Digital sound

R

rudalicious

New member
hello everyone,

i saw a thread similar to this but i have been searching forever and cant find it so i guess ill ask. I have delta 1010 running into home studio. I usually go through my yamaha board first then into the 1010. When i listen to the sound through the board it sounds really warm and full. Once it goes into the 1010 it sounds bland, plain and cold. I know digital isnt as warm as analog but surely there are a few things to get it a ltitle better. Do the levels need to be higher going into the 1010? Maybe i just need to work on eqing it a little better? Any advice would help a lot.

thanks
rudy
 
Digital sounds cold? What does cold sound like (maybe it's the sound of one ear clapping)? You may have more of a problem with your monitor system than anything else. I find I get back EXACTLY what I put into the mics. If it sounds good going in, that's exactly what comes back out of the monitors on playback.
 
Rudy - This probably isn't the case, but just in case...

Make sure that you're recording at LEAST 16-bit (or higher!) 44.1k (or higher) audio... If you're recording a low bit-rate, it's going to sound... Well... Cold.

Just in case...

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
rudalicious said:
I know digital isnt as warm as analog
Click to expand...
This is the biggest crock....... if you've got good converters, digital can compete and in some cases, exceed the sound quality of HIGH-END analog...... but even the crappiest digital converters will still outperform analog-based portastudios (which never represented "analog sound" in the first palce!)
 
I use a 1010 going in through an analog console and I get a great sound both on the way in and the way out recording 16Bit 44.1.

Not that it should matter if it sounds good on the way in but what are you monitoring on? If you're recording using headphones then playing back via nearfields that could be your answer. Either way the 1010 has good convertors.

Alec
 
well im not sure... its just that when i listen to headphones on the mixer it sounds nice and full.... then when i listen to the track on the same headphones in home studio it doesnt sound as full. a lot of bass is missing that cant just be eqed back into the track. I do have all the bitrates and everything set up right. I know i need monitors and im working on that but theoretically shouldnt the sound from the board to the phones be the same as the one from home studio into the phones? Maybe i need to turn up the signal going out of the mixer and turn down the trim in homestudio so the signal is louder going in. Well thanks for all your replies and thanks blue bear for straightening me out :)

Rudy
 
rudalicious said:
well im not sure... its just that when i listen to headphones on the mixer it sounds nice and full.... then when i listen to the track on the same headphones in home studio it doesnt sound as full.
Click to expand...

So your listening though two different playback systems?
That could explain a lot.
 
If you could clarify one thing.......

shouldnt the sound from the board to the phones be the same as the one from home studio into the phones
Click to expand...


Are you listening to the PHONE OUT of the board going in and then plugging into a different headphone output to hear what was recorded?????

...or are you monitoring the recorded sound through the board also????

If you are plugging your headphones into two different places it could make a BIG difference.

For that matter......where are you retuning your playback to???? and if you are using the Yamaha for both, what inputs are you returning the playback through??

And by "home studio" you are referring to Cakewalk Home Studio??

Not that that would really matter much.

Everyone above is correct..... digital is not inherently "cold" and if you are hearing a definite difference between what you are about to record and what actually gets recorded than the discrepency is almost certainly due to other factors than "digital" sound.

-mike
 
thanks for all of your posts... they were all really informative. I guess im just going to have to wait until i can buy some monitors or get something set up besides headphones.

thanks
Rudy
 
Rudy:
" ...it doesnt sound as full. a lot of bass is missing that cant just be eqed back into the track."

Hi Rudy,
This information sounds to me as if there may exist either a phasing problem and/or inter-modulation distortion. It is possible (although simplistic), that your speakers are "out of phase". Try reversing the positive and negative on ONE of your speakers only. Let me know if the bass & fullness returns. I'm curious. I realize this sounds over-simplistic, but the symptoms of your sound problem really seems as if this may be the case. If that doesn't solve the problem, it is possible that you may have recorded with a "phasing" problem. In that case, there is no quick fix. Let me know what happens. It is also possible that your arrangement may have inherent flaws (hopefully not), causing "inter-modulation distortion". This is NOT the same type of "distortion" as in: "speaker distortion", but rather when instuments and/or vocals are "too close" together - note or chord-wise. In this case, no severe amount of EQ will separate your tracks. Looking forward to the outcome.
Rick
 
There is a problem with the 1010 that might be causing you trouble without you being aware of it.
If you are using multiple mics at a time, going into multiple inputs in the back of the 1010, with any of the -10/+4 switches not set the same you will have some major phase issues.
Pushing in one of those switches will actuall flip the phase on that input (and not an even 180 degrees either).
This could very well contribute to your problem.
 
i dont think that you can do anything but a 180 degree polarity invert. i may be wrong though.

if that is the case though, that it's flipping the polarity, you can just flip it again
 
donkeystyle said:
i dont think that you can do anything but a 180 degree polarity invert. i may be wrong though.

if that is the case though, that it's flipping the polarity, you can just flip it again
Click to expand...

If only it were that easy. While it will improve the problem, it wont resolve it.

http://www.geocities.com/ghostofrobotpresent/ For more information.

The only way to not have this problem is to be consistent with the switches while recording.
 
thanks for all the replies... well i have narowed it down to somethign inbetween the mixer and the 1010 or the 1010 itself. I imported some files into cakewalk with no trouble. I was wondering about the corrent positiong of those switches. Usuallt I have 2 inputs from the mixer for L and R so that would make a lot of sense. Im going to check if the mixer is -10/+4 and then set the 1010 accordingly. Thanks everyone for all this info... i think im gettin closer :)
Ill post back soon

Rudy
 
LemonTree said:
the -10/+4 switch has nothing to do with signal polarity
Click to expand...

Correction, it's not SUPPOSED to have anything to do with signal polarity. Unfortunately, due to a defect, it does.
 
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