Pro sound quality... with better sound card?

N

NiteGlo

Guest
Hello all

I am doing some dance tracks with my computer (p3 600, 256ram, 20gig EIDE HD) but I have not been too pleased with the results. I listen to other .mp3 tracks on my computer and I want to reach that... not sure how to explain it or what you call it, but its that great sound where you can really hear the bass ripping phat or pounding hard, the bass drum really thumps, the hihats clink really clear, you can hear every frequency of the pads/strings, and the lead synths just have that clear pure full range sound to it, not all muted or bleeding into other sounds. I know a lot has to do with the mixing and mastering (EQ, compressing/limiting), and I do the best I can with that. But my friend has told me that I can get more from my mixes with a better sound card, because mine is crap (Im using a sound blaster awe32 that came with computer). Will a better sound card give me phatter, cleaner sound? My friend can give me a deal with either a Echo Gina24, or a Korg Oasys. Anyone use these, and have any thoughts on what might be better? Any helpful comments are much appreciated :)
 
yes, but....

a quality sound card will give you better quality sound, but that's not all that's needed. Don't assume that once you get your new sound card, you'll tracks will now sound great.

The new card will give you better quality recordings, cleaner sound, overall better quality. So that will take care of a good amount of your problem.

But after that, you need to mix it right... No one's going to expect professional quality from your recordings. And they shouldn't, and neither should you. You're not a professional engineer (well, i'm guessing you're not :)), and you don't have pro equipment (not that pro equipment will be that much of an advantage... many quality recordings have been made on consumer equipment). But if you apply some tricks and some good mixing, you should end up with something you'll be very happy with.

as for which soundcard to get... there are tons of threads about that.... so get to searchin'!! :D:D
 
sorry to rain on your parade but people should and do expect professional quality from your recordings and you should be able to give them it. dance music is one of those genres where you should be able to do it all yourself i am afraid. some genres a little more than others maybe though
guess thats why people have to work at it for years huh!!!!!! you arent going to be able to just come along, jam on fruity loops or rebirth and get a record deal, you gotta learn about effects, about compression, about mixing sounds properly, about getting the sounds right,
about mastering, about levels, about eq, about hardware etc etc etc.
yuo should be able to produce something at home very very close to that of what you listen too. if not and you think you have all the tunes and ideas down, get your butt into a studio and pay an engineer. at the end of the day (unless you are mad famous and therfore a record company may bring you into a studio and pay an engineer to mother you as your name will guarantee sales) you have gotta give the labels tracks which they have to do nothing too. which can go straight to the mastering house for pressing. there is no reason why with time and investment you cant do it all,just refuse to settle for less and listen to tracks that you want to sound like and keep tweaking and tweaking till you get there.
sorry but thats how it is.
 
Is it wrong to assume that if you never leave the digital domain (i.e. everything is done in software) that the soundcard will play no role in the quality of your sound other than the fact that you tweak your track based on the sound it outputs to your monitors? So if your soundcard is colouring the bass, your mixes will tend to sound light on the bass. I have no idea if soundblaster cards colour the sound they produce, but I'm very curious to find out if anyone does know the answer.:)
 
every set up be it digital or analog or a mixture suffers from the same probs with accurate reproduction. everything colours the sounds somewhat. what you have to do is set it up as close as you can get it to reference then learn to realise how it is effecting/colouring it. play back lots of tracks you like the sound of etc and see how they sound. learn to work with it and it ceases to become less of a problem. if your speakers, soundcard etc is light on bass. try playing some tracks by other artists you like the sound of through your set up . feel how they sound on your set up. then use this as a bench mark when making your own tracks.
 
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