Recording quality question
Home > Home Recording Forum > Recording Techniques > Recording quality question
Posted on Dec 01, 2005 11:15 pm
musicdreamer7
Member Since: Nov 10, 2005
I have had a thought running through my head lately. I do all my recording either through a guitar processor straight into my line in port on my mac powerbook and with my mic into a presonus tube pre into my line in port on the powerbook. because i am running these into my line in am i losing any quality to the signal or sound of the recordings? im planning on getting a presonus firepod for christmas and recording through that into my firewire port, but will that step up sound quality any (just curious, not a deciding factor in buying it, i need it for the multiple inputs) ? i just seem to be reading here and there that line in ports seem to make signals sound a bit more worse than normal. are there any alternate solutions to recording with a better sound? heres my myspace link so you can check out the quality of my music currently.
myspace.com/thepa
[ Back to Top ]
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Dec 01, 2005 11:23 pm Good question. Are the converters on built in cards sub-par compared to recording interfaces? like the firepod, or others? I know the 'mic in' should be avoided, but it stands to reason that built in converter may be cheap, or at least not as good in quality as a dedicated converter on a recording interface.
Hmmm . . .
Dec 01, 2005 11:52 pm Obviously quality of parts will make a difference in things like the S/N ratio, and I've read that the quality and steadiness of the word clock makes a huge difference in how good the A/D convertors sound. I'm guessing the clock makes a big difference because the streams of bits and sample rates need to stay in sync. Apparently the drivers for the card also make a lot of difference to the sound.
Then theres all the little add ons pro sound cards have compared to budget ones of course, like latency, MIDI, in built mixer's, phantom power, alais filters etc.
And then I suppose converting Analog to 24 bit takes a lot more work and parts compared to 16.
Any other ideas?
jmailjimmie neutronMember
Since: Feb 14, 2005
Dec 02, 2005 06:01 am When you get the Presonus Firepod, you'll want to go back and re-do all your projects. I'm just warning you, you'll be busy... The difference in "quality" is marked.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 02, 2005 07:54 pm Yep, there is a huge world of differance between a standard built in audio interface and a higher level one such as the firepod. You will definately hear the differance.
Dec 02, 2005 10:37 pm But techincally what makes the firepod so much better than a stock card?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 03, 2005 08:53 pm The DAC's and ADC's are of a much higher quality then a standard AC97 which is what almost every stock card is based off of. The rest of the electronic's as well are of a better quality as well.
IF you check the noise floor of any stock card you will find it almost unacceptable. Even some of the SB and other semi pro rated card's have a pretty high noise floor on them.
But for some people they work well untill the time arrive's to upgrade.
Dec 04, 2005 02:02 pm but since im still not plugging it into a card or something but into a firewire port does that still take away quality like the line in port or should it make the worlds difference still
Dec 04, 2005 04:08 pm Yea, but what in the ADC's, apart from better parts, make the firepod so much better? lol.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 04, 2005 05:36 pm I guess quieter and cleaner would be better discriptions of the differance. As far as I'm concerned my ESI units have better sound then the Firepod, a little purer I guess is how I would describe it. So I wont say the Firepod is so much better then anything other then a stock sound card.
I look back at some of the stuff flame did with nothing more then the stock sound card and the little plastic mic that comes with a PC and you would be amazed at those who wouldnt know it was done on the cheap like that.
For me the price is worth it for the little bit lower noise floor and the better quality audio going in and out. As I do still tranfer to tape on occasion I like having the better outputs for use doing that.
Not sure if that is what you were diggin for CS but thought I'd give it a shot.
Dec 04, 2005 05:40 pm I know the quality of the parts and the heat they produce will contribute to 'active' specs like the noise floor, but what makes one ADC/DAC sound better than another? Is it the way it processes audio? I mentioned the quolity of the world clock and drivers, but what else?
Dec 04, 2005 05:42 pm YOU TRANSFER TO TAPE!!!
*wipes tear from eye*
That's beautiful Noize.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 04, 2005 05:57 pm I guess it boil's down to the digital cirquitry in the chip itself. Higher quality manufacturing standard's make for higher quality end product. So I would say that yes, the way it processes audio would be a large percentage of what makes one chip better then another. You get what you pay for in those situation's.
Companies like Emu/Creative are not using high end chips and selling units that cheap. They are calining to use the same chip in PT HD system's. What they arent telling you is they are the chip's that are being rejected for use with those systems, so rather then scarp them as they are perfectly good chips, just sub standard for the PT HD processing. They use em somewhere else.
And yes, I still have some peep's who seem to think a cassette is the way to go for bringing a demo to someone, as its analog. Alot of my older stuff is still on tape as well, never transfered to the digital world yet.
ollielMember
Since: Dec 22, 2005
Dec 23, 2005 05:20 pm if im going from a mixer>fx unit>sound card
do you think the audiohpile 2496 is a good option?
Also, ive got two unbalanced aux sends on my mixer, L and R, should if use both, and put them into the two L and R mono's ins on the soundcard? or is there a better way, because i dont have sub outs.
cheers, ollie
ollielMember
Since: Dec 22, 2005
Dec 23, 2005 05:36 pm i need a soundcard from 50-70 quid, really on a budget here. I really wanted to stay analogue, bit soundcards and pc are much more reasonable option.
cheers, ollie.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 23, 2005 06:06 pm Indeed the M-Audio 2496 is and excellant option. You might also look at in the same price range the ESI Juli@ here. www.esi-pro.com
That is the card dB uses, and as well I use 2 differant types of their bigger interfaces.
2k20Member
Since: Nov 29, 2007
Nov 29, 2007 02:11 am Deleted By Noize2u
