This has been bugging me for years!

[dgatwood]

I've used the SB Live 24-bit card for years. Only difference I heard was more noise and less clarity. If you're hearing a "hollow" sound or other noticeable effect then something isn't hooked up right.

Agreed. My guess would be a pair of bookshelf speakers wired out of phase.

 

[alexofsalmacis]

I'm using Logic Audio Silver.

It seems like I've got some random problem that might well be the result of my inexperience at putting a studio together. I was only 17 at the time! And I was just desperate to get on with the music so probably didn't think things through for long enough. I'll definitely take more time in planning my setup when I upgrade. Thanks for your help everyone!

Alex

 

[SonicAlbert]

Agreed. My guess would be a pair of bookshelf speakers wired out of phase.

But if the speakers are out of phase it would sound the same when recording as when playing back, since he's listening on the same speakers in both cases.

He could be somehow playing back a doubled signal, phasing out much of the audio. Not sure how that would happen, but the "hollow" sound definitely is a symptom of that.

 

[dgatwood]

But if the speakers are out of phase it would sound the same when recording as when playing back, since he's listening on the same speakers in both cases.

Well, you're assuming that they're being hooked up consistently each time. If you have speaker wires that are separate wires, whichever way you hook them up, you've got a 50/50 shot at being in phase with each other.

He could be somehow playing back a doubled signal, phasing out much of the audio. Not sure how that would happen, but the "hollow" sound definitely is a symptom of that.

Yeah. Could be. Or it could be a bug in the drivers for the card or in Logic causing one channel to be offset from the other slightly.

 

[Trell Blaze]

Software doesn't matter? So if I record into an 8bit program, there'd be no difference, eh? Yea right...

As the guy stated, he's new at this. Most of you are assuming he has a good grasp of how audio works. No offense to Alex, but he could be %100 clueless when it comes to this sort of thing...

 

[danny.guitar]

Software doesn't matter? So if I record into an 8bit program, there'd be no difference, eh? Yea right...

As the guy stated, he's new at this. Most of you are assuming he has a good grasp of how audio works. No offense to Alex, but he could be %100 clueless when it comes to this sort of thing...

If you read my post you would have seen that I said software is irrelevant except for sample rate & bit depth, which in reality, is actually more about the hardware (the software just tells the interface what sample rate/bit depth to use).