyt]

Hopefully someone who knows Cubase will chime in. In the meantime I would suggest you read the manual. BTW why, as a beginner, did you choose Cubase to get started, rather than a simpler, and cheaper host?

Looking at the soundcard (Lexicon Alpha) product page, Cubase 5 LE, which is what he's using, comes bundled with it.

[thecontrolcentre]

Hopefully someone who knows Cubase will chime in. In the meantime I would suggest you read the manual. BTW why, as a beginner, did you choose Cubase to get started, rather than a simpler, and cheaper host?

Looking at the soundcard (Lexicon Alpha) product page, Cubase 5 LE, which is what he's using, comes bundled with it.

Yeah ... I just noticed Pantheon also comes free with some Lexicon interfaces. Time to RTFM.

[robogone]

This might be an obvious question, but did you arm the track first?

[thecontrolcentre]

This might be an obvious question, but did you arm the track first?

Good spot.