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the difference it makes

right now I have an m-audio 2496, krk rp5s, and I record at 44khz 16bit.

If i upgrade my soundcard to an audio interface, like motu 828mk2, will I still hear an improvement? Is it worth it?

Re: the difference it makes

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps will I still hear an improvement? Is it worth it?

For an improvement in "sound quality" only? No...
If you need more I/O or something though, obviously yes...

so soundcards dont actually add their own nuance/character to the sound? I've heard some people say they do.

What would bring me closer to hearing higher quality sound? Running cubase at a higher sampling rate? or getting better monitors?

Re: the difference it makes

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps ...and I record at 44khz 16bit.

Record in 24-bit instead and you'll get a huge improvement.
Your m-audio card should be able to handle that.

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps so soundcards dont actually add their own nuance/character to the sound? I've heard some people say they do. What would bring me closer to hearing higher quality sound? Running cubase at a higher sampling rate? or getting better monitors?

The ADC/DAC do make a difference on sound quality, it's just not worth paying THAT much for. It's only a big issue if youre recording a lot and doing mastering etc...

Sampling rate is not something you want to touch. Dithering down to 44 has potential to mess things up.

Spending the price of a MOTU on better monitors would give you much better returns. I can't imagine you getting very far with RP5s, sorry but that was a failure of a purchase!

Actually, exporting a project made in 44.1/16bit as a 96/32bit does make a difference.

Can anyone say Apogee?

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/minime.php

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle Actually, exporting a project made in 44.1/16bit as a 96/32bit does make a difference.

Hmmm, adding 16 zero's at the end of each 16 bit sample makes sonic difference? that's big news!

Heres one AD/DA interface i am drooling at: http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/2192/index.html

hot!

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Hmmm, adding 16 zero's at the end of each 16 bit sample makes sonic difference? that's big news!

it makes a tiny difference, thats all.

logically, the only difference may be there if you take a project made of 44.1Khz 16bit loops, add effects, eq-ing and other processing and then mix it down to 96khz 32bit. If you take a track that is 44.1khz 16 bit and convert it to 96Khz 32bit, then your just wasting zeros...

quote:

Originally posted by antronx logically, the only difference may be there if you take a project made of 44.1Khz 16bit loops, add effects, eq-ing and other processing and then mix it down to 96khz 32bit. If you take a track that is 44.1khz 16 bit and convert it to 96Khz 32bit, then your just wasting zeros...

That is what I meant.

Furthermore, mastering the 96khz file, and then export it down to 44.1 should improve the sound by a small margin.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle That is what I meant. Furthermore, mastering the 96khz file, and then export it down to 44.1 should improve the sound by a small margin.

Make the math easier for your computer. Mix/edit/master in 88.2 kHz, 24bit. Then convert it for CD at 44.1 kHz, 16bit. It's as easy as dividing by 2! (wait... it is dividing by 2)

96 kHz is an improvment, but usually imprecievable. Most big sample rates today are just industry hype. Hardware companies love to be on the bleeding edge, and studio leaders feel like they need to have it.

You just don't though. The current max is 192kHz 24bit anyway these days (Rosetta 800 ), talk about department of redundancy department. Especially since most audio the average person will hear will just be in 44.1/16bit anyway. Add in the fact that most people will end up downloading a song compressed in someway (mp3 etc) what's the point anyway?

What you want, and what you need are two entirely different things.

But lets be honest with ourselves. If you can afford it... don't you want to have the ballen'st shit eva?... System 5-MC

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps so soundcards dont actually add their own nuance/character to the sound? I've heard some people say they do.

Just like getting better monitors, they add a sound to what comes out your speakers and what you can hear, but they dont change what's mixed down. Of course, if you can hear whats going on in your track better, you can get the mixdown better...

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Hmmm, adding 16 zero's at the end of each 16 bit sample makes sonic difference? that's big news! Heres one AD/DA interface i am drooling at: http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/2192/index.html hot!

Hey I've had that for a week, on try, it sound pretty nice, but I picked apogee rosetta over it, For some reason rosetta sounded more.. " synth music friendly". It's like with monitors - you give few units a listen before you buy

thanks for the help guys.

As far as recording at 16 bit, what I actually meant was, when i render my shit in cubase, I just render it to 44.1khz 16bit 192kbps mp3. Of course this is just out of laziness, I do notice a total difference if I render to wav, which is what i'm gonna start doing now.

Now what I don't understand is whether or not cubase is running at 16 bits or 24bits when im just fucking around in it. I have the m-audio 2496, but I don't see anywhere in it to change it from 16bit to 24bit. You can change the sample rate (mine is at 44.1khz). Does this mean its at 24bit automatically with this card no matter what?

