Far awayness going from boss 864 to comp.

[ihaveasecret9]

i have been recording on my boss 8-64 for a little over a year now and after i listen to them on the boss, they sound fine, but once they go onto the computer they sound hollow and far away and no good. im using both a compression mic and going directly in to two tube preamps and then into the boss. is the far away sound happening because im going from the boss to the computer and if so, is there any way i can fix that?

 

[Dr Biscuits]

Does the "far awayness" you're talking about sound like a phase problem?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Or is the "far awayness" just a lack of volume?

G.

 

[ihaveasecret9]

well the volume is as loud as i can make it without it peaking too much on my computer and causing it to sound bad.

im not really sure what a phase problem is...it might be that but could you explain it for me?

 

[surfmaster]

what kind of soundcard do you have on your computer? make sure your not plugging it into the mic jack of your comp. i had done that for a while back when i had a fostex fd-8, and that sounded miserable, and like you, i thought it sounded better right from the fd-8. so check out your sound card, you might need a better quality one, or just make sure to use your line in.

 

[gordone]

How are you going from your Boss to your PC? Be specific

 

[ihaveasecret9]

well im just using the usb port from the boss into the usb port of my computer and uploading the files that way. after i upload them all as wave files onto my computer i put it into cakewalk and mess with it. is there anything in the cakewalk 9 program that could help my problem, or should i upgrade to a newer version of the program?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

is there anything in the cakewalk 9 program that could help my problem, or should i upgrade to a newer version of the program?

The program version won't matter.

What matters is that we still have no idea what you mean by "far awayness". Can't propose a solution until the problem can be diagnosed, and "far awayness" is an awfully vague description that we don't know how to interpret.

G.

 

[Dr Biscuits]

When audio is out of phase, it sounds very "hollow" and weird and distant (if you play guitar, you're probably familliar with the intentional 'phaser' effect)... if there's conflicts with the wiring (what's + and -) you could be putting your signal out of phase going into the computer...
Even though you will most likely experience poorer sound by transferring to a cheap Soundblaster or whatever, the problem you're describing seems to be more than just a crappy soundcard...
Before that though, here's an obvious question to ask - are you monitoring the 8-64 and the computer with the same equipment (same headphones or speakers)?

 

[ihaveasecret9]

no im actually using headphones on my boss, and speakers on my computer.

maybe if you listen to one of my songs you will know what im talking about.

i dont think its out of phase becasue it doesnt sound like a phaser, it just sounds distant, not weird.

here's a site where you can hear my stuff.

purevolume.com/painismycompanion

 

[ihaveasecret9]

no im actually using headphones on my boss, and speakers on my computer.

maybe if you listen to one of my songs you will know what im talking about.

i dont think its out of phase becasue it doesnt sound like a phaser, it just sounds distant, not weird.

here's a site where you can hear my stuff.

purevolume.com/painismycompanion

 

[gummblefish]

it sounds to me like something has happened when converting to mp3, the quality is pretty bad, you can hear the whistly noise, which im nearly sure is a conversion thing. and yes it does sound like it is far away..well sort of.

 

[gummblefish]

actually im nearly sure this is a conversion thing, have you tried just straight conversion to mp3 from wave instead of going into cakewalk? if so how does it sound?...when you go into cakewalk and 'mess about' with it what are you doing exactly? adding compression reverb?...not used properly these can really make your recordings sound far away. if you bring the file into cake walk as a wav file dont convert it to aiff or other keep it as a wav file, and also dont convert the sample rate until you have to convert to 16 bit for the final master for mp3..check the sample rate of cakewalk and of the boss thing, does the boss 864 work on a non compressed format? why not just make a stereo master onto the computer through your sound card, see if thats any better.

 

[ihaveasecret9]

well you see, my cakewalk only accepts wave files from my boss. i cant put the tracks on my computer any other way than wav and cakewalk won't accept them any other way. and i have to go to cakewalk in order to put the song together because i can only upload one track at atime from my boss, i can't upload the whole song at once. all i do in cakewalk is just mix it and sometimes boost volume on some parts or whatever i need to do to it. i haven't messed with compression or anything like that becasue im not really sure how it works and my program is really old and i don't think it has compression.

what exactly is the sample rate?

and im not sure what kind of format the boss runs on but i can check...

also, what do you mean by making a stereo master onto my computer through the sound card, im sorry im really new at this stuff.

 

[Farview]

Why are all the vocals on the left?

What are you using to make the guitar stereo?

It sounds like you are doing something strange with the panning.

 

[surfmaster]

the bad mp3 conversion might just be the purevolume encoder's fault. they never sounded right to me.

 

[gummblefish]

yeah what i meant by a stereo master was record the mix as you play it direct from the line out to your computer via the line in. i find it odd that you cant upload the whole song at once, surely you can bounce the tracks down into 2 track stereo and upload that. btw sample rate is the number of recorded samples per second.

 

[ihaveasecret9]

yea i dont understand why i cant do a stereo master either, but im positive you can't.

do you think the quality would be better if i bounced the tracks down into a two track stereo and then transferred it to my computer?

 

[gummblefish]

not sure mate but it just seems odd to record a song in a portable recorder then transfer it to an external system one track at a time via usb, i would think that you can export the whole song, did software come with the boss, im guessing it did... on the other hand i do alot of 'field' recording with 4 tracks and the like and then load it up on to my computer for extra tracking at home. I thought the boss 864 would have track outputs for attaching a separate mixer, but obviously not...but like i said why not record to your computer from the stereo line out if you are not happy with the conversion...or record the parts and do your final mix without effects or pans and then up load the files to cakewalk and do your mix

 

[Farview]

You can do a stereo mixdown internally. The unit would be useless if you couldn't. Look in the manual again or call customer support. The whole point of a studio-in-a-box is that you have a studio in a box. That includes mixdown and some mastering tools.