Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beats...

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Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beats...

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:57 pm
Ok so I downloaded 2 programs which are Audacity and wavepad...When I click record on the program and press play on the mpc I dont hear the beat(I only hear the beat when I pause the beat on the mpc and replay the beat on the program)but I can barely hear it when I replay what I recorded it's to low and the quality is bad but not terrible...just bad....I tried recording in both mono and stereo and at different sample rates and found that 44100 is the best to record in but after all that I tried I still get low sound(even with my computer speakers turned all the way up) and bad quality...

Any Idea of how to fix this problem?
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By dabmeister Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:11 pm
Maybe you need to tweak your soundcard through it's utility s/w by checking its input gain & line levels. Then make adjustments through the daw program you're using.

Idk what soundcard you're using or what you've got in your setup, but if it's more consumer based, that's half of your problem right there.

And second, there's a big difference in how things sound coming from studio reference monitors as opposed to consumer computer speakers.
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:42 pm
dabmeister:

The computer im using is a dell dimension 3000 desktop and the soundcard has never been touched...How do I check it's input,gain,& line levels?


Also do you think it would be wise to get a better soundcard?The quality that these computer speakers put out is pretty good when im on youtube or downloading music or whatever.
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:21 am
Lampdog wrote:If your on windows, pay close attention to windows
mixer, go in there and checkout/tweak stuff.



Yo Lamp I am on windows and in the windows mixer for volume control I go into properties and see "playback" and "recording" and I see that in both playback and recording for when you want to choose a mixer device option it only says "Soundmax digital audio" and it doesn't have the option of soundcard...but I do not choose playback anyway I am choosing recording and from there I click ok and select "line in" in the recording controls...


Just to let you all know I am not using anything like pro tools...just free downloadable recording software and what I am doing is using a 1/8in stereo to duel rca cable with adapters from the mpc to the line in jack in the back of the computer...you don't need an audio interface if your doing this
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By Lampdog Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:32 am
What about all the other sliders available in windows mixer, look at ALL of them, if they are invisible make them visible and check them out. ALL of them. Recording AND playback.
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By dabmeister Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:41 am
90'sHip_Hop_Head wrote:Just to let you all know I am not using anything like pro tools...just free downloadable recording software and what I am doing is using a 1/8in stereo to duel rca cable with adapters from the mpc to the line in jack in the back of the computer...you don't need an audio interface if your doing this


Well, if you're on the "anything will do" concept, of course your sound quality is going to be bad.

Most of us on here started out like you, consumer soundcard, 1/8" single connections, rca this...rca that. I remember getting down like this back when I was just starting out with a daw back in the mid late 90's.

But what I didn't know was that pro quality s/c's are not the same as consumer s/c's. There's too many things to point out at the moment, but the one thing that stands apart is the number of inputs/outputs and what it makes your music sound like.

That consumer s/c caused me to go and invest in two multitrack capable audio cards. They offered pro features like selectable frequency settings, optical/coax digital I/O and midi. After experiencing this level of quality/performance, I could never go back to that old way of recording my material.
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:29 am
Lampdog: Will do

Dabmeister: So do you think if I upgrade the soundcard on this dimension 3000 I will be fine?

Im on a budget now obviously if I had the money I wouldn't be trying to record this way lol Im working with what I got and Sorting out what could be in my price range...Like a soundcard for instance...That I can afford
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By dabmeister Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:43 pm
90'sHip_Hop_Head wrote:Lampdog: Will do

Dabmeister: So do you think if I upgrade the soundcard on this dimension 3000 I will be fine?

Im on a budget now obviously if I had the money I wouldn't be trying to record this way lol Im working with what I got and Sorting out what could be in my price range...Like a soundcard for instance...That I can afford


Check this out...if you go to the GC center in Fairfax, Va., the now store mgr was the kat that sold me my 4k when he worked as a salesman at the seven corners store.

Tell him someone suggested that you see him (his name is Tracy) and see what he may have in the used dept. I use to take care of him on the wireless phone repairs back in the day so he's always looked out for me.

GC has this buy your used gear thing so I'm sure you'll find something decent that somebody probably didn't want anymore.
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:44 pm
dabmeister wrote:
90'sHip_Hop_Head wrote:Lampdog: Will do

Dabmeister: So do you think if I upgrade the soundcard on this dimension 3000 I will be fine?

Im on a budget now obviously if I had the money I wouldn't be trying to record this way lol Im working with what I got and Sorting out what could be in my price range...Like a soundcard for instance...That I can afford


Check this out...if you go to the GC center in Fairfax, Va., the now store mgr was the kat that sold me my 4k when he worked as a salesman at the seven corners store.

Tell him someone suggested that you see him (his name is Tracy) and see what he may have in the used dept. I use to take care of him on the wireless phone repairs back in the day so he's always looked out for me.

GC has this buy your used gear thing so I'm sure you'll find something decent that somebody probably didn't want anymore.



What is the GC center? do you mean Guitar center?I just want to know will the pro quality sound card fix the problem...
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By Lampdog Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:50 pm
90'sHip_Hop_Head wrote:
Lampdog wrote:r u recording mpc main outs through a mic input?



What I am doing is putting the rca cables w/adapters in the stereo outs of the mpc and the 1/8in into the back of the computer's "line in"

Here is a video of Wu tang affiliated producer Su-preme doing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCazHAW3 ... re=channel

I didn't check for and I don't follow videos (really meaning I don't give a fk about those types of videos)
I'm only concerned with helping you, lmao.

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[color=gold]This is what I imagine you having, cause you haven't provided adequate setup, connection, settings detail at all.
Quality can mean SOOOOO many different things and I can't help unless you give details details details.

So if you have these exact cables and adapters, we can continue to trouble shoot. What operating system in on your computer or a screen cap of your windows mixer with all the sliders in full view. What program are you recoding the line input with? What about recording settings withint that program? There's alot of stuff your making us guess and it's not fair..
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By 90'sHip_Hop_Head Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:12 pm
Lampdog wrote:
90'sHip_Hop_Head wrote:
Lampdog wrote:r u recording mpc main outs through a mic input?



What I am doing is putting the rca cables w/adapters in the stereo outs of the mpc and the 1/8in into the back of the computer's "line in"

Here is a video of Wu tang affiliated producer Su-preme doing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCazHAW3 ... re=channel

I didn't check for and I don't follow videos (really meaning I don't give a fk about those types of videos)
I'm only concerned with helping you, lmao.

Image
Image

[color=gold]This is what I imagine you having, cause you haven't provided adequate setup, connection, settings detail at all.
Quality can mean SOOOOO many different things and I can't help unless you give details details details.

So if you have these exact cables and adapters, we can continue to trouble shoot. What operating system in on your computer or a screen cap of your windows mixer with all the sliders in full view. What program are you recoding the line input with? What about recording settings withint that program? There's alot of stuff your making us guess and it's not fair..




I completely understand and respect your choice about videos.

Well, this link is not a video lol it's a pic of the exact cable im using aside from the adapters(which are basically the same as the one in the pic you posted):

http://www.zzounds.com/item--HOSCMR2


Computer OS:Windows Xp

Program(s) im using:Audacity & Wavepad

Computer Im using:Dell dimension 3000 Desktop

Cables go from:Mpc stereo outs to line in jack in the back of the computer
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Re: Experiencing low sound & bad quality when recording beat

By Lampdog Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:24 pm
So if the cables are good, then check into audacity, wavepad and windows mixer, something in there is messing with the "quality". I don't use audacity or wavepad. But I'm familiar with win xp mixer.

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Try that. Now go into audacity and try to record again. I can't help with audacity cause I don't use it.
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