One piece of equipment that makes the difference

ORIGINAL: darrellc2002

What is one piece that makes all the difference in sound quality. would you say a quality sound card? Since i bought a self powered mic i do not think i need a pre-amp to give it more power for better sound. I think the sound card makes all the difference. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Yeah.. the sound card is the key link between the analog and digital world you only get one shot at that. My Lynx Two card cost almost a grand but I had already wasted that much trying lesser cards by the time I decided to get it. I wish I had just bought the Lynx first time out I could have saved a lot of money. E-bay did help me recover some of my losses

Heart and Soul......................

besides your own talent, it's going to depend on what you have already have. any low-quality part in your signal chain, your instrument/voice, the room, the mic, the mic cable, the preamp, the preamp cable, the mixer (if you have one), the mixer cables, the soundcard, each one is a factor.

i'd concentrate first on talent and your instrument(s). if you suck it will cost millions to make you sound even listenable (ask paris hilton or lindsay lohan).

next you'll have to get a basic signal chain to the computer. mic, preamp (some soundcards have good built-in ones), soundcard and cables. i'd start with quality cables first as the sticker shock is probably the least of all the equipment. if you plan on doing multiple tracks at once you should consider getting a card with multiple balanced inputs.

in fact, if you haven't done this already, make sure all your cables are balanced (with the exception of instrument cables perhaps). that will get rid of some hum/noise issues.

don't forget your room. a box room with nothing in it is probably the absolute worst place you can record in. if you've got one then you might spend some money treating it with bass traps and auralex/sonex/blankets/etc.

with a basic signal chain the next thing is to buy a mic that really brings out whatever instrument you are recording. you'll have to get advice on this specifically or try some out if your local music store permits. after that you should think about gain staging, or reducing noise in the signal chain. it might be that you need to get a nice expensive preamp with gobs of noise-free gain, if so do that. replace any piece of equipment which is adding unnecessary noise (old mixers, bad cables, budget soundcard, etc.).

now you've got mics which complement your instruments, a quiet signal path with plenty of gain, enough inputs on your soundcard and a room that doesn't ring like a bomb went off. next you should probably worry the converters in your soundcard, a more expensive one can help you here as frank mentioned.

aside from that it's mic choice, preamp choice (if you want some color), your talent at playing while recording and your talent at mixing. that's just my opinion though so take it as such.

Music lessons.........Heart and soul...............are these software bundles? Or equipment?

ORIGINAL: darrellc2002

What is one piece that makes all the difference in sound quality. would you say a quality sound card? Since i bought a self powered mic i do not think i need a pre-amp to give it more power for better sound. I think the sound card makes all the difference. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Whatever instrument your recording.It almost always starts at the source.

ORIGINAL: calaverasgrandes

I mulled this over several years back, and came to a sobering conclusion. Given limited funds, I will never be able to buy a state of the art studio all at once. So I will have to buy it piece by piece which could take years. So by teh time I am finished the first things I bought will be obsolete!
I then figured out which items have changed the least in recent history and which are still evolving. From this I divided all my wanted gear into two groups; infrastructure gear and glamour gear.
Infrastructure gear is the stuff you never think about, but which adds up very quickly. It's not often written about in magazines and has changed little in the last 50 years. In this group I put patchbays, cables, mic stands, headphones, racks, power conditioners and to some extent microphones.
Glamour gear is what marketing people would have you think is all you need. Sure! Just an interface and a laptop and I can make a whole album in the woods!
So anyway I spent about 10 years buying mics, cables, stands, racks, compressors, etc. Only recently did I get into the computer and interface thing until about 4 years ago.
If I had gone out and gotten the most cost effective digital audio thinga when I first started building my studio it would have been an ADAT. Which pretty much nobody uses at all anymore. However, I am still using teh same mic stands, mics and racks I bought 15 years ago.

I did what you avoided and bought a Mackie 24.8 and some ADAT recorders. It's a good thing I did because I was writing songs at the time and I was able to capture them while I had them in my head and I had the solitude and time to record. If I had waited till computers got fast enough I would be stuck with a better studio but no songs recorded. I'm married now and it's almost impossible to record now, I can do two songs a year at most. Also, because I get sidetracked on Video editing and other things I used to not be able to do. I still have the tracks for the 63 songs I recorded on ADAT back when I was single, I have been able to get them transfered to the computer over the years.