I still might get an interface though, because I have hardware. Right now im running it all into a shitty behringer xenyx mixer, and it totally adds noise, it can be a likable effect though. Of course the master out of the mixer goes to the master in of the soundcard, so I can only record 1 track in cubase, and its whatever hardware shit i have going on at the time. Usually I end up recording solo of each instrument one at a time, but thats totally annoying and ruins the flow of hardware tweaking.

An audio interface would enable me to record each hardware instrument in its own track in cubase right? even though im jamming them all at the same time.

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm Spending the price of a MOTU on better monitors would give you much better returns. I can't imagine you getting very far with RP5s, sorry but that was a failure of a purchase!

are they that bad? they seemed to be the best for the price to me. They were a hell of a lot better than the other below $350 a pair monitors i tried. I thought a lot of people used them on this forum?

quote:

Originally posted by DJDIRTY Hey I've had that for a week, on try, it sound pretty nice, but I picked apogee rosetta over it, For some reason rosetta sounded more.. " synth music friendly". It's like with monitors - you give few units a listen before you buy

Danm you rich bastard... Nah, Just kidding
So you like Apogee stuff. Thanks for your recomendation, i will definitely give it a listen when i am ready to upgrade from my Digi002rack. I was also considering Lynx PCI One, or PCITwo. Their hardware looks really good.

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps are they that bad? they seemed to be the best for the price to me. They were a hell of a lot better than the other below $350 a pair monitors i tried. I thought a lot of people used them on this forum?

My friend has same series with 8" woofers. They lack good highs in my taste. Thats why with those you are probably not going to notice too much difference between cheap and more expensive sound interfaces. I agree with what echosystm said earlier, you better off selling these and putting that money towards Mackies or similar monitor in that price range.

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps are they that bad? they seemed to be the best for the price to me. They were a hell of a lot better than the other below $350 a pair monitors i tried. I thought a lot of people used them on this forum?

They're ok for an uber budget 5" unit, but 5" is too small to give you any decent bass response. Hence KRK resort to cabinet designs which boost the bass and lose clarity. 6" is really the minimum man. Upgrade your monitors before your sound card, definately.

Keep your RP5s though, trust me, having a second set of monitors is soooooooooo good. They help me stay critical 11ty times longer.

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Danm you rich bastard... Nah, Just kidding

Ahh I wish I was rich, don't we all? hehe anyways, I got a 12 month payments on Apogee converters, since I took them home for a try out. I just liked them so much I could not take them back to the store after trying few different brands.. I don't care what people say regarding, converters. I record 90% hardware synths, and these apogee converters make a big difference from my RME multiface converters. If your monitors/cables are on pair you will hear a difference. Mixing stuff is easier cause you hear stuff that wasn't there before. I am really happy I have them. It's something you have to hear for yourself, and than judge later. Not just assume that it's money wasted or whatever without hearing it. There is this WoW factor for me every time I sit in my studio and start playing my virus ti or the other synths in my collection, that wasn't there when I used on board conversion in my RME card, or when I had an m-audio interface. And it's not only me who says it, but a lot of my music buddies who come down and hear the setup.. I also run all my hardware synths thru an analog Pheonix Audio summing box and than into Rosetta converters. This work similar to a preamplifier - giving me about +26db if I need to run the signal hotter, or if I wanna add some harmonic distortion to any of the synths. Check it out for yourself: http://www.phoenixaudio.net/products_nicerizer16.html

The Nicerizer, lol
Funny name, but it looks like a seriously neat mixer. Respect to the company that puts a picture of the insides of the product right on the page for everyone to see. I've bookmarked them. Will definitely look into that company later. What is your current audio setup? Monitors?

quote:

Originally posted by antronx The Nicerizer, lol Funny name, but it looks like a seriously neat mixer. Respect to the company that puts a picture of the insides of the product right on the page for everyone to see. I've bookmarked them. Will definitely look into that company later. What is your current audio setup? Monitors?

I'm running a PC with cubase sx 3 - rme multiface soundcard connected spdif to apogee convertors for recording and monitoring - to SPL volume controller and to Dynaudio BM6'a monitors.

Here is the rest of the setup..

what kind of table is that? is it one of those "jerkers" that everybody seems to have?

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps what kind of table is that? is it one of those "jerkers" that everybody seems to have?

Yep.. I just cut some parts off it hehe. that i didn't need..

quote:

Originally posted by DJDIRTY Yep.. I just cut some parts off it hehe. that i didn't need..

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stor...productId=25905
so if I got that would it come with those speaker stands?

quote:

Originally posted by beats and beeps http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stor...productId=25905 so if I got that would it come with those speaker stands?

No, the speaker stands are extra, they attach to the side of the desk, and are adjustable - height plus they swing forward/back. They are about 50 dollars cdn extra. or something like that, I forgot.. But you can get them in Ikea.

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