Help with Good Sound

[musicsdarkangel]

Dude, how does everyone get such a good sound?? I always have horrible fuzz in the backround, with noise gates, and everything. ERR, it sucks, I record on Cubase5, and with one mic, on a 20 bit project card. Yet the sound i get sucks, i also mic my drums with one. But theres noise on every channel, its horrible. Any adviceo?

[Krakit]

You never said.

[musicsdarkangel]

Shure SM57....shure being the brandname.

[BBB]

I also have had similar probs with Cubase so I'm curious about the repies. Fortunately, I only use Cubase for sequencing and use a standalone for audio.

[Cyrokk]

Plug an instrument, such as an electric guitar, directly into the sound card.. is the fuzz still there? Then ignore the rest of this post.. If the fuzz disappears, then...
you may need to boost your mic level to +48V in order for your soundcard to register the mics capacity.. try a mic preamp, either the one integrated in your mixer or a stand alone..

[Cyrokk]

Damn.. that's not right...

Correction: You need to plug an amplified guitar directly into the soundcard via the "preamp out" jack of the amplifier, which will bring the guitar up to line level..

Sorry for this misinfo.. Chalk it up to being past my bedtime...

[sjoko2]

Cubase itself is just software - it does not make any sounds.
So the noise you hear comes from your chain somewhere, or from your card.

Please describe your recording path in detail?

[musicsdarkangel]

i mic my amp (gx101) crate through a Sure SM57 that is connected into my Project Card (20 bit). Hmm, thats about it. I use headphones for monitoring cause i dunno, i just do, and it plugs into the 20 bit! wooh.

[OldGrover]

That would seem to me that you definitely need a preamp and then make sure that you are going from the line out of the preamp into the LINE IN of the soundcard. What is the soundcard?

I use Cubase 5 and I don't have any hiss or fuzz (well, except when a singer sings too close to the sm58 - then you get that weird proximity effect thing. Hmmm. How close is the SM58 to the amp?)

[sjoko2]

Insufficient-level-due-to-lack-of-pre-amp-syndrome-leading-to-maxing-out-of-input-level-wich-makes-noise.
Cure: One dose of preamplification.
Possible side effects: Loss of horrible noises and improved sounditus

[musicsdarkangel]

my mic is extremely close to the amp. touching it. Err, what does a pre amp do?? i never understood those?? what kinda controls do they have, and err, what do they do?

heh thanks.

[c7sus]

A preamp will boost the signal of the mic to something your soundcard can deal with a bit better. Also known as increased signal/noise ratio. Right now you're probably recording with your software faders on your inputs all the up..... right? So it's the noise of the card you are hearing when you hit RECORD. Boost the level of the mic's signal with a pre and you get more signal/lessnoise. UP TO A POINT! Overdo it and you get good old distortion.

[OldGrover]

Ok, so I think there is a consensus to get the preamp, then worry about mic placement and choice after that.

Probably since there is a grill on your amp, the proximity effect that I am talking about wouldn't come into play... but I could be wrong. I am just in trial and error mode myself

[JuSumPilgrim]

I dont know if this has an relevance or not but way back in the day when I was a teensy weensy little boy I recorded a song in cool edit (the very first version...my very first digital recording experience many years ago) and saved the wav files in a file format akin to real audio called nextsun. The sound quality was complete shite with fuzz in the background everywhere. So check your file format and make sure youre not doing something like that.

[sjoko2]

Where did you get an amp with a grill on it? Can you use it indoors?
Shouldn't that be cook'n'play instead of come in to play? That got me thinking, come in to play, must be an indoor grill. What happens to the fumes? Can you overload them? Will they distort? What do musical weeners taste like? Are they different when they grow up 'coz they hear music a lot? Like, cleverer and stuff?