I'm just trying to get my head around the mechanics of what's happening when you mixdown using Export to Audio.
The 24 bit mix is complete, sounding good, time to mixdown . . . is it Cakewalk, or my audio card that's affecting the quality of the exported audio ?
 
I hear the Prochannel + plugins are colouring the sound, but if I transfer the project to a cheap laptop with an onboard soundcard, will it sound as good ? If I spend $1000 dollars on a new soundcard will I hear a difference ?
 
Also, I've noticed that there are a bunch of presets that can be used when using Export Audio, and I've seen other threads about the best settings to use, eg . .   routing everything to a master bus + export only that, selecting all tracks and exporting them, or even using the "what you hear" preset. Then there's dithering to add to the equation . . .
 
I guess (because I don't know) I'm wondering about what percent of sound quality on export, is audio card based ?

Pretty sure the sound card will let you hear things a certain way, and more importantly, when recording into them, their quality will certainly reflect the audio quality of what you record.

As far as exporting audio, I am 99% sure it doesn't matter what card you have. The file will get processed by sonar, and how it sounds depends on what you play it on whether it is that sound card you use with your computer or the radio in your car.

With a sound interface, you want:
1. good cnverters and decent preamps if they have them
2. good low latency performance (this comes down to drivers pretty much
3. you want the interface to have what you need - i.e. enough inputs, outputs, midi capability, whatever you need

Again, the sound interface/card will not effect an export if I am correct. It will effect what you hear when you play music through it and you judgments according to the quality of that sound when mixing, and it will effect the quality of what is recording into sonar or any program via going "through" that interface/sound card.

Lance

As far as sound though, any decent interface/card that is made for recording will sound decent upon playback.

The big thing that you pay for in more expensive interfaces is usually the AD converters that will capture what you record and decent drivers.

Good thing is, even at lower priced units that really do well in both categories.

You will probably gain 5% to 10% overall quality by going from a $300 interface to a $1500 interface, DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU GET.

Lanceindastudio


Pretty sure the sound card will let you hear things a certain way, and more importantly, when recording into them, their quality will certainly reflect the audio quality of what you record.

As far as exporting audio, I am 99% sure it doesn't matter what card you have. The file will get processed by sonar, and how it sounds depends on what you play it on whether it is that sound card you use with your computer or the radio in your car.

With a sound interface, you want:
1. good cnverters and decent preamps if they have them
2. good low latency performance (this comes down to drivers pretty much
3. you want the interface to have what you need - i.e. enough inputs, outputs, midi capability, whatever you need

Again, the sound interface/card will not effect an export if I am correct. It will effect what you hear when you play music through it and you judgments according to the quality of that sound when mixing, and it will effect the quality of what is recording into sonar or any program via going "through" that interface/sound card.

Lance

I have released songs in the songs forum where the final master was from my old laptop with a realtek. I then took the exact project to my DAW and exported it there (with a 'quality' interface). Null test was perfectly nulled, IIRC.

Thanks Guys, that clarifies, makes sense that a good audio card with better AD converters will render a better recording input . . . so in my case only the guitar and vocal recordings (and the quality of my microphone) are affected by the audio card, everything else in the mix is then generated by Cakewalk's export to audio.

Where it would make a difference is first during mixdown if you take the output of the audio card and mix it back to 2 tracks in the box(DAW) getting the mix ready for mastering. If you have a hybrid system it would make a lot of difference to the quality of the analog output and the final digital file you create. So the soundcard could make a big difference.
 
For exporting, the quality of the DA of any soundcard is going to influence your decision making regardless of what the digital file ends up being stored as. There are sonic differences in soundcards that would make you boost or cut a certain frequency from one to the other.

 

Middleman


Where it would make a difference is during mixdown if you take the output of the audio card and mix it back to 2 tracks in the box(DAW) getting the mix ready for mastering. If you have a hybrid system it would make a lot of difference to the quality of the analog output and the final digital file you create.

Agreed. But only guys with money to burn would have a hybrid system.

yeah if ya go old school like that and actually record an output from an interface in real time instead of just bouncing from sonar, totally.

Bapu, I rest my case! Thank you for confirming my last 1% lol

I have met both of you in person and you and Middleman are both top notch no BS people on this forum. 

Cheers,

Lance

Middleman


Where it would make a difference is during mixdown if you take the output of the audio card and mix it back to 2 tracks in the box(DAW) getting the mix ready for mastering. If you have a hybrid system it would make a lot of difference to the quality of the analog output and the final digital file you create.

No wait, I typed more. You guys are too fast. I had another thought. Oh well back into the dust trail of the forum.

So . . . what I am hearing in my monitors is totally the audio card generating sound, and Cakewalk only colours the output with whatever plugs are added to the sound path ? When I Export to Audio it is a different sound path than the monitors ?