Does sonar have any bearing on sound quality?

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aka86

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Hey guys is there any settings within the Sonar program that has any influence on the quality of sound you get when recording - besides obviously FX and eq - I mean more like hardware/software settings. any help is appreciated, thanks
 
aka86 said:
Hey guys is there any settings within the Sonar program that has any influence on the quality of sound you get when recording - besides obviously FX and eq - I mean more like hardware/software settings. any help is appreciated, thanks
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People could argue that sample rate may make a difference.I always record in 44.1.Some like 48k then resample to 44.1 for cd. There are no settings I am aware of other than that.What is your issue?
 
I don't believe it does. I've never noticed any difference between the different softwares that I use. The only thing that might enhance the quality of sound is the recording chain going into Sonar...
 
my problem is a muffled sound almost like you would get if you sang with your mouth too close to an uncompressed mic or something - I have to eq out the lows and mids on my preamp as well as in sonar itself...it is ridiculous! something is wrong and its not the preamp which is a eureka presonus, shouldnt be the mic (AKG perception 400, and yes low end rolloff and all that are on) i dont think its the cables, and its not mic placement issues. the only other thing in the chain is my tascam us-144 which may be the culprit...so i was asking about sonar to make sure it wasnt driver or software related
 
Maybe Hardware related? Check your soundcard, your amp or your speakers. Also check the cables.

Sonar has a great sound quality, don't worry about it.

BTW The sampling rate helps, the higher the better. Maybe we don't hear the difference between a 48Khz and a 96 Khz on an individual file, but when you process each track, it is a calculation, so the more you process the more approximations you make, thus the higher definition you have at the beginning, the better result you get at the end.

T.
 
Did you use any other DAW software previous to Sonar? If not, perhaps this is the sound you have with your setup as is. I would suspect hardware. How do you have your gain set? How about the compression settings on the Eureka? Maybe the Eureka is defective?

Have you used the mic before with other hardware/software? If not, could the mic be the culprit?

As far as samples rates, I'd say to set it at 24 bit/44.1 khz and that should work fine. I've used this for quite awhile now and it sounds fine and works just fine if you're going to CD with your recordings.

I use Sonar 8 on a regular basis (have used Sonar since version 2), and I've only heard an improvements in regards to sound. In your situation, first thing I would think of is:

Is the mic funtioning properly.
What do my settings look like on the Eureka. Compressor settings.
 
its not my eureka as we had the problem before we bought that - I kind of bought the Eureka so I could use that as the primary amp and use "less" of the preamp in the Tascam (im not sure if it works that way) but we wanted a separate pre amp anyway. also it is not the mic unless it came faulty - it was this way straight out of the box brand new. also this problem happens to some degree with our SM57 we used before the AKG...so im suspecting either software like sonar...or the Tascam 144 which I already asked about on this board and peope said it may add some color to the tone but shouldnt effect the sound quality that much unless something is damaged...thoughts on this? thanks again guys you are all helpful
 
Not sure what else to offer up.

Sonar won't affect the sound unless you make it affect the sound (ie plug-ins, eq, etc.) A new install of Sonar wouldn't have any funky settings, but if you've messed with any settings previously, look into that.

What do you hear when you direct monitor (not through Sonar or after you've recorded in Sonar)?

Can you perhaps try other software? Maybe Reaper:
http://www.reaper.fm/
 
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