How do professional producers make it sound so tight?

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Posted by Swing on Jul-06-2004 09:09:

I think that equipment as much as talent makes it sound tight.

I've been to a few small studios and also to a few acquaintences home studios.

Having used my tracks on their pro equipment, pro mixers and pro effects with highest quality AD/DA's, digital piping etc. I can tell you that having good equipment is at least part of it.

I'm not saying you have to have the best equipment. But it really does help. The crappier your gear, the more skill you need.

Posted by JTZ on Jul-06-2004 17:50:

quote:
Originally posted by Tom_cowan
Yeah kinda does, im just wondering though, whats the point if its gonna be dumped back into 16bit? And is it possible to get a 24 bit soundcard?

When you set cubase to 32 bit floating what processes are carried out in 32 bit, i mean all samples will be in 16 bit anyway, any inputs from the soundcard will be 16 bit, are vsts and fx 32 bit?

Sorry for being a dumb bastard but im just a bit confused.

I would best explain this with my 3D artist example; A 3D artist usually renders his final composition @ 2x the resolution of the final output (if not more). The reason for this is because when he downsizes his final render, it would smooth out some of the jaged edges on some sharp lines. They wouldnt be able to do this by just rendering to a 1:1 copy.

So whats the point of starting off @ 32-bit when your input media is at 16-bit? This is a hot and highly debated topic among sound engineers. Theoretically if you up-scale a 16-bit sample to 32-bit, its still going to sound exactly the same (and look exactly the same if you could zoom in that close enough to compare). If you apply some sort of effect's to it, thats a different story, because the 32-bit granularity would take over from there. By the way, to answer your other questions, all internal processes in cubase are at 32-bit float (Volume, EQ, Insert, Send).

Think of the the bit width as granularity. BUT both the bit width and frequency range account for the overall sound quality. Not just the bit-width.

So what it comes down to is this; Are you mixing to CD? Then by all means, if its loud and not alot of silence, you could record at 16-bit, 44.1kHz. If theres alot of silence or high-end samples, record it at 24-bit 88.2kHz. If your mixing to Vinyl? Record it at 24-bit 96kHz. Set the internal resolution @ 32-bit if you want, but I cant even tell the difference...

Many of my friends record there productions to vinyl @ 16-bit 44.1 kHz and they sound excellent. There is nothing wrong with using a 16-bit 44.1 kHz canvas to begin with anyways. Ive been using it as recent as this year, but since my computer upgrade, I just record at 24-bit 88.2 kHz just for peace of mind.

As for the soundcard, yes, most of the cards out now are 24-bit. with a 96kHz range. There are a few that go as high as 192kHz .

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