Electric guitar recording sounds bad

Hello there.

I have a Zoom G5n Multi-Effects Processor that I mainly use to play everyday, which has a built in audio interface and came with a free Cubase LE AI Elements 9.5 license. I did manage to record my electric guitar with that software, however the audio of the recording sounds very different from what I expected. I quickly realized I needed to go on “Inserts” and apply an “Amp Simulator” to my track, but even after messing around with different amp settings I can’t get it to sound the same as what I hear from my physical amplifier. I think the problem only arises when I start messing with gain/distortion. The audio might be clipping. My setup is as follows: I have my electric guitar plugged into the FX pedal input, then I have the FX pedal output plugged into my amplifier input, and I have a USB Type-A cable plugged into both my FX pedal and my PC.

I have little to no knowledge about DAWs and the same goes for recording electric guitar. I was wondering if the built in audio interface I own might have something to do with it, since the quality might not be the best.

Any help is much appreciated!

Hi and welcome,

I don’t know your FX Pedal, but I expect, you can choose to send either the Dry or Wet signal to the USB. If you want to record the signal with the FXs, use the Wet signal, please.