11.5

122 Effects and effect plug-ins
www.magix.com
consider your entire computer system. On-board sound systems are not
recommended due to their rudimentary or unsuitable driver sets and the often
below-average signal quality.
Before making any "serious" endeavors in VANDAL, please make sure that
your audio interface is supplied with a sufficiently controllable signal level from
your instrument. The input signal at the audio interface should be "saturated",
but it should not be overmodulated. Compared to the possibly desired
distortions created within the plug-in, an AD converter distortion will sound
abrupt and horribly digital, and the the worst part is that you will never be able
to remove it.
If very loud velocities sometimes reach the upper modulation limits and the
average level stays at -12 or even -20 dB, everything is normal. The less noise
your audio hardware has in the process, the better. We recommend working
with devices that feature a resolution of at least 20 or 24 bits. A simple 16-bit
sound card will stop being fun to use at the very latest when high-gain sounds
come into play.
If possible, use an interface with a high-resistance instrument input (often
labeled "HiZ"). Line or microphone inputs are not very well-suited for this; due
to the relatively high impedance values of (passive) guitars or basses, this sort
of input has a dampening effect on the instrument. The sound will seem dull
and "dead" as a result...
If the interface does not feature an instrument input, insert a separate guitar
pre-amp, a DI box, or even a simple pedal (not switched to "true bypass).
Instruments with active pickups or electronic components are less affected by
this adjustment problem.
Please take this opportunity to also check the latency or the buffer size used
by your audio system. A good ASIO driver should let you play with a latency of
only a few milliseconds between the stroke and the calculated sound output
from the software. Values under 5 ms are considered good. You may have to
experiment to find the lowest limit at which your system functions stably. If you
notice ugly crackling or even long drop-outs, then try a higher latency.
Input level reloaded: VANDAL's input level