Very low sound quality when recording with Eleven Rack

[dbvoyager]

Hello people,

I'm getting very low sound quality when I listen to what I recorded. It's okay when I use eleven rack while pro tools is off; but when it comes to recording quality kind of drops. This is the quick summery of my issue and I'll give you more details:

my gear:
Eleven Rack 2.0.1
latest drivers
Pro Tools 10.0 native
late 2011 iMac i7 2.8 ghz with 8 gb of RAM
shure srh940 headphones for monitoring

First off, I've made research before I start this topic. So don't give me the wikipedia.org/mastering link too quickly. I don't mean the sound is too low. I mean sound lacks quality.

So yeah, getting pretty low quality it almost feels like the sound was recorded by a camera. First, I thought that I wasn't good enough at creating tones. Sucky tone would sound sucky. So I decided to try out again with presets which were created by other, more skilled players out there. So I tried but nothing changes.

Later, I thought I was not playing clean enough maybe. So just to test it, I tried very easy riffs which there was no chance I can make mistakes. Good tone + clean playing = nothing changed

And I believe I'm not screwing up things-not that much- when I'm mixing and mastering, even though I'm being quite a newbie to all of this recording, mixing and mastering topics.

Finally, I read things about digidesign's issued usb cables. I've seen people confirm that they once had the same issue as me but the issue was gone after changing the usb cable(the one comes from eleven rack, goes through the computer). I was intending to make a little record around 30 seconds for you guys, so you can really tell the problem about sound quality I'm getting, but unfortunately I don't have time now.

I see lots of people getting great quality records only with a pc, guitar and the eleven rack (or is it not just a pc, guitar and eleven rack? am I missing something?) and I think what I hear when I record is not eleven rack's top quality sound and most successful performance. something should be wrong.

I need guidance and thanks in advance.

[xy44]

all of this sounds too famuliar too me!.. considering this was exactly what happend to me on my first record test..

Turned out to be the USB cable, generally from what Ive read avid ships low quality cables.. as 3 out of 5 of them are bad so it seems (avid told me that themselves)

And if not that, your not pluggin into a Hub of any kind.. direct to puter?

[Benoni]

Yeah, i would try a new USB cable and see if that helps.

Also are you sure you do not have some plugins active that happen to be effecting the tone?

[dbvoyager]

Originally Posted by xy44

all of this sounds too famuliar too me!.. considering this was exactly what happend to me on my first record test..

Turned out to be the USB cable, generally from what Ive read avid ships low quality cables.. as 3 out of 5 of them are bad so it seems (avid told me that themselves)

And if not that, your not pluggin into a Hub of any kind.. direct to puter?

I hear this a lot. Most of the people claim the same, cheap cables. I plug my guitar directly into the eleven rack, and eleven rack is connected to my computer via usb. nothing inbetween, just my computer, guitar, eleven rack. I also do not plug any other usb's when I'm recording, in case that would screw the sound up. thanks for giving me hope on getting a better usb cable.

Originally Posted by Benoni

Yeah, i would try a new USB cable and see if that helps.

Also are you sure you do not have some plugins active that happen to be effecting the tone?

I'm sure. I record a single track for testing, no eq, no dynamics, nothing(I give it a high clip gain, so sound level is fine). I can kind of notice that my tone changes after I start pro tools you know. when it's just eleven rack, playing standalone, it's cool.

by the way, I want to ask some further information on hertz and bit thing. you know I'm new to all of this so I think I might be doing something wrong when I'm bouncing the project.

1. what sample rate should I choose when I'm bouncing to disk as mp3 file? on the next step, I pick slowest speed/best quality option and 320kbps but I don't really know what I should choose as sample rate. maybe all of this is because I'm bouncing it not correctly?

2. I know, this is far from being the case but I wanna make sure. is there any chance that I'm recording via my on-board sound card instead of eleven rack's processor so that's why my records lack quality? I didn't touch anything, just installed pro tools, connected to eleven rack. that's all. but I still want to make sure.

thanks for your answers.

[xy44]

Originally Posted by dbvoyager

1. what sample rate should I choose when I'm bouncing to disk as mp3 file? on the next step, I pick slowest speed/best quality option and 320kbps but I don't really know what I should choose as sample rate. maybe all of this is because I'm bouncing it not correctly?

2. I know, this is far from being the case but I wanna make sure. is there any chance that I'm recording via my on-board sound card instead of eleven rack's processor so that's why my records lack quality? I didn't touch anything, just installed pro tools, connected to eleven rack. that's all. but I still want to make sure.

thanks for your answers.

