Subject: Re: [ecasound] Best way to record
From: S. Massy (theanaloguekid@tak.net.dhis.org)
Date: Thu Jun 21 2001 - 17:56:09 EEST
On Thu, 21 Jun 2001, harvey smith <harvey@buskers.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, S. Massy wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, harvey smith <harvey@buskers.org> wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, S. Massy wrote:
> > >
> > > > Yep, the point is that the little onboard mixer on your soundcard will just
> > > > add dirt to your sound and nothing more.
> > >
> > > Huh... he wasn't using the mixer (that would be if he set it to record the
> > > naster volume). From his description it sounds like he set it to record
> > > the line input directly, but he needs to set the record volume.
> > >
> > > Unless you can explain how to record without adjusting these controls!
> >
> > Setting the record volume anywhere above zero implies some sort of
> > (pre)amplification of the signal that's fed in which is what you want to avoid
> > as much as possible. BTW, I was talking about the hw mixer on the card (if you
> > can call that a mixer) not the sw one.
>
> Huh? I am using a SBLive Value and REALLY have no idea what you are
> talking about. There aren't 2 mixers as far as I can tell, Setting the
> record volume down to zero does just what one would logically expect,
I am using the same card as well. Every soundcard is (very roughly) made of
two parts, the mixer and the adc/dac stuff. The settings for that little mixer
you control them through your soundcard's driver. The point is that there's a
very big difference between the sort of amplification your amp performs, the
one you can perform once the data is in digital format and the one your
soundcard is able to do, your soundcard is probably the weakest point in the
chain. What is confusing is that both the circuitry performing the
amplification on the card and the software to control the parameters of
this chip are called mixer.
Now, of course, if one plugs a guitar straight into the linein of a soundcard
they won't hear a thing upon recording if no gain as been set, because the
output from a guitar, even one with humbuckers, is just not line level at all.
I'm running my signal through some sort of preamp before sending it to the
card and I'm able to do fairly audible recordings with the gain (capture
volume) set to zero; and once the data's in digital format I simply have to
normalize it and it's as loud as anything. Since he's taking his signal right
out from an amp I thought it made sense to suggest doing the same.
(To original poster: BTW, are you taking your signal from your amp's headphone
output or from a true "lineout"?)
> makes a inaudable recording. The fact that he can hear the signal fine
> implies that the cable is OK. If there is another mixer I'd like to know
You're right, that's a point I had missed, I thought he was using his amp as
monitor and simply recording from the computer.
> about it, There are no HW controls (knobs or the like) at all on a SBLive
> Value. I've had problems getting the right volume too (it's not obvious
> where unity gain is) and am trying to be helpful with what works for me.
> However it quite like you know something we don't... but somethings being
> lost somewhere in the explaination.
>
> Harvey
>
>
>
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