Mixers can affect audio fidelity ? or they are just consoles with the same porpouse ?

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underp

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I was trying to make some home recordings a time ago, with some old mics that i have at home. But i couldn't continue because of the audio fidelity.

Lot of people, told me that could be the mics, that i need to buy a good mics to get good sound. Well... I bought an SM-58 and a SM-57 recently, and the Sound still suc#s.

The Sound card can't be affecting this to much, cause i've been making some direct recordings with CD Players using the Line Out directly to the Line In of my computer and i get the exact same quality of the original CD.

That means, that my sound card is receiving the exact sound that is coming out from my console Mixer.

I tought, this was goind to be solved with good mics, but i still don't undertsand.

Console mixers are just equipments with same porpouse, or they can affect audio fidelity ?
 
We should be able to get to the bottom of your problem without much problem at all.

First off... you need to give us way more information.

-What type of console are you using?
-What are you trying to record?
-Are you practicing proper gain staging?
-What is your soundcard?
-What's the specs of your computer system?
-What software are you using to record?

Now a few questions to rule things out...
-Are you filling your console with clean signal from the source material (mics) with out clipping?
-Are you sending an appropriate amount of signal into the PC without ever hitting 0dB?
-What are you using to monitor your incoming levels?
-Are you positive that you are recording at either 16 bit or 24 bit with a 44.1 or higher sampling rate? (You sure wouldn't get to great of sound quality if you are recording at 8bit mono!)
-Are you positive that the output of your console is going into 'line in' and not 'mic in' on your sound card?

let me know the answers to some of these and it will narrow your problem right down.

ls

BTW... why the hell would you want to record a CD via a cd-player > line in of your soundcard??? Why don't you just put the CD into your CDROM and image the bugger?
 
recording line level sources like a CD player is different from recording a microphone.

when you record microphones, you go through your console's mic-preamp. for the mics you mentioned you must have a console with phantom power.

so:

what's your mixer?

what's your soundcard?

ps. lost studios is right. why aren't you using the CD player built into the PC?
 
I have a Phonic Pro-mixing Console 8x2, ADI 1885 sound card.

I'm using Cool Edit pro 2, 48khz 16-bit Stereo.

I'm trying to record an acoustic guitar.

P4 1.7, 512ram, XP , Dx9.

Everything is hitting the red mark in my console.

--------------------------------

I beleive that poor fidelity could be only because of the sound card or the mixer.

So... that's why i want to know if mixers affect audio fidelity.

I don't want to waste my money in a new sound card, if i'm going the get the same sound.
 
Well here's a quick test for you... Plug the output of your console to some speakers or monitors... if you don't have any, throw on a pair of headphones... How's it sound at that point? Well if it sounds good, then you should it expect it to sound nearly identical to that when you track it if you're recording at the resolution that you've mentioned. If it sounds terrible in your mixer, then either you have some sort of gainstaging problem or a problem with the mixer.

BTW... what does "bad" sound like? Crackles? Background noise? Hiss? etc.

ls
 
If you get a great mixer/pre/microphone and plug it into your inexpensive soundcard, you'll lose all the great fidelifty provided by your upgrade gear. If you stick with the cheap mic/mixer and upgrade your soundcard, you'll have an accurate portrayal of your cheap mic/mixer. Your entire sound will be limited by the weakest link in your chain.

All of this is a balancing act when you can't afford the "best" of every component. Eventually you'll want to upgrade everything in your path, but if you only upgrade one piece, you'll quickly see the limitations of the other pieces. Good luck!
 
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