bought condenser mic and still have bad recordings [please help]

[myaccomplice]

I went out and bought a condenser mic (Audio technica AT2020) with a tube preamp and have that hooked up to my line in jack on my computer (that might be the obvious reason, it doesn't seem like it is blowing up my sound card or anything, I have the gain to 0 and the level up only a little.) and I get to eq'n and mixing them in acid and soundforge and the outcome is just crap (take a listen, www.meandmyaccomplice.tk , the "Rainbows" and "HRT" songs are recorded with the new condenser. the internet versions is only 64kb/s but trust me, the wav doesn't sound much better) Is there are any advice that someone can give me that I can get a better sound with the setup I've got? Thanks

 

[noisedude]

Do tonnes of reading. Gear is only a part of the equation ... although getting a proper sound card will make a huge amount of difference. Go the Sound on Sound website a search for an article called 'Peak Fitness' - the most important gain staging article you will ever read, and will help you understand how to use your preamp properly.

 

[EleKtriKaz]

You might want to consider upgrading your soundcard. Going line-in to whatever soundcard your computer came with is not going to sound very good no matter what mics or preamps you're using.

You've got a lot of noise and distortion going on there. It sounds to me like it's the soundcard. It doesn't really sound like you're overloading the preamp, so again I would suggest looking into a new soundcard/convertors.

P.S. Noisedude...I love your signature line. Heard the new album the other day. Dave Sardy did most of the production/mixing...sounds pretty good, kind of a throwback sound.