AD/DA conversion question?

N

Nathan1984

New member
Ok, I am not really a noob, I have been doing this for a while, but I wanna get opinions from guys with more experience than I. Ok, my question is, what is the point of having outboard converters? I have in my rack a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and an ADA8000 AD/DA converter. I wanna know what is the point of actually having like an RME converter or like a Rosetta? What does it really do? If that makes sense, everyone tells me if I want bigger and better sound, that converters make a difference. How would I use an outboard converter with my pro 40? I don't know where to start on this, let me make this clear, I understand what a converter does, it takes your analog signal in and converts it to digital, then back out as an analog path again via AD/DA. But what effect does having better converters make on your sound, how can it make or break a great recording?
 
Of all the things that can improve or mess up a recording....the converters are at the bottom of the list.

The only up-side to most standalone converters is that they are not married to a preamp/DI/mixer setup like so many all-in-one-boxes.....so then the converter is there just to convert, and you can pick-n-choose your other signal chain pieces as needed.

For the average home rec guy, all-in-one boxes seem to be the norm.

Also. if you are doing a lot of channels and/or mixing OTB instead of ITB....odds are if you need a lot of AD/DA channels, it will come on standalone converters, though there are a lot of 8-channel all-in-one boxes these days...but like if you need 24/32/48...etc. AD/DA channels ate one time, you are better off having standalone converters, rather than using all-in-on boxes....so it depends on your rig and your needs.

AFA as the pure AD/DA conversion....most decent converters will be about the same, and often what separates them are maybe pro features for dealing with the conversion options, etc...but soundwise, you ain't gonna tell a lot of difference.
 
Are you kidding? For this style, you could give the paid engineers a tip or two. Somehow you resisted the definition destroying, layer cake of mud sound

The drums sound a bit small, but for this style they sound bigger than normal. You seem to have already discovered the necessity for a mid heavy drum sound at this speed.

Only thing I could nitpick would be getting the vocals to sound more like part of the same mix, but often in this style, the floating vocal is desired, so I don't know

You won't get jack diddly improvement from converters in this case

And +++ what miroslav said
 
Thanks man, yeah I just do a lot of comparing and such, it may be a lack of sub bass or something. It just doesn't seem to hit me in the chest quite as much as I'd like, I am thinking about buying a couple of outboard compressor/limiters to use for the mastering stage. I used Ozone 5 on this I believe, with alittle more analog, it should bring it to life alittle more, then again I'm still learning new stuff with Ozone 5, I may make this huge sounding yet lol.
 
I just want to reiterate what Miro said about standalone converters; they are the last hurdle a home recordist/prosumer level type should be dealing with. There are so many other aspects to address before converters. Your mixing room and monitoring environment should be near or at the top of the list. Mics and Mic pres are up there too.

I used to have the very top of the line converters and the very bottom of the line converters (Lavry vs Phonic) and there really wasn't a huge noticeable difference between the two. But my mics aren't great, my room is a compromise and my mixing/mastering skills are a work in progress. If I were in a pro studio, I might hear more of a difference in the converters, but with what 90% of the people at this site do, which converters you use doesn't matter. Albeit, so long as they aren't the converters in your Realtek soundcard. :D
 
Through the eyes of the Dead- the entire malice album. Jamie King, the producer of that album and I are friends, and he swears that it comes down to alittle analog magic. He used an Avalon 747 comp with a mastering mod done to it for that master. I love the full sound that it has, I just feel my mix and master work is miles from that.
 
Two things I notice off the bat: The entire beginning of the snare is compressed or limited to be the same volume as the body, but the body is short

The Low mids of the guitar are extremely controlled dynamically and then boosted. This could be done with a multiband compressor, but often is done with an empirical labs distressor and then eq'd after

Scott Stillwell's Rocket would be good for this The Rocket | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound
 
I'm of the opinion that converters are fairly important...not as important as the pre-amp perhaps, but important nonetheless. That said, if you want a "bigger" sound, I doubt converters will accomplish that. Seems like a mix thing to me.
 
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