sound quality

Hey everybody. I have been wondering about something for a while. I have a numark dxm06 mixer and when i play records to sample on my mpc, on the main screen the record sounds more clear and more full. Then when i go into the record screen It deminishes the sound quality noticably. I try to compinsate by using the master eq and compression but it still doesnt sound as good. Is this because my mixer is 24bit and the mpc is 16bit? Does anyone know what im talking about? thanks

Is your MPC set to have a -6/-12db for sampling? Might set it to 0db. You're probably just noticing it reducing the sound. Could also normalize your samples.

Going up in bit depths does nothing to the sound quality. It simply extends the wordlength.

Zukan wrote:Going up in bit depths does nothing to the sound quality. It simply extends the wordlength.

Well, from what I've experienced, I upgraded my old s/c's because of low sound quality. As soon as I went from 16 bit to 24 bit, I notices things were more detailed, clearer.

My old s/c's had a 98db dynamic range. My newer cards sport specs of 110 db incoming and 115 db going out, and I def hear the difference.

Maybe I wasn't clear, apologies for the confusion.

If you 'record' at 24 bit then that's a huge difference as you get more headroom and a lower noise floor, better S/N.

But loading a 16 bit file into a 24 bit project simply adds to the wordlength.

If you can use a 24 bit project and record all audio in 24 bit then it's much better.

Zukan wrote:If you can use a 24 bit project and record all audio in 24 bit then it's much better.

I'll agree in general, but it does depend on what bit rate the mixing is done at and whether it avoids aliasing issues.

Bit rate is not the same as bit depth and are two different things.

What has aliasing to do with mixing within a digital domain?
This is related to analogue conversion into the digital domain (A/D, Nyquist etc) and not quite sure what you mean?

while I'm sure you guys are correct (you know far far far more than me) isn't the OP talking about a DJ mixer, which is 24bit, and asking whether sending that signal to his MPC (which is of course 16bit) is the cause of his sound quality issues? he's not talking about going up in bit-depth or recording or mixing in-the-box - IIUC he's talking about using his MPC to sample from vinyl, through a (digital) DJ mixer. That's all.

The answer to the OP's question is probably no. the dxm06 processes the signal internally as 24bit digital, but the outputs on the back of the mixer are analogue, which you're presumably connecting to the MPC's analogue inputs. so the signal is going from a turntable through the mixer's A/D converter, to its D/A converter, to the MPC's A/D converter ... but that shouldn't cause a serious problem, not one noticeable to someone just getting started with his mpc

NearTao's first answer might be the most relevant one

backtothelab wrote:Hey everybody. I have been wondering about something for a while. I have a numark dxm06 mixer and when i play records to sample on my mpc, on the main screen the record sounds more clear and more full. Then when i go into the record screen It deminishes the sound quality noticably. I try to compinsate by using the master eq and compression but it still doesnt sound as good. Is this because my mixer is 24bit and the mpc is 16bit? Does anyone know what im talking about? thanks

After pastor posted his recap.

Can you explain what you are using for audio connections? Are you using your digital ins/outs or the analogue ins/outs?

If you are using analogue you don't need to bother yourself with 16/24bit because the signal is analogue at that point and there are no bits, just a continuous electronic signal. Even if you are using the digital ins/outs, and even if the mixer is 24bit it shouldn't matter because it'd have to output a 16bit/44.1khz signal so that it could communicate with the MPC.

So... to elaborate what I understand your issue is.

When you are in record mode and previewing a record while monitoring, it sounds nice and loud. When you record the sample it sounds nice and loud. When you assign the sample to a pad and play it, it lacks the volume/punch.

If this is the case then I believe you need to adjust the master db/the record db or the amplitude levels in program mode. This is what I had alluded to in my first post.

Hopefully you can write back and let us know if any of the suggestions here were helpful for you.

Ah, now I get it. Apologies for the misunderstanding.

You are, if you can, better off using a dithering plugin and dithering down to 16 bit and then importing into the MPC.
But recording straight in would be ok so long as you set up the path properly.

I wish the built-in speakers could handle bass better. The sound on the iPhone is crap. I mean, they should at least have quality as good as ghetto blasters from the 90s.