sound in/sound out

[andyhix]

I am a non-computer recordist, for the record, hence the following question:

I can certainly understand that a decent souncard/audio interface is critical for getting a good sound into the computer, but is it that important for the playback?

What I'm getting at is if I were to have tracks recorded on computer A, which is basically setup specifically for recording, and then wanted to mix on computer B with stock soundcard, would I be in trouble?

 

[Robert D]

Well, yes and no. No, because the audio going through the inferior D/A converters is presumably not in the actual signal chain, all the way to burning a CD. Yes because you're making mixing decisions while effectively looking through dirty scratched up glasses, and can't hear or see properly what you're doing, or what needs doing. So, I think you'll find most AEs, pro or not, will tell you that good D/A, in fact the whole monitoring chain, is vitally important to mixing.

-RD

 

[gordone]

Photography analogy - Think of it as working on a nice RAW image in Photoshop. Now you can't find your glasses so you have to edit the image with everything looking fuzzy. Now the fact that you SEE the image as fuzzy/dull/whatever the world looks like to you without your glasses, the image is still presumably clear and sharp. How do you know what to tweak?