Help! Sound quality onm Cakewalk/SB Live

S

Strummer

New member
Hey all...

It´s been a while since I came here the last time. This is such a nice place for information, you can learn a lot here. Hope you can help me with this one.. :-)

I´m recording some ideas, sketches of songs, on my computer. I only use one electric guitar, and since it´s just me doing each part at a time (base guitar, solos, fills, etc), and I´m on a budget, I figured I didn´t need a multi input card and bought the SB Live. And I have Cakewalk 8 Express installed.

The problem is, my recordings don´t sound good at all.. I tried doing DI, but the signal is too weak and I would need a preamp I think... so my setup at this moment is as follows:

guitar--crybaby (wah)--danelectro fx--marshall amp--SB Live (thru the Line Out jack of the amplifier).

The guitar sound recorded is not bright or clear.. it´s like it´s made on a mini-cassette recorder... like, mono and of poor quality. Also, Cakewalk will only let me play 4 tracks at a time.

What I want to know is, should I dump the SB Live? I read it´s only 16-bit, while there are 24-bit cards out there.. could this be it? I think i´ll post somewhere a small mp3 of the music I´m recording so whoever´s interested can check it out.

Strummer
 
Actually the SB Live has 18-bit converters... if your recordings sound thin and lifeless, it's probably not the SB Live. If you ditch it and get a fancier 24-bit audio card, you'll just have thin and lifeless-sounding recordings that are clearer and more detailed. More likely it's your signal chain. DI out of an amp's Line Out usually sounds pretty bad until you do something to the recorded signal, like run it through some delay or a tube mic preamp. So that's one thing you can do -- record dry and them muck with the sopund with DirectX plug-ins after it's recorded. There are some amp simulators like the Cakewalk's that can put in some of the sense of the sound being miked from a cabinet... there are some that add tubelike "warmth" to the sound to smooth off its shinyness... and of course there's all the usual battery of effects -- delay, reverb, chorusing, EQ...

If that still doesn't cut the mustard you can try something like the POD or J-Station that have digital models of what well-recorded amps actually sound like, and they are pretty uncanny unless you are a super-purist, and so-o-o-o easy to work with...

Finally there's the real thing -- a Shure SM-57 pointed at the speaker of a great amp in a great room, with another mic to capture some of the room's resonances... hours and hours experimenting with mic positions trying to get it just that little bit closer to heaven... :)

Anyway, I encourage you to post a sample on the MP3 Clinic forum here and you'll probably get all kinds of great suggestions from people much more experienced than I am...

Oh, one more thing... 4 tracks is a drag -- I'd pitch the Cakewalk Express and try something better... there's several good choices under $100 like n-Track or Cakewalk Home Studio or Cubasis...
 
Hi Al,

Thanks for your reply (man I love this "Force of Nature" thing :-))

I took your advice and downloaded n-Track. I know this makes no sense but I think the quality is way better than on Cakewalk! And I´m doing the same thing (or maybe I didn´t use the Crybaby this time, can´t remember) but I think the recorded sound was much better. A little too low i think, would have to normalize it. And I think it doesn´t have the 4-track limitation. Have to test it more!

Also, I posted a sketch of song I had recorded (on Cakewalk)
which I think sounded lifeless and muddy. If you could check it out (it´s just 1.3 Mb) to see if the problem is in the signal chain or on the SB Live. I posted it on the Clinic as well.



Thx!
 
There are a few reasons why N-Track might sound better than Cakewalk, but I want to point out two things about guitar recording in general that may help you get a better sound.

Firstly, most modern electric guitar sounds are attained using stereo overdubs. Whatever you record on the guitar, you should then record exactly the same thing again, and pan one hard left, and the other hard right. The closer you match the two tracks, the better.. but sometimes slight deviations lead to really nice effect -- play with it, you will see.

The following songs by my band were recorded using that technique: http://www.mp3.com/ebonyrun

Grave, Alright Now, Treason, Y115BX, Cockroach.

Waiting had an acoustic guitar, and was recorded using the same technique, and then overdubbed (at a VERY low level) with a clean electric recorded using the same technique.

Secondly, you really should play through and amplifier and Mic it.. direct outs leads to artifacts that are generally ugly in the recording, and you don't get the emphasis that a good cabinet gives you.

If you really want to record without micing, use a POD cabinet emulator.

I also co-produced a band looking for a BIG ALTERNATIVE METAL sound. The first three tracks on their web page were recorded using two seperate stacks. One custom built by the guitarist and another that we had in the studio.. A total of four guitar tracks were recorded for the rhythm guitarist, and then mixed in some interesting ways for cool effect.. For big sound, check out: http://www.mp3.com/tallman
 
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