Finally Getting an Audio Interface, Do I Have to Compose My Beats All Over???

me1999now

me1999now

New member
So, I’m almost done setting up my little start-up home studio and am on track to meeting my December deadline so I can make 2010 the year for me to really get the ball rolling with this new hobby. The last two things I need to get started are some more RAM for my PC, a pair of monitors (I decided on the Yamaha HS50’s) and an audio interface (going with the Presonus Firebox), which I’m picking up this weekend.

The question I have is this. I’ve been working on ideas for beats and have the foundation laid down for a few songs that I really want to try to develop. Since I did these tracks on my computer’s stock soundcard, do I have to redo them from scratch to get the sound quality attributed to using a separate soundcard like the Firebox? Or, will I be fine as long as I use the Firebox to export my tracks into WAV format? It would suck to have to go back and compose everything all over again; but then again, that’s why I decided to wait until I had all the necessary equipment before I decided to really spend time working on beats and mainly focused on reading, deciding on which programs I wanted to use, and learning them before I really went in.

If it makes any difference, all of my music is MIDI and I have not recorded any audio. I would guess that the change in sound quality will only come into play when I export the track and tell my DAW what quality to export it in and which soundcard to reference. But again, I’m just a confused newbie and could be understanding this all wrong.

Can anyone help clarify?
 
me1999now said:
Since I did these tracks on my computer’s stock soundcard, do I have to redo them from scratch to get the sound quality attributed to using a separate soundcard like the Firebox? Or, will I be fine as long as I use the Firebox to export my tracks into WAV format?
Click to expand...

No. No disrespect, but you bought too much gear without understanding the purpose of the gear you bought.

me1999now said:
If it makes any difference, all of my music is MIDI and I have not recorded any audio. I would guess that the change in sound quality will only come into play when I export the track and tell my DAW what quality to export it in and which soundcard to reference. But again, I’m just a confused newbie and could be understanding this all wrong.
Click to expand...

Regardless of what soundcard you're referencing, your audio will be exported at the same sample-rate ("quality"). This is set somewhere in your DAW. 44.1KHz is the full CD quality, and situations that benefit from a higher sample rate than that are extremely few and far between. Sorry to disappoint.

The benefits of using an audio interface are:
1) Increased quality for audio recording (not exporting tracks)
2) Significantly faster audio response using ASIO drivers, allowing you to play MIDI controllers in real-time.
 
So you only need an audio interface if you're recording audio? I'm a little confused bc people told me I would need an audio interface if I'm trying to make music and my computer's stock sound wasn't going to cut it. Then again they probably were assuming that I would be recording a lot of external instruments.

I'm not understanding how you say I bought too much gear bc all I currently have is a computer, a DAW, Reason, some free VST's and a MIDI keyboard. I mean I'm def new to all of this but I think I understand what these items do. I couldn't see how I could do digital music production without any of these items.

But it seems that the audio interface is only needed if I'm recording live audio (vocals, instruments, etc) and as long as my computer's sound card let's me export my audio at the full CD quality sample rate that you described, which it does, then I'm fine. The reason that I posted this question was bc this dude at Guitar Center told me that I would have to redo all of my beats bc of my computer's soundcard and that I couldn't export my stuff with good (full CD) quality bc I didn't have an audio interface. Maybe he was trying to make a sale or maybe he didn't know what he was talking about, but either way I didn't buy the interface bc I wanted to do more research before making the purchase.

So, since I do plan to do some recording an audio interface seems like an item I will need. But the question was in regard to whether I would have to redo my beats due to potential sound quality issues of my internal sound card, but as I suspected, since its all MIDI and I didn't record any audio I don't have to worry about this.

Thanks for clarifying the misconception I had about the AI having an impact on the audio quality of my exported tracks.
 
me1999now said:
So you only need an audio interface if you're recording audio? I'm a little confused bc people told me I would need an audio interface if I'm trying to make music and my computer's stock sound wasn't going to cut it. Then again they probably were assuming that I would be recording a lot of external instruments.

I'm not understanding how you say I bought too much gear bc all I currently have is a computer, a DAW, Reason, some free VST's and a MIDI keyboard. I mean I'm def new to all of this but I think I understand what these items do. I couldn't see how I could do digital music production without any of these items.

But it seems that the audio interface is only needed if I'm recording live audio (vocals, instruments, etc) and as long as my computer's sound card let's me export my audio at the full CD quality sample rate that you described, which it does, then I'm fine. The reason that I posted this question was bc this dude at Guitar Center told me that I would have to redo all of my beats bc of my computer's soundcard and that I couldn't export my stuff with good (full CD) quality bc I didn't have an audio interface. Maybe he was trying to make a sale or maybe he didn't know what he was talking about, but either way I didn't buy the interface bc I wanted to do more research before making the purchase.

So, since I do plan to do some recording an audio interface seems like an item I will need. But the question was in regard to whether I would have to redo my beats due to potential sound quality issues of my internal sound card, but as I suspected, since its all MIDI and I didn't record any audio I don't have to worry about this.

Thanks for clarifying the misconception I had about the AI having an impact on the audio quality of my exported tracks.
Click to expand...

He was trying to make a sale and he didn't know what he's talking about. You should buy all of your music stuff online -- unless its a 88-key fully weighted grand, it's a lot cheaper online.
 
Should probably be mentioned that an audio interface's d/a converters do affect the outgoing sound as well - just not directly. They define how well you'll hear it, and thus play their part in what kind of mixing decisions you'll make based on what you hear...but as said, the exported files aren't affected.
 
krushing said:
Should probably be mentioned that an audio interface's d/a converters do affect the outgoing sound as well - just not directly. They define how well you'll hear it, and thus play their part in what kind of mixing decisions you'll make based on what you hear...but as said, the exported files aren't affected.
Click to expand...

Got you. This is what I kind of was referring to as far as getting the full sound quality. I would think a good audio interface and set of monitors is essential for this.

Thanks all for clarifying.
 
You didn't do too bad with your equipment choice. I have Yamaha monitors in the same line as yours, and the Firebox also.

You don't really need to do anything differently with your existing music. Make sure you do pick up that audio interface so you can hook up your monitors. Also make sure your PC has a firewire port so the Firebox works.

If you have any trouble with the Firebox (if the light goes red and the sound stops every 10 minutes or so), download the latest driver package online and install that.
 
konartis said:
You didn't do too bad with your equipment choice. I have Yamaha monitors in the same line as yours, and the Firebox also.

You don't really need to do anything differently with your existing music. Make sure you do pick up that audio interface so you can hook up your monitors. Also make sure your PC has a firewire port so the Firebox works.

If you have any trouble with the Firebox (if the light goes red and the sound stops every 10 minutes or so), download the latest driver package online and install that.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The Firebox came in the mail a couple of days ago and I have it up and running. Can't wait to get my hands on those monitors though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top