Sound Quality Lost After Importing Files

[MrWillsi3]

Hey guys whats up. I'm having a problem i cant seem to fix. I just got a PT's set up about 2 months ago. Brand new IMac, M-box Mini with LE8. I wanted to import the songs that were already recorded into PT's for editing/mixing/mastering.

I had been recording on a Korg D1600II in 44.1 hz and 16 bit. I saved off all my tracks as WAV files onto CD...then created a new PTs session, 24 bit/44.1 hz. I then imported and converted the files of all 15 of my songs into individual PTs sessions.

Heres my issue, and im wondering if anyone else has encountered the same thing. After importing the songs, i expected it to have the same sound quality, if not slightly better, as what was originally recorded on the D1600. Sad enough to say, it sounds much less authentic, much more 'digital' if you will...even thou the 1600 is a digital recorder, it still sounded better on it than in PTs, lost some of its volume and its punch, just all around sounded worse.

So i figured ok, i'll EQ everything out...adjust some levels, im sure that'll fix it...still no luck. We just bought a new pair of Yamaha HS 50's...and had been listening to the PT's session in them, then would play the same song on the 1600, and still the 1600 sounded way better, so i even set it up so i could A/B the sound from the Korg 1600 with PTs...and even on the same speakers at roughly the same level, the PTs songs just sounded weaker.

Today we ran across an old mix of one of the songs done on the 1600 as just a rough mix, so decided to pop it into the CD player, and even the old mix of the song was better than the ones in PTs that ive been working on for hours and hours trying to get the 'life' back into the tracks, but to no avail.

Can anyone offer any help on this, why would a 5 year old Korg 1600II sound so much better with just a really raw, no EQ, no automation, and almost no effects sound better than a PTs one...and if your wondering if i over did it with EQ or effects or whatever, ive even tried it with out any, still the same result...kinda disappointed after dumping over $2,400 into this equipment....

[MrWillsi3]

Heres a little weird addition to this...i put all my songs back to the Korg 1600 that i had backed up before putting them on PTS. well i cleaned my vocal tracks on PTs....so when i restored the original vocals back to the Korg, they were still dirty. So i thought hell let me try this, and i just made WAV files of the clean vocals on PTS...and imported them back to the 1600. I put it side by side with the original, its just as strong, exact same reading, exact same sound. Are the d/a converters of the m-box THAT BAD that it makes everything sound so weak on PTs...i thought maybe it was a generation lost by importing them, but i exported the edited files, and put them back to the 1600, and not a big of sound quality was lost.

The only thing i have a hard time figuring is, when i made a CD of a mix on PTs, even the CD sound was weak....put i can make a CD of the same song on the 1600, with the vocal FROM an export of PTs, and get a much better sound...

[Wango]

I've transferred many tracks from my Korg D16XD into PT and have never had this issue.

The tracks always sound exactly the same in PT as on the Korg.

Also, if the vocal tracks were recorded on the Korg and transferred back and forth, there's no a/d conversion ocurring. The only a/d conversion ocurred in the Korg when you originally recorded it.

Even if you cleaned up the vocals in PT and exported/imported to the Korg, there's still no a/d conversion happening. It's all digital-to-digital at that point.

So, this is not a PT issue.

I've never recorded at 16 bit so maybe this is an issue?

I did import a 16-bit track from a buddy's Sonar rig once, into a PT session at 24/48 and it sounded fine.

Dunno, but all I can say is that PT is not screwing up the sound quality, something else is going on.

EDIT: Could it be that you have a mastering effect on in the Korg?
My D16XD has two master effect 'slots', in addition to the insert effects.
If you were listening through the Korg with the mastering effect on, it would sound much punchier.