Best sounding software?

[Aaron Selix]

Hello,

I've gone from Cubase 3.7 to Samplitude studio 5.57, mostly because I thought the sound quality was a litter better (not to mention I was tired of too many cubase bugs).

 

So is there a consensus opinion on which software sounds the best? I'm more concerned about the softwares under $500 - the pro tools and paris systems that have their own DSP are out of the price range.

 

Aaron

[Guest]

Originally posted by aselix@hotmail.com:

is there a consensus opinion on which software sounds the best? I'm more concerned about the softwares under $500 - the pro tools and paris systems that have their own DSP are out of the price range.

Aaron[/b]

 

"Best Sounding" - this is pretty tough to quantify. What's the best sounding home stereo equipment? Nobody knows, but there's been an entire industry built around magazines that argue about it...

 

With that said, I'd say the biggest thing that will affect the sound quality is your recording technique, the 2nd most important is your hardware (mics, monitor speakers, preamps, soundcard, and other outboard gear, in that order), and 3rd is your mixing, processing and mastering skills and experience, and last in the list would be the software....

 

Now that it's been put into perspective...

The quality of the audio plug-ins you add is probably the biggest single thing you can do to improve sound quality. Another is to make sure your software supports the full resolution of your hardware (for example, if you have a 24 bit audio card, don't get software that is limited to using 16 bits).

 

Keep in mind this is just one opinion, your mileage may vary....

 

 

 

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philbo

[Aaron Selix]

Philbo,

I agree with you about other factors determining the sound quality.

 

I did numerous tests to record into cubase and samplitude using the same equipment for each software, with the same mic, pre, levels, montitors, etc. I made sure to set the output levels in the softwares the same. So with all other factors being equal, it was clear the samplitude sounded a little better, at least to me. I think software does sound different to some degree.

 

Aaron

[Alon]

The new Cubase is 32 bit, with apogee encoding built in, etc.

 

Did you compare it to this version ?

[Anderton]

Another factor is EQ. Algorithms vary wildly, and EQ, reverb, any effect will vary greatly from one piece of software to the next. I don't know if mixing algorithms can vary as much, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

From what I understand the people at Samplitude take great pride in the sound quality of their software, and they definitely believe theirs sounds better. I need to corner them at a trade show sometime and find out what their "secret sauce" is.

[krogangelfire.com]

For me,Samplitude is the best by a long way!

I've used Cubase since atari days,and

love its ease of use,but the sound of the

audio versions(on PC)seems to me to be

bordering on the lousy(even VST5).I recently

did some blind A/B testing on things that

i'd thought were suspect,and was amazed to

find that I can *easily* tell the difference

between an input signal(when monitored

through Cubase,ie after the A/D converters),

and the one coming back off hard disk(no FX

or EQ added,of course).The same degradation

of quality happens when using the mixdown

function.VST seems to be able to play back

audio in real-time fine,but as soon as you write to disk it becomes lifeless(even when using 32-bit float files).

It's the usual digital audio problems,

loss of top and bottom end,disappearing

reverb tails etc.

I got so sick of this that I looked around

for a program that can record accurately,and

with Samplitude I really can't tell the

difference between the input and recorded

sound.The trouble is,it's a pretty horrible

program to use,and the midi is very limited.

However,if sound quality is the most important thing for you,it's the only one to

get.

martin

[batman]

I recently downloaded the demo of Propellerheads "Real", and the demo tunes sounded rather good to my ears....(that's Brit-Speak for "fuckin' amazing"!!)