I used to think that all the money I spent on my old studio setup was going to be a total write off but I didn't know one thing back then.. e-bay. After e-bay came along I was able to sell all my old gear for enough to update my studio with a new computer, Lynx II card, Grace 101, Grace M902, etc. So I got 63 songs recorded and got a bunch of my money back out of the gear, I must have made $500 just selling cables ! E-bay is amazing. I even made money on some things like my Yamaha NS-10ms that had become collectors items, go figure... if I had known they were an "investment" I would have bought at least 4 more pairs in the 90s. I sold them for $200 more then I paid for them after using them for 11 years !

The mics that I liked are still around.. I've owned over 120 of them, bought and sold a lot of them on e-bay, made money on some that just needed a little TLC or a custom cable. Still have one of my racks and some vintage playback devices like my Tascam DA-30 DAT machine. I still get customers that want to bring in DATs.

I don't fear buying hardware these days because I know I can get most of my money back on e-bay, it's more like renting. The only things I'll lose all my money on is computers and software.

interesting how these threads take on a life of their own. Did you notice that the original poster hasn't been back--we are having these conversations amongst ourselves. :) It was interesting to find out a bit more about you though ohhey as I have never wanted to pry but always wondered how you were so knowledgeable yet never post any songs or things. Won't take this too OT but thanks for the personal info--and I do always enjoy your posts. Would like to hear some of your songs sometime and hear your comments on mine.

Michael

ORIGINAL: ohhey

ORIGINAL: michael japan

interesting how these threads take on a life of their own. Did you notice that the original poster hasn't been back--we are having these conversations amongst ourselves. :) It was interesting to find out a bit more about you though ohhey as I have never wanted to pry but always wondered how you were so knowledgeable yet never post any songs or things. Won't take this too OT but thanks for the personal info--and I do always enjoy your posts. Would like to hear some of your songs sometime and hear your comments on mine.

Michael

It's very hard to try and balance day job, wife, and music.

Amen to that. Always good to hear from you.

ORIGINAL: darrellc2002

Hey all. I'm still hanging around. I've been real busy and work and i didn't have chance to hit the forums. I ordered the PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire Audio Interface basically for recording vocals. Since i am new here i'll tell you a little about myself. I am a 21 year of course manager for a college located in maryland. I also sing on the side, so i'm a finally taking the leap into recording. I recently finished some vocal lessons because unlike most male singers i am trained in the use of the whistle register of voice. I am looking forward to learning more from all of you and finally of months of waiting, begin to records some of my material.

glad to see you got the soundcard. Good to have you back.

P.S. What's a "21 year of course manager?"

An "expensive" tube mic pre....

ORIGINAL: Autist

The one thing that will make all the difference in quality is not something you can purchase. You either have it, or you don't (which doesn't mean you never will have it). You decide from the next two paragraphs what it is.

There is no one piece of gear that can improve sound quality. When you record you are capturing the qualities of the entire signal chain and the environment (when using mics), so you could have the best sounding preamp on the planet and it would still sound bad if you are using cheap cables, low quality converters, etc... Running a low quality mic throuh a high quality preamp may only make the low quality traits of the mic more apparent. Performance also makes a significant difference in the quality and the best gear in the world won't make a bad performance sound good.

The recording will reflect the quality of everything involved in its creation. This doesn't mean everything has to be the best, or most expensive, it just means that attention has to be given to a lot of details that many people overlook and then you utilize the things that help you get the sound you want for whatever it is you are recording. You can't depend totally on gear to make you sound good, but you do have to be able to recognize and utilize the good qualities of whatever is available. If your recordings do not sound as good as you would like then consider analyzing the signal chain you do have and upgrading the things that need upgrading before adding more components. Replace low quality cables with better cables, low quality mics with better mics; try different playing techniques, try different methods of recording something, try recording in different environments...

and most important--take frequent breaks to avoid patience and ear fatigue.

ORIGINAL: Autist

take frequent breaks to avoid patience and ear fatigue

I wouldn't personally say that's any more important than anything else... however... anyone who has spent hours trying to fix non-existant problems with takes that were perfect a few hours earlier; only to end up cranky and frustrated with a bigger mess to fix later; will agree that ear fatigue can really mess up an otherwise great session.

Been there, done that... Recording Institute of Hard Knocks.

I had a feeling I should have fixed that but was in a hurry and left it---I knew someone would get me :) it shouldn't have read most important but "also important.

Which link in a chain makes all the difference?

I suppose it would be the weakest...