Recording Stereo Out

When it comes to recording to my computer the whole thing sounds rubbish, the mix sounds muddy and just not good enough. I'm sequencing everything from the MPC and then recording the whole track through the stereo outs into my Mackie Satellite soundcard.

Could it be my soundcard thats adding the shittyness into it? When i listen to my tracks on the MPC they sound fine but when recorded into the computer its not good enough. I'm trying to get my mixes to sound tight in the MPC, and I'm looking to add a mixing desk soon to EQ everything up better then record the master to the computer, do many folk do this or are they multitracking into comp?

Is they're a number of issues I'm missing here, how does everyone else go about getting there stuff onto the computer? Also I had a bit of a scare earlier where my audio was phasing, like the cables werent plugged into the stereo out properly, could my stereo outs be on there way out and is this is common problem, it seems fine for the time been.

Do I need to upgrade my soundcard to something like an RME fireface with decent converters on them to get a better result or will I not see any difference in the way I'm doing things now?

I'd be interested to hear on how folk get there tracks to a computer when they're sequencing and using outboard equipment, I'm not interested in using a DAW and i'm looking to go out the box but record my premaster/master to the computer, so if any folk here are doing that could you share your setup and how you go about getting your tracks in the digital domain? I hope I dont have to fork out money for decent converters like Mytek ADC and Lynx interface etc.

Cheers.

*EDIT*

Apologies could this be moved to the relevant forum, Studio Environments or Production Techniques, thanks.

What MPC are you using? 60/3000? Also - this is important - what do you listen to while mixing? Monitors? Earphones?

I think your sound interface is probably good in itself. I'd stay away from recording the stereo outs to computer though. By doing that you've lost any further control over the individual elements of the beat. I'm not saying it's wrong, but personally I prefer having as many individual sound types (snares on one channel, bd's on another etc) as possible mapped out onto their own respective channels on a mixing desk. In that way it's really easy to find the best eq ranges for all the sounds and a good balanced mix.

If the mixing desk also has sub groups with individual outs then even better. Perfect for tracking out the beat to the computer divided into parts i.e drums, bass, hihats, melody loops, chops, etc. You can then continue adding the final touches in whatever way you see fit, eq'ing, compressing etc.

However, to do the above you need some kind of decent analogue or digital mixing desk and probably some hardware outboard fx and/or compressors. It's really a matter of taste and workflow though.

cheers for the reply, its an MPC 60 II im having to mix through some headphones, pretty broke at the moment! i'm thinking to get the best out of everything im going to need a mixing desk asap to get my mixes up to scratch, im thinking of grabbing a second hand old soundcraft or allen & heath or maybes the newer Soundcraft M12 anybody got any experience with this mixer?

it's a massive contrast from producing on the mpc to using ableton for 4-5yrs, prefer the workflow of the MPC, im getting stuff down way quicker, just having trouble getting my mixes sounding good in the unit i guess its because im lacking other hardware, coz my mixes in the past on ableton have been pretty decent.

i think becacuse im constructing everything within the mpc 60 with it been 12bit this could be the problem as well, i think i need some variation, looking to add a jomox mbase soon for kick duties, so its adding cleaner but analog elements into my sound.

If you're really on a budget I'd just recommend you "learn" your headphones better. Concentrate on a beat which you're somewhat happy about when it comes to the mixing. Listen to it. What made it sound so good compared to the rest? Learn what to avoid and roughly how the character "should" be in your earphones and always try to achieve something close to that. It's not easy but it can be done. Also, if you attempt to continue using headphones, try get a better pair of those. It's absolutely vital, I often find that cheap ones flatters the highs and just cut out a lot of bass. It so easily fools you.

I've lost count on how many times I've spent too much time mixing with headphones (sounds great on them headphones itself!) only to lose interest totally when I play the mix on monitors. Everything usually sounds muddy and blurred at that point. I really should get some better headphones myself..

About character on the MPC60.. it's always cool with some different hardware as variation but it's perfectly possible to create great mixes just with this machine itself. 12 bit is not a problem. Although as I said, I'd stay away from the stereo outs. I also think these are less boosted in output than the individual outs, although I might be wrong on this

cheers mate, i completely agree with the stereo outs been less boosted, i played with the assignable outs last night ( my soundcard can only record 2 tracks at a time ) the signal was a lot better! yeah its a case of me learning these headphones, im after some adam a7s or just decent monitors but to say i have no money is an understatement! just recently lost my job too its killing me.

i have another question which is unrelated but, my floppy disk im saving my sets to on mpc is a HD disk, ive had absolutely no problems with it at all (theres no tape covering the hole on the floppy disk either and its working) could it be possible that my disk drive has been upgraded to accept HD disks or is this impossible on the MPC 60 and it must be DD disk drive?

Dunno. I've never heard of any "ghetto mod" for the 60 that enables the use of an HD disk drive. Although hardware-wise I wouldn't say it sounds unreasonable or impossible, but having said that we're talking about really old hardware.. you really sure that's HD floppies you're using? Attach an image =)

Btw, what OS are you using on your MPC60 MkII ? I think some of the later batch of machines/OS had SCSI interface installed as standard, but again I'm not totally sure on this..

HD's work, but are more prone to fail unexpectedly...


I two track everything... Mixing sucks and can never achieve the raw rugged sound of the stereo outs... my two cents.


If you excel at programming, it is possible.

I use the stereo outs and it sounds fine when recorded on the computer, I just use the line in on the sound card

gowansy wrote:When it comes to recording to my computer the whole thing sounds rubbish, the mix sounds muddy and just not good enough. I'm sequencing everything from the MPC and then recording the whole track through the stereo outs into my Mackie Satellite soundcard.

Can you pin point the exact difference between what you're hearing from the MPC (through the headphones), and from the computer (through the headphones)?

If you're recording properly, the difference in the recording through your interface should be little to non-existant. I would say focus on checking your levels. Too high and it will be crunchy and distorted on loud portions, and too low you will have a low volume recording. And a low volume recording will always sound "worse" to the human ear.

Im on OS 2.10, it is a HD disk but obviously it clears it up that they do work on the machines. Hope it don't fail anytime soon. I guess the difference in recording the stereo outs isnt much to listening on the MPC, but im just looking to get a better, punchier, louder mix. I don't think this will be possible for me without other external gear such as EQ & Compression.

My soundcard can only record 2 channels at a time, I recorded my seperate tracks through the individual outputs into ableton so I had my song multitracked, added some compression/eq to seperate elements and rendered, wasnt too happy with the results, the way ableton sums the track seems to take away some of the shine of the MPC, it just didnt sound as glued together as my MPC stereo out recording so I think i'm just gonna go the expensive hardware route and get a mixing desk and a few compressors and record to dat or the computer when I've got the cash.

The Grublet wrote:HD's work, but are more prone to fail unexpectedly...


I two track everything... Mixing sucks and can never achieve the raw rugged sound of the stereo outs... my two cents.


If you excel at programming, it is possible.

Mixing sucks? well.. if care is taken it doesn't suck that badly to be honest, I'd actually say quite a lot of producers would disagree with that statement of yours. It's a bit weird to state that "mixing sucks and can never achieve the raw rugged sound.." it's not true, mixing can achieve whatever you want it to if you do it good. The whole idea and point of mixing is to get increased control over each element, not the opposite. If your idea of mixing a track on the 60 works for you though, then by all means stick to what you're doing, I'm sure it sounds good. But don't assume that's the best approach for everybody..

Just looked in the manual, the stereo outs are rated at -3 dBv, while the individual outs are 0 dBv. So there is a difference for sure. I guess there's a reason why output boost mods are being done by Forat for the MPC60, the convertors aren't that hot in ouput in general on the 60.

pUs wrote:
Just looked in the manual, the stereo outs are rated at -3 dBv, while the individual outs are 0 dBv. So there is a difference for sure. I guess there's a reason why output boost mods are being done by Forat for the MPC60, the convertors aren't that hot in ouput in general on the 60.

^^ What are you trying to say here? What you wrote about mixing giving more control is correct,, and then you just lost me.

Mixing sucks? well.. if care is taken it doesn't suck that badly to be honest, I'd actually say quite a lot of producers would disagree with that statement of yours. It's a bit weird to state that "mixing sucks and can never achieve the raw rugged sound.." it's not true, mixing can achieve whatever you want it to if you do it good. The whole idea and point of mixing is to get increased control over each element, not the opposite. If your idea of mixing a track on the 60 works for you though, then by all means stick to what you're doing, I'm sure it sounds good. But don't assume that's the best approach for everybody..

yeah, for the GAYS!



"taken care"

"not true"

"good"

"increased control"


all of that is relative absolutism. your inferences have been dismissed.

The Grublet wrote:

Mixing sucks? well.. if care is taken it doesn't suck that badly to be honest, I'd actually say quite a lot of producers would disagree with that statement of yours. It's a bit weird to state that "mixing sucks and can never achieve the raw rugged sound.." it's not true, mixing can achieve whatever you want it to if you do it good. The whole idea and point of mixing is to get increased control over each element, not the opposite. If your idea of mixing a track on the 60 works for you though, then by all means stick to what you're doing, I'm sure it sounds good. But don't assume that's the best approach for everybody..

yeah, for the GAYS!



"taken care"

"not true"

"good"

"increased control"


all of that is relative absolutism. your inferences have been dismissed.

"Dismissed".. and how's that for absolutism. Really, try taking part in the actual discussion instead. It's fun.

There is nothing relative about my absolutism... Dismissed/rejected/ignored is what I choose to do to your argument. As opposed to just saying "blee blahh blahh blee blah blah blah" is my opinion.":

By stating an absolute term in a manner that needs interpretation, like this or that is better, this or that is stronger, or this or that is right or wrong... you are not speaking in truths, but instead, speaking in opinions.

Mixing is by far NOT better for my sound... but it may be for yours... hence the relativism.

My assertion was that you can never achieve the raw rugged sound that THE DRUM MACHINE NATURALLY PRODUCES out of the mix outs, buy separating the sounds, then compressing, then eq-ing. It squashes everything down so it plays "flatter" or "more standardly" (note my relativism is in quotes)...

BUT

It never sounds the same ever again as it did on the machine itself...

That is why I 2 track...

and why you should not... because you like doing it the "right way" so it sounds "good" and gives you "more control".... which is all because you are "taking more care", with your mix...

BS.

Learn your drum machine and take care of that.