wattzamatter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NeoMatriX
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NeoMatriX

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hi guys its me again. Well this time I have a technical question. I just bought a new mic and its sounds great. The problem that I have however is that a get a good sound when I plug the head phones directly to my mixer, but when I lay vocal trax on my vs840 its gone. Don't get me wrong I still have a pretty good sound coming from the vs840 but not as good as I hear it on headphones pluged into the mixer. Same thing goes with my music. I sequence music on Cakewalk and then dump onto the vs840 (stereo) and it somehow loses quality. Could it be a bad connection somewhere or maybe better mixing or what?

Any help is appreciated.
 
What do you mean by loses quality?

Also, when you are listening to the playback, are you using the same headphones?
 
I suspect that you are recording with your input levels too low.
 
1)

Well, I am thinking about getting a mic preamp. You guys know how much they go for? What brand do you recommend?

2)

What do you mean loses quality?


Well by that I mean that it doesn't sound the same. See, when I use the headphones straight out of the mixer I get a clear, warm sound, but it all seems to dissapear when I record vocals onto the ROland vs840.

The same thing with my music. When I monitor my sequence using my headphones (same headphones by the way!) I get a nice sound. but when I hear it out loud through my monitors its not as good. Could it be the headphones?

3)

As far as low levels, I'll have to play around with it and let you know what I come up with.

Thanx
 
When you play it back, are your eq settings the same as when you were just monitoring through the mixer?..... I wonder if theres a problem with your hardrive... Digital is digital, and recordings should sound relatively the same as your monitoring... (barring problems)
 
well I know that my monitors are telling me the truth, I mean, thats what I got them for in the first place right.

Maybe the headphones aren't the right ones to use for monitoring?


ANy advice?


Voxvendor, yes my eq settings are the same.

see ya!,
 
Well it depends on how much you wanna spend on a pre amp. I have joe meek vc1q that I use and I think sounds great.I think i paid like $700 for it.How much you planning on speading?
 
I was actually thinking of buying that same one. It looks pretty COol! and I've heard good things about it.

Its also around the range I'm willing to spend so I'll definitely look into it.

Now how about headphones. What would be a good pair for use in the studio.
 
You could try recording the mic with the pre of the mixer. Easily done if you have inserts or direct outs on the board. If not... euh... you... euh... take the soldering... iron... and ... euh... well... euh... a nice pair ... of... euh...scissors... and ... euh ... a pair of zircon encrusted tweezers... :D

Well, if not, you can try just recording the output of the mixer. A standalone micpre will sound better, offcourse, but trying this won't cost you schnitzels...

And make sure you record the input as LOUD as possible. I made the same mistake... long time ago... (2 months? :D )
 
If I am right, then the vs840 does a-d conversions, so basically the sound you get from the mixer has not gone through any a-d conversions, but from the 840 has gone through those conversions.

As someone said, if your levels are too low going into the 840, you are not using all your available bits, and it might sound kinda grainy. also. the a-d converters might not be up to par, but I doubt that.

Also, you preamp choice is very important .I have heard crap out of a vs1680 and yet I have heard the onboard pre sound good too.

So basically, if what you are hearing live is not what you are hearing recorded, it is a result of one of three things.
1. the level
2. the pre
3. the analog-digital converter.

Make sure that all equalization and effects are initially set to off on the unit, as that will make comparison fairer.

I don't remember the vs1680 having level meters, so you might want to invest in one of those 50 dollar eq that have level and plug that before the board so that you know how hot your signal is.
 
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