Can audio interfaces alter the sound?

T

torkolort

Inspired
Hi,

I'm recording direct through a TC Elektronic Konnekt 8 audio interface, into Cubase 5 on a computer running XP. Recordings generally sound very harsh, somewhat digital, has less gain and still more noise opposed to when playing through an Atomic. The "core" sound is there, but it has all these side effects.

I do have a firewire issue on my computer. For some reason, my computer didn't have firewire, so I bought a PCI card. The problem is that there are only two available slots, and when using either one of them, it blocks the air-flow to the graphic card's integrated fan. I think this also causes the firewire card to overheat, and then stops working from time to time. I want to blame all my recording issues on this problem, but I don't think that's it.

This is obviously something I need to fix anyway, but as I also have had some minor problems with Cubase, I'm thinking about just replacing everything and buy a Mac and a Duet. I've noticed that many here use the Duet with Logic, and I'm wondering if that's mainly because it's simple to use, or if it is because of quality reasons?

I monitor through a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones. Just to check, I plugged the headphones to the output of the Axe-Fx and it sounds pretty much the same as when playing through the Konnekt, or when listening to recordings (even when it's just left or right with headphones in one of the Axe-Fx outputs). I've read several posts regarding playing directly through headphones, and there are a lot of different opinions, but it was my interpretation that it should work fine (with the right cables etc). That's why I'm not sure how much a new setup would help. I've listened to many recordings on the forum, and what I miss in mine are the pure and realistic aspect of the sound, which I've never been close to in any of the direct recordings.

I've asked about this earlier, but now I actually can afford a fresh start :)

Appreciate your input
 
torkolort said:
I'm thinking about just replacing everything and buy a Mac and a Duet. I've noticed that many here use the Duet with Logic, and I'm wondering if that's mainly because it's simple to use, or if it is because of quality reasons?
Click to expand...

Both..never had any issues, recording quality is top notch and very easy to use!!
 
Another way to phrase your post is that it sounds harsh, etc. through headphones but not through the Atomic. Have you tried monitoring with the Atomic just for comparison?
 
If you got room, add a 12cm fan to blow into the area where the graphics card is. It doesn't have to be hurricane level winds, just a few cfm will help immensely. I put one in my PC years ago when I went with a fanless cooler from Zalman and it's been running for 6 years without a hiccup.

Do a search for a little application called dpclat.exe. It measures DPC latency (not really sure what that is to be honest), but basically it tells you how well your system will work for capturing audio. Not really sure if this would help you in anyway, but it's good to know. If your latency is a bit too high you can download a program called PCI latency tool to adjust how your devices share and release the PCI bus.

As for the sound quality itself. Well I know for a fact that after upgrading to a nice Focusrite audio interface that everything sounds better overall....except for MP3's. I can hear all kinds of flaws and errors in them now. I know that between new monitors and the audio interface that there isn't a lot of tolerance for garbage; all the warts are exposed.
 
LMO said:
Another way to phrase your post is that it sounds harsh, etc. through headphones but not through the Atomic. Have you tried monitoring with the Atomic just for comparison?
Click to expand...

Yeah actