By
MANiK
Sat Dec 25, 2004 10:02 pm
Hey man....what's up?
Yeah, you need a new sound card to really realize the full sound of the MPC, or at the MINIMUM a better cable. The problem is stock sound cards pick up a lot of noise from the motherboard/other peripherals/etc. and ideally you'd be using something that has a breakout box well away from the computer to record into.
As a side note, Audacity is actually a really good program. I'll admit, the interface is a bit ugly, but it's capable of producing just as good a recording as your soundcard can feed it (unless perhaps you actually had one of those REALLY high end audio interfaces, THEN maybe you could really have any kind of complaint against the program).
I use an M-Audio Delta 44 to track with, and though it's not the fanciest, highest-end card, it is MILES ahead of any stock card, and as a bonus, can be picked up CHEAP on Ebay these days (of course, not when I bought it, but I'm over the whole "buy it then a few months later see it for half the price on Ebay...." thing).
Also, you're probably already doing this, but if NOT......make sure your levels are set right. Digital clipping of a signal sounds like total a$$. Try making sure your recordings NEVER touch anything ove digital zero (based on Audacity's metering) and this should help too if this is part of the problem.
Bottom line is this: If possible, get a new soundcard.....if you're still using the built in card on your system or using something purely consumer-level, like a soundblaster ANYTHING......let's just say you'll hear the whole world open up sonically with a decent audio interface.
Peace,
MANiK
