Judkins401
New member
I made an interesting, but annoying discovery tonight that my audio signals are being degraded, pretty noticibly through USB. I’m hoping you guys can help me figure this out. This may be long. I apologize!!
I just bought a Kemper Profiling Amp and was playing with some settings as none of the modeled guitar amps sounded very good inside my DAW. What I realized after hours of tinkering was that the Kemper sounded like crap in the daw, but actually sounded really good through the monitors when they weren’t connected to the computer.
My kemper was plugged into a Tascam US16x8 interface which was plugged into my Windows PC. I use Reaper as my DAW, so kemper to daw, daw out to studio monitors. This gave me a lack luster sound.
When I eliminated the computer, and just played the kemper into the Interface, and out directly to monitors, it sounded great.
So I tried a different interface, a Berringher 404. Same exact result. Bad sound in Daw, great sound with no PC connection
Both interfaces, reaper, and windows audio settings and sample rates were the same. So to rule out a computer issue, I then plugged both interfaces into my MacBook Pro, and had the same result with both. I experimented and played a few songs from an MP3 player into the interface next. The songs sounded fine in the daw, I would have never thought anything of the audio quality, but when I played directly though the monitors, just like the kemper, the audio was MUCH better! This leads me to believe all of my audio, in and out via USB is degraded and although not bad, or even noticeable until I experimented today, it’s not nearly the same quality.
Can anyone explain this? I did try 2 USB cables. Neither are premium, I ordered a higher quality one (cinnamon) on Amazon but it’ll be a few days and from my google research it “shouldn’t” make a difference either way. Is this just a USB thing in general? Does USB degrade audio signals, and if so, what’s is a better option for home recording?
Thank you for your time and any suggestions!
I just bought a Kemper Profiling Amp and was playing with some settings as none of the modeled guitar amps sounded very good inside my DAW. What I realized after hours of tinkering was that the Kemper sounded like crap in the daw, but actually sounded really good through the monitors when they weren’t connected to the computer.
My kemper was plugged into a Tascam US16x8 interface which was plugged into my Windows PC. I use Reaper as my DAW, so kemper to daw, daw out to studio monitors. This gave me a lack luster sound.
When I eliminated the computer, and just played the kemper into the Interface, and out directly to monitors, it sounded great.
So I tried a different interface, a Berringher 404. Same exact result. Bad sound in Daw, great sound with no PC connection
Both interfaces, reaper, and windows audio settings and sample rates were the same. So to rule out a computer issue, I then plugged both interfaces into my MacBook Pro, and had the same result with both. I experimented and played a few songs from an MP3 player into the interface next. The songs sounded fine in the daw, I would have never thought anything of the audio quality, but when I played directly though the monitors, just like the kemper, the audio was MUCH better! This leads me to believe all of my audio, in and out via USB is degraded and although not bad, or even noticeable until I experimented today, it’s not nearly the same quality.
Can anyone explain this? I did try 2 USB cables. Neither are premium, I ordered a higher quality one (cinnamon) on Amazon but it’ll be a few days and from my google research it “shouldn’t” make a difference either way. Is this just a USB thing in general? Does USB degrade audio signals, and if so, what’s is a better option for home recording?
Thank you for your time and any suggestions!