Where does MIDI Recording Quality comes from?

R

Red Yhem

New member
Hello,There is something that needs clarification in my head.


First of all , I appologise for my writting , my everyday language is French.

I am creating music using sample based virtual instruments.
When I play with an instrument , it's sounds good.
Once I record it into the daw , I lose quality.
I would like to be sure of where that quality loss comes from.

Does my DAC takes charge of that recording or is it just the DAW ?

If it's the DAC , a teacher told me that the difference between a MIDI recording with a 200 euro DAC at the same sample and bit rate than a 3000 euro DAC won't have a big difference.
I am wondering if what he said is true because if it is , I don't really see where the problem comes from.

There is this SRC thing that is still a bit blurred to me that could be the answer.
I am actually making music on Cubase and it's SRC graphic is not really clean. Does it dirty my sound when I record or export it ? or is it really just when I down sample or up sample a song ?

I don't care that much of the audio quality that comes out from my speackers , I just want the internal sound that everyone will heard on their audio equipment to be at best as possible.

Thanks in advance for anyone who will take time to help me.
Any advice for improving internal audio quality is very welcome.​
 
I don't speak French, but I'll try to keep the language simple.
I'll start the discussion but those after me may know French and perhaps can understand your question better.
MIDI is not audio. So when you "record MIDI", there is no quality to lose. It simple transfers MIDI commands. Playing a MIDI instrument yourself and playing a MIDI instrument by the computer will sound absolutely identical because the computer is playing the instrument. In that case, the computer is not involved in the audio.
Often, the computer is part of the audio. MIDI does not matter in this case. The audio could come from a MIDI instrument or a zither, it does not matter.
If your audio sounds different in playback, there are other problems that are not related to MIDI.
If I understand your question, you are playing MIDI and recording the audio. The playback is imperfect. Again, this is not a MIDI question, this is an audio question and the solution will be found in your setup or in your procedure.
I keep MIDI as MIDI data right up to the very last possible step in mixing and dedicate it to audio only when it must be done for the mix. In my brain, it's cleaner this way.

Ponder5
 
Bonjour Red! (that iis about the limit of my schoolboy French so I won't try again!)

Your English is very good indeed, I have little trouble understanding what you are saying but you have fallen into the "noob" trap of not giving us precise information about the equipment.

You say "Recording into Cubase". How exactly? If the (?) synth is making its own sounds and you are recording MIDI data then the playback from Cubase WILL differ because you are using the internal software to reproduce the audio FROM MIDI data. By "differ" I mean probably worse!

People pay 100s of Eros for sample programs of instruments running to many gig bytes of hard drive space (indeed, some of the really big sample programs are supplied on an HDD!) The reason for this is to get THE best quality they can.

If instead you are recording the AUDIO from the keyboard there might be some problem in that hook up but to help you we need to know the make&model of synth and the audio interface.

As an example, say you want a very good concert piano sound? I doubt the one in Cubase is top class so download the free trial of "Modartt Pianoteq" That is really nice and they are nice people to deal with (might even be French?!!)

As an aside. I have a very musical son playing and teaching guitar in Le Havre and surrounding towns. He is very fluently bi-lingual now so if there is a problem I could run stuff past him. Technical music terms he will be able to translate. Technical computer or electronics, not so good!

Dave.
 
The sample based instruments - what are they? If you use them as a stand alone instrument, as many of mine can be used - they have EXACTLY the same sound quality as when they are played internally via Cubase. If they sound worse, then something in your DAW is causing it. The Digital to Analogue converters are the same ones used for the stand alone and cubase operation - or at least should be, assuming that Cubase is using the same driver - if you have any interface attached, then Windows (or iOS) will use that, as will Cubase. However - it is possible Cubase is NOT set to use your quality interface and is using something else - which could degrade the sound. I suspect your problem is in the way you have the system set up. Your monitor system is as important as the Rec wording system, because this is the only way you can assess sound. An excellent internal quality system with rubbish amp and speakers won't let you make sensible decisions on mix, quality, balance, blend, and eq.


Probably the best is to draw a diagram of how you have everything set up and connected outside the computer, and double check that your computer AND cubase are accessing the same DAC. Then, your monitors will give you the same sound quality from within Cubase and outside it. My Cubase system has ABSOLUTELY no difference in audio quality no matter what audio applications I run.
 
Ah! Yes Rob! A lot of stuff defaults to Windows Wave Table Synth and that ain't good!

Dave.
 
Thanks for your reply.
So can you confirm me that the DAC that you use won't affect the quality of the sound of a midi recording ? (in exeption of the handling of the wanted sample and bit rate)
The quality of your DAC will only affect the quality that you get to your monitors , not the quality of the sound itself , right?
 
Hello ecc83 ! thanks for the commitment to help me.
My synth don't produce sound , it's a Komplete Kontrol S49 and I use quality virtual instruments such as Kontakt's Orchestra library and MusicLab's Guitars (my problem is present on whatever vst I use)
I was wondering if the DAC (Steinberg UR22mkII set on 24bits/96khz) had an impact on the quality of the midi recording (just by pressing rec in cubase and playing with the synth) because there is a difference between the live sound quality and the playback sound quality.
 
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