Help with degraded digi playback...

  • Thread starter Thread starter jeffmaher
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jeffmaher

jeffmaher

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A lot of the criticism I get in my recordings is that they sound "dull".

I was just recording a thumb-slap bass part...through the monitors, feeding undigitized analog signal, it sounded really nice. I did a 10 second digital recording of the sound, and played it back...UGH!!

It sounds 'dull'. The sparkle is major gone...and I reckon all my tracks are similarly whacked when played back....except not to the degree apparent on the bass. I never noticed how bad the boxiness happened before. Or mebbe my ears are getting better.

I'm using Sonar 3.3, recording at 24/48. The signal is going through the same chain live as played back, except that the information is digitized in a computer file, and transferred back to analog by the Echo II soundcard.

I'm desperate to know where the awfullness is happening. Likely the soundcard? The platform's routine for storing the data?? My understanding is that Sonar was always lauded for it's organic-sounding and truthful 'read' for storage of digital information: which leaves me thinking that the soundcard is crap..or not working as it should. Or could the problem be elsewhere?

I'm faced with the possibility of spending a wad on a better soundcard, and not improving the playback quality...taking things to the next level.

Anyone fix a similar thing? TIA.
 
I started off on a AWE64 and now have a Fireface 800. Although the fireface specifications is streets ahead of the soundblaster to be honest you can still mix a good sounding track on any card if you position the individual tracks correctly within the frequency spectrum. If everything is competing for the same space it will always sound mad.

The book the Art of Mixing by George Petersen was a great help for me with regard to understanding how to position tracks correctly.

Electric Eddy.
 
Nope...has nothing to do with buildup in a mix. This is a soloed playback of a single track. I can A/B it: play some notes through the system [the elec bass is direct...the speakers are on] and listen while I record them..then immediately play back the same few seconds. The degradation is ...a WICKED lot!

I need some guidance before I go spend cash on stuff that might not help!

My intuition is that it's a crappy SC. But there might be a glitch in the digi-audio storage format??? Idunno!
 
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