Right.. first question Bouncing.. never bounce to MP3, always to a 24 bit wav (at whatever samplerate your using in project) - this will be universaly benifitical to your project as you mix in other things etc etc. even if you want the bounce the entire track. (use interleaved too)

MP3 is the last thing you want to do at 16bit 320 when the record is finished.

your 2nd question.
Load Protools. under hardware engine. make sure that "ELEVEN" is selected as your device.

[dbvoyager]

Originally Posted by xy44

Right.. first question Bouncing.. never bounce to MP3, always to a 24 bit wav (at whatever samplerate your using in project) - this will be universaly benifitical to your project as you mix in other things etc etc. even if you want the bounce the entire track. (use interleaved too)

MP3 is the last thing you want to do at 16bit 320 when the record is finished.

your 2nd question.
Load Protools. under hardware engine. make sure that "ELEVEN" is selected as your device.

I bounced a project both to a 16 bit wav(44.1 khz - interleaved) and 32 bit float wav(192 khz - interleaved), just to check if I was making mistakes when I was bouncing. well, it seems I bounced correctly at all times. even at 32 bit wav, it sounds like a camera, not the eleven rack.

Also, I checked both hardware section and playback engine section, avid eleven rack is selected for both. I also have my clock source selected as interval.

so yeah, I guess it's just the sucky usb cable avid sent me. I'll purchase a better cable in short time and edit my first post here due to the result, so that if there are other people getting mad because of the same reason, they know they should change their cables.

thanks again!

[dbvoyager]

This is getting really frustrating.

I haven't bought good quality cables yet but I've tried a different cable I randomly found at home which wouldn't be as bad as avid's cable, and results are still the same: my recordings suck

I mean, compared to this and considering he had his eleven rack only for two days, check his record: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9795009

I downloaded his preset and it sounds terrible on my eleven rack.

I don't think he changed his cables in two days and I don't think I'm that much newbie to recording and mixing(because I've tried a million things to get a tiny little better sound but nothing works), so I think two things:

1. I should be getting better results; but I am not, somehow.
2. I think my eleven rack is issued, so I'm condering returning it.

I need your immediate help right now, thanks.

[flommer]

is there any chance that I'm recording via my on-board sound card instead of eleven rack's processor so that's why my records lack quality?

Actually, this may be a way to test what is going on.

You say that the 11r sounds good without Protools. Presumably, this means when listening to it directly with headphones or monitors?

If so, then you could try recording the analog outputs of your 11r into your computer's built in audio inputs. Just make sure you have that selected as your input source for ProTools. Disconnect the 11r completely from the computer via USB. Essentially, your are just using the 11r as a preamp in this scenario.

If the quality of your recording improves, then somehow the usb connection or software settings inside ProTools could be the cause of what you are hearing... From what you are have described it is very hard to discern exactly what you think is wrong.. An example recording might be helpful.

I would also try all the different USB ports on your computer. There have various issues where USB ports do not behave the same as each other.

[dbvoyager]

Originally Posted by flommer

Actually, this may be a way to test what is going on.

You say that the 11r sounds good without Protools. Presumably, this means when listening to it directly with headphones or monitors?

If so, then you could try recording the analog outputs of your 11r into your computer's built in audio inputs. Just make sure you have that selected as your input source for ProTools. Disconnect the 11r completely from the computer via USB. Essentially, your are just using the 11r as a preamp in this scenario.

If the quality of your recording improves, then somehow the usb connection or software settings inside ProTools could be the cause of what you are hearing... From what you are have described it is very hard to discern exactly what you think is wrong.. An example recording might be helpful.

I would also try all the different USB ports on your computer. There have various issues where USB ports do not behave the same as each other.

You're right, I'll prepare a short record today for you guys so you can hear it.

And yes, eleven rack without pro tools = no usb connection, just the eleven rack and headphones.

I'm sure my computer's USB ports are working fine and I actually have tried recording through different USB ports, didn't make any difference.

Before I put an example recording, I believe I can describe what I'm having here: I assume you listened to the record I posted as a good example in my previous post, my recordings don't have ambiance like that one has(believe me I have good reverb, good delay. it's not the tone thing but the quality). Imagine that you are recording with your computer's regular webcam, there's is no ambiance in that recording. Just a poor sound which is actually just a noise that irritates you. I believe I have good tones and my playing is enough to sound good with eleven rack, I don't know what to do now. Mailed Avid but they don't answer.

[Loyd981]

Hey:

I found you have to output setting right when recording with Protools. When I set the output to DAW everything on my computer sound much better. When I plug into my interface I set the output to rig out.

Hope this helps.

Loyd981