Recording distortion

ive previously made beats and recorded them using the audio program Audacity on windows xp.
ive recently bought a laptop with pre-installed windows 7. im trying to record my beats, but the recording
is always distorted. you can see the distortion on the waveform of the recording. i think it has something to do
with the settings of the laptop because ive tried multiple programs and the recording is always distorted
im not sure what to do. any advice is welcomed.
by the way the sampling rate of the audacity is set at 44100 hz 16-bit in case you were wondering.

thanks!

what exactly are you doing? how are things connected? interface or via 1/8th" line input?

im recording from the stereo outs of the mpc 2k xl straight to the microphone input of the laptop with a cable( aux on one side, standard 1/8" on the other side). as i previously did with my desktop computer when it worked perfectly.

ah okay... in the audio settings you may have the option to change the input to line in rather then mic... cause the mpc is not a mic it doesn't require that much gain.

nope nothing like that on this version. however when i was using my desktop computer there was an option like that (line in, mic, or master) i would use the "mic in" option and it would work just fine.

dj6807 wrote:nope nothing like that on this version. however when i was using my desktop computer there was an option like that (line in, mic, or master) i would use the "mic in" option and it would work just fine.

well turn the gain down on the input...

nope its not that either. its like a low quality sound rather than "distorted" kinda like if you recorded it off of a cell phone or something. then sometimes the sample is real faint, and the kicks and snares arent. its hard to explain. but i can send you the file and show you how it sounds if you would like to actually hear it..

dj6807 wrote:nope its not that either. its like a low quality sound rather than "distorted" kinda like if you recorded it off of a cell phone or something. then sometimes the sample is real faint, and the kicks and snares arent. its hard to explain. but i can send you the file and show you how it sounds if you would like to actually hear it..

well okay... i might have an idea what it could be by hearing it

alright i just uploaded it to soundcloud to save time. heres the link.

http://soundcloud.com/questclassic/unti ... or-quality

keep in mind ive added no flanger effects or anything of the sort. you can hear the sample faint in the background.
and this sounds nothing like how it sounds out of my speakers from my mpc.

wtf? so you mean the drums are coming out okay but it sounds out of phase like that when recorded into the computer?

yes sir. the drums didnt come out too perfect either. but they did come out better than the sample did.
idk what to do.

Honestly it just sounds like a super-compressed audio file. I would check your export settings in audacity.

You could also try uploading a wav file itself somewhere where it wont be converted to flash/mp3.

hey are the samples panned in the mpc? is everything centered?

nogginj wrote:Honestly it just sounds like a super-compressed audio file. I would check your export settings in audacity.

You could also try uploading a wav file itself somewhere where it wont be converted to flash/mp3.

actually, when im recording it, its kind of distorted at the beginning for about 8 bars then after that, it gets really
distorted and you can actually see the transformation from the two while its recording. and it exports as a 16 bit 44100hz
.wav file which is what i used prior to this problem when it actually worked. but yeah i feel what your saying about it
sounding compressed. that makes sense. but i cant see that being the problem.

mr_debauch wrote:hey are the samples panned in the mpc? is everything centered?

yes, everything is centered, its just a plain sample with kicks, snares, and high hats, no panning, or fading or anything
done to it.