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Posted by djperfuse on Feb-21-2005 01:33:

Bad recording quality

Whats up people my name is trey and i've been a bedroom dj for about a year, and i'm having this annoying problem. when i'm recording my sets, the quality isn't very good. can anyone give me a few tips to make it sound better. i'm currently running my mixer through a crappy stereo. should i run it through a real receiver to make it better??? i hope so cuz i work at best buy and i can pretty much pick up anything need.

Perfuse

Posted by i got big pants on Feb-21-2005 08:54:

could possibily be your needles...had that problem, sounded all scratchy and shit...then got some whitelabels, sounds 10x's better than before

Posted by D-res on Feb-21-2005 09:00:

whitelabels... definate pwnage there

what software and compression settings and shit are you using to record?

Posted by djxtension on Feb-21-2005 09:57:

Some things that could be the problem:

- Needles / If your needles are all worn out, sound-quality will suck
- Recording-level / make sure the VU-meters on your mixer/computer do not go higher than about 0db. In other words: stay out of the red light district
- Crappy cables / make sure you are using a decent cable to record your sets with. Crappy cables can really affect the quality of a recording

Posted by Trance Nutter on Feb-21-2005 10:22:

If you are recording using your computer, I can recommend the Xitel InPort USB. Its a dedicated recording USB soundcard, I bought one a couple of weeks back and am very pleased with it. And when you get it you get 30 feet (which is bucketloads) of cable, which I have running on top of a power cable for about 2 metres with no interferance whatsoever. I'm pretty stoked with it, couldn't find that many people who actually had one, but its good.

What is the sound quality like from your stereo when you are playing normally (not recording)? If that's bad, plug any recording cables out of your mixer, not your stereo and that may help a bit.
If you are recording using the stereo and not a computer, needles are the big thing that sticks out for me.

Posted by fr3sh on Feb-22-2005 11:50:

i am having the same problem... i have good cables, new needles and i do stay out of the red light district haha... i do believe that the fact that i am using audacity and recording through my microphone jack has something to with my not so good quality of recording...

anyone here use any kind of recording hardware that plugs in usb or my case with a laptop.... usb or cardbus?

if anyone has any links to these products... please post

Posted by djxtension on Feb-22-2005 13:25:

quote:
Originally posted by fr3sh
i am having the same problem... i have good cables, new needles and i do stay out of the red light district haha... i do believe that the fact that i am using audacity and recording through my microphone jack has something to with my not so good quality of recording...

anyone here use any kind of recording hardware that plugs in usb or my case with a laptop.... usb or cardbus?

if anyone has any links to these products... please post

Well, first of all, you shouldn't record through your microphone jack... Use your Line-In. If you don't have one, buy a cheap soundcard that has. Most soundcards have a good sound quality when it comes to recording, and they aren't that expensive.

Posted by fr3sh on Feb-22-2005 20:52:

quote:
Originally posted by djxtension
Well, first of all, you shouldn't record through your microphone jack... Use your Line-In. If you don't have one, buy a cheap soundcard that has. Most soundcards have a good sound quality when it comes to recording, and they aren't that expensive.

thanks bro... are there any soundcards for a lap top that you might recommend?

cardbus or usb are ideal

Posted by djxtension on Feb-22-2005 20:57:

quote:
Originally posted by fr3sh
thanks bro... are there any soundcards for a lap top that you might recommend?

cardbus or usb are ideal

I can't recommend any soundcards for a laptop, but just browse around a bit. There are tons of manafacturers, and I'm sure there are lots of soundcards that will fit a laptop.

Posted by Trance Nutter on Feb-23-2005 07:13:

quote:
Originally posted by fr3sh
thanks bro... are there any soundcards for a lap top that you might recommend?

cardbus or usb are ideal

Look in my post just before your first.

I use a little USB gizmo called a Xitel InPort USB and I reckon its great. It was fairly cheap, is a dedicated recording soundcard, has good quality and comes with 30ft of high quality cable.
http://www.xitel.com/product_inport.htm

Posted by Derivative on Feb-23-2005 08:51:

quote:
i am having the same problem... i have good cables, new needles and i do stay out of the red light district haha... i do believe that the fact that i am using audacity and recording through my microphone jack has something to with my not so good quality of recording...

dont record through a microphone jack. dont record direct through a line in either. the output from your decks is like a mic source - you have to preamp the signal to line level before you send it to the ins on your soundcard.

you can plug straight into a line input but without a preamp or DI box the signal wont be hot enough. you can up the gain on your mixer a shat load and in your host recording app to compensate for this. but the unfortunate side effect of this is you raise the noisefloor too. so it'll sound very hissy and the bass will be very muddy and blurry. which isnt nice. i used to get this problem running my guitar straight into an analogue input with no preamp. note: this also happens when i run my guitar through the input on my virus b - even though the virus b itself has a sort of dedicated preamp on board. kind of like most mixers.

also, make sure the gain settings on your mixer are configured so that the peak volume is lined up with the 0 point of the channel faders then up the channel faders until they peaks pretty close to 0 dB. if you have the gain ridiculously high and the master volume low with the peak volume of the track over the 0 point you will have one helluva noisefloor that you are sending to your soundcard along with the tunes. only exception i can think of are pioneer mixers where half the dB meter is red (!!). they seem to be designed to operate partly in the red but the rule always applies: dont go over 0 dB. satan gets a kitten every time you go over 0 dB.

Posted by 6iki_Snake on Feb-23-2005 11:52:

There are alot of things that count in the recording procces, and most of them have been named here already.

I suggest hooking your ( i hope its decent ) mixer up on your pc, using a simple audio cable ( dont know the english word for it ). I use the REC output on the mixer, and i plug it in on a decent sound card in my pc ( audigy 1.5 ).

I use a very good piece of software called Adobe Audition 1.5. you can do alot of stuff with that, including recording with alot of features.
Now just fool around a bit with volume controls on your mixer ( always keep go for the max sound possible, without getting in the red. I like to keep -1 or 0 as a guideline ).

If you use decent needles, mixer, soundcard and cables, then you should have no problem at all.

or your recording is A quality and your speakers are fucked :P

Posted by djperfuse on Feb-25-2005 04:34:

Thanx for all the feedback!!!! I will try everything you all have suggested.