Oh dear... Nasty sounding recording...

[Nollykin]

Now. I wont pretend to know anything really about sound recording, at all. I have never done any guitar recording before.

 

I have a Sennheiser E-835-S mic, with a Peavey Rage 158 (Rage II). I route that basically straight into my soundblastert Live! card - using a 1/4 - 1/8 inch converter plug (Now THATS hi tech ).

 

I guess you arent surprised to hear that the sound quality is shocking after recording. I have tried many mic positions... none seem to get anything but a really tinny, crappy quality sound - similar to that of a really compressed sound file, if anything else. something brought down to a lower bitrate, or something. Now, I am guessing this is my input - my soundcard. It probably inputs in lower hz or something? I dont know. Like I said. I dont know. But anyway... Would this be a correct assumption? If this is true, what would a good suggestion be, to rectify this?

 

I was thinking of getting a high quality interface card for my PC... would this be a good idea? What would you suggest on a LOW budget? Ta guys

 

I was looking at M-Audio and / or Hoontech...?

 

Nolly

[WFTurner]

The mic input on a SB Live isn't hot enough to get

a decent sound. You need some kind of preamp, either stand alone or those in a mixer to get a hot enough signal to get a good sound.

 

As you consider a quest for a better sound card, here's one general bit of advice, based on my experience. Even though the SB Live and up are generally considered consumer/gamer cards, if you don't have some expertise and/or some kind of decent gear to input the signal to a pro-card,

the pro card probably ain't gonna make a difference without some kind of frontend gear, especially in the less than $300 dollar range.

The pro card will have better converters but a weak 24bit 96kHz signal ain't gonna be anymore

satisfying than a 16bit 44kHz signal.

 

You get in the $400 - $800 you can get in to cards that have built in preamps.

 

Just a general, food for thought statement.

[Nollykin]

So... I'm in trouble then? what would be a feasablie option then?? Hmm...

 

Nolly

[WFTurner]

>>So... I'm in trouble then? what would be a feasablie option then?? Hmm...<<

 

Well just taking a quick look at my most recent Musician's Friend and American Musical Supply catalog, you're not gonna get into the low end pro card arenea for less than $170.00. You can keep an eye on EBay and you might get one of those cards a little cheaper. But I've been watching EBay for one myself and that stuff is generally bidding out to close to what a new one will cost after shipping.

 

Check out all the music supply sites, there's a lot of low end preamps in the $100 - $200 range. You'll have to do some research to decide which one will be best for you.

[JimK]

So... I'm in trouble then? what would be a feasablie option then?? Hmm...

 

You could buy an amp modeler and record direct with that. The output of a modeler will be enough to drive the input of your SoundBlaster card. Your amp is solid-state, isn't it? If so, you'll probably prefer the tone from the modeler. Plus, it will have a wider range of sounds.

[Nollykin]

Both valid points.

 

I see... yeah - so there aint really a way without decent money being spent

 

hehe

 

Nolly

[WFTurner]

>>I see... yeah - so there aint really a way without decent money being spent<<

 

Well I'm not your gear snob type of person but yes as with anything in music, there is some kind of minimal investment required... but using your head and sorting out what you need in gear and what you need in knowledge and expertise is probably your most important resource

 

I've played and wrote for 35 years but just recently tried to understand the recording end of it. I started with two SB's an awe32 and 64. Threw a few bucks at it as I could and learned all

I could with what I had. Right now I'm using an

Audigy built me up a cheap but respectible frontend to get my signal and right now I'm getting great results on a consumer card. I'm ready to upgrade to one of those low end pro cards.

 

Quality gear does matter. I noticed a night and day difference in my tracks and mixes when I moved from the 16bit 44kHz Aews to the 16bit 48Khz

Audigy. A new card will result in even better results.

 

Point is to take what you have at the moment, maybe throw a few bucks at it and then work hard to increase you're knowledge so you can move in a positive direction towards where you'd like to be sometime in the future when you can throw some more bucks at it.

 

Good luck.

[JimK]

Well, here's something else you can try.

 

WARNING

Be careful, you can damage your computer doing this.

END OF WARNING

 

I went to Peavey's web site and saw that your amp has a headphone output. You could plug that into your soundcard. Here's where the warning comes in. Push too much power through that headphone jack and you'll damage the soundcard. If you try this, turn your amp all the way down. Then slowly turn it up while monitoring the inputs in your recording software. When you get a good level, stop.

 

By doing this, your using the power amp in your amp to drive the input of the sound card. The draw back is that it may sound terrible. This bypasses the speaker, obviously. Your amp doesn't emulate a speaker through the headphone jack. So, you're recording sort-of-direct. This usually doesn't sound good. Which is why things like the POD (and other modelers) are hugely popular.

[WFTurner]

I come back to mention checking if the Peavey had a line out and it seems Jim did the research and you don't.

 

I've tried using the lineout on a couple of smaller Fenders my son's have and found the noise level extremely high. Would suspect the headphone out might be the same. You can get rid of alot of the noise using a program like Cool Edit and it's noise reduction features. You might get something you can live with.

[Dak Lander]

OK Nol, I'll throw this at you. All else aside. 'K? Try running through a Phonic mixer. You can get one for under $100.00 US. Lots of people will flame me for this but Behringer makes a suitable small mixer that will do the trick. Both have reasonably good, not great pre-amps that should be able to boost your input signal without adding too much extra noise.

As a poor guy's example. For the most part, the clean, dry stuff I post are done with this;

(Jeez, I'm gettin' ready to hear the laughs)

Marshall Electronics MXL1006 large diaphragm mic <$100.00 US, into a

Phonic MM1202 mixer <$100.00 US, into a

Soundblaster Live soundcard <$50.00 US, into

n-Track Studio <$90.00 US.

 

I do use other mics and situations. I've mic'd the deVille 2X12 as well as a Markley practice amp with that system & It's ok. Great? No. Acceptable for normal sharing? YES!

 

You have an acceptable mic and soundcard so, another couple of hundred US bucks can get you something that's shareable.

 

Other suggestions about the pods are good too & may be what you need because it's obvious from hearing your vocals that the mic into soundcard works for you.

 

Later mate, hope it helps a bit.

[Nollykin]

Ahh... Ta, dakky... Thats a big help. Yes - I remember someone at Allans Music reccomending that option to me waaaay back when I didnt know anything about this thing... Hmm.. Ill look into it.

 

Nolly