Bad sound quality..Any help?

[ablair3311]

thanks fastermouse, I'll give 'er a try.

[ablair3311]

didn't work...this is killing me.

[Wango]

How much worse does it sound on playback than through monitoring?

Also, what sample rate and bit depth are you recording at?

When I first got PT, I tried different sample rates and bit depths.
I do remember that recording at 16-bit sounded very bad to me.

[ablair3311]

Its a good bit worse, sounds like im playing through a really bad amplifier.

Im not too sure how to find out the bit depth im recording at...I don't know too much about pro tools, I just got it and only use it for simple recordings. I found 44.1kHz for the sample rate if that sounds about right. Ill play around and see if I can find the bit depth and try to adjust it

[Wango]

Originally Posted by ablair3311

Its a good bit worse, sounds like im playing through a really bad amplifier.

Im not too sure how to find out the bit depth im recording at...I don't know too much about pro tools, I just got it and only use it for simple recordings. I found 44.1kHz for the sample rate if that sounds about right. Ill play around and see if I can find the bit depth and try to adjust it

You set the rate and bit depth when you create the session, but you can't change it later. You need to create a new session to do that.

Try creating a new session at 48/24.
Then record your geetar and see if it sounds better.


It's the only thing that comes to mind.
If it were an IO issue, it'd sound crappy while monitoring as well.

[Keybeeetsss]

We can go on & on & on & on, til the break of dawn, til we all start to yawn, & be so sleepy we end up falling asleep in the lawn

Bottom line with cheese, U hav an Mbox.. there's only so much of a "sound" ur gonna get out of that man...

[thefridge]

Originally Posted by Keybeeetsss

We can go on & on & on & on, til the break of dawn, til we all start to yawn, & be so sleepy we end up falling asleep in the lawn

Bottom line with cheese, U hav an Mbox.. there's only so much of a "sound" ur gonna get out of that man...

Complete rubbish- an mbox is quite capable of giving acceptable results for what it is. The sample rate, converters, mbox etc etc are not sufficient to explain this. First, try the pod through headphones, if that sound is correct, then check the recording level. If its not clipping or way too low, how is he monitoring, through phones or speakers that are distorting. Does he know how to check any of this? if not, there is your problem!
cheers, Mick

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by thefridge

Complete rubbish- an mbox is quite capable of giving acceptable results for what it is.
cheers, Mick

Mick, acceptable & "It should sound like Rascal Flatts" is not in the same "facility" if u kno what I mean; thatz what most think because they have PT... I'm not necessarily directing this @ the OP, I'm jus saying... & so r u tellin us that it has nuthin to do with converters|DA-AD, etc???

[thefridge]

Originally Posted by Keybeeetsss

Mick, acceptable & "It should sound like Rascal Flatts" is not in the same "facility" if u kno what I mean; thatz what most think because they have PT... I'm not necessarily directing this @ the OP, I'm jus saying... & so r u tellin us that it has nuthin to do with converters|DA-AD, etc???

I am assuming ( maybe wrongly ) that he couldnt hear the difference between converters etc; (yet) The level of knowledge he has is the real question-if he cant see if he is clipping, everything else is irrelevant.
At least he has come to the right place!
cheers, Mick

[Wango]

Without us actually hearing the difference, it's difficult to say, we're just guessing. Ablair - if you have a video cam or something you can post the before and after sound, I'm sure someone can nail down the problem.

Fridge - I agrree the sample rate won't make a diff, but the bit depth will. Depending on how discerning he is about his guitar sound, playing back a 16-bit recorded track might sound really horrible to him. It did to me when I tried it.

If it were clipping, had a bad connection, etc., he would hear those things while monitoring as well.

Another thing that comes to mind is that if you have any plugins on the track, they might be causing it. If you're using low latency monitoring, they would be disabled while recording. But during playback, they might be screwing up the sound, dpeneding on what they are and how they're set.

If you have any plugins, right click them and make them inactive, then compare the monitored versus recorded tracks.