Why does my soundcard seem to amplify certain frequencies?

[Tucci]

Ok, I take my four track mix and adjust faders eq etc. so that my mix is sounding good through my monitors and headphones. I then leave all these settings right where they are, carry my four-track downstairs, plug it into my soundcard and record the mix.

I then listen to the mix that I just recorded onto the harddrive with the same headphones that were plugged into my four-track a minute ago and it sounds way different. The recording on the hard drive has a lot more bass and a lot less treble even though I had adjusted all those before I recorded. Why?

Thanks

Tucci

 

[Rusty K]

Hi Tucci,

I'm certainly no expert but are you sure that you have your monitors EQed to a flat response when you first listen to your mix?
Are your headphones plugged into your mixing console or your amp? Your mixer should give you a truer sound as your amp could be adding or subtracting EQ. Of course a crappy soundcard could be the problem from what I've gathered from other posts.

Hope this helps,
Rusty K

 

[Guest]

I was waiting to see if there were any other responses to this one, because I've experienced a similar problem. I too have found that my finished CD-Rs always sound much more bass-y than my original multitrack. In my case, the EQ on my mixing playback system WAS flat, so that's not the cause.
I figure it has to be one of the following causes:
a) the speakers I use to playback the original multitrack mix aren't particularly accurate, or
b) I'm not listening to the finished CD-Rs on the same playback system as the multitrack mix, or
c) the PC soundcard (SoundBlaster Live Value) or CD-R drive is coloring the sound.

I figure "a)" is the most likely cause. I have found that the simplest way to compensate for this is for me to boost the bass on the EQ of my mixing/playback system. This should prevent me from adding too much bass in the original multitrack mix.

Hope that helps.

 

[sonusman]

Man, that is the first time I have ever heard anyone refer to a SBLive as a "professional" soundcard. I sure wish my Lynx One card was that cheap, but glad that it sounds much better...

There are so many differences between consumer or "pro-sumer" recording gear and the gear that big time bands use to record that I wouldn't even know where to start about what your problems are.

We could start with the fact that many cheap A/D/A converters do not provide very detailed and accurate sound. We could go on to how cheap wire will choke the low and high end of audio passing through it. We could discuss the limitations of much of the software that is available for PC. Ultimately, we would end up talking about "hobbiest" engineers who may not neccesarily know a good tone through their system when they hear it.

Learning to produce great quality sound recordings takes a combination of years of practice, and really nice equipment to work with. There are no real shortcuts for either.

Ed

 

[mrclay]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>my finished CD-Rs always sound much more bass-y than my original multitrack. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My SBLive card has a bass/treble output adjust setting somewhere (I had the same problem till I found it) and you should set those to dead center. It's ridiculous that a "professional" card like this doesn't tell you where 0dB is, but you can eyeball it.

Another test: Run your live output to your stereo, listen to a CD in the CDROM, then on your stereo component CD player. The bass/treble adjustments in the middle should make these sound identically EQed.

[This message has been edited by mrclay (edited 04-05-2000).]

 

[mrclay]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>sonusman: Man, that is the first time I have ever heard anyone refer to a SBLive as a "professional" soundcard.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's why "professional" was in quotes! ..As probably advertised on the box with the dozen or so other flashy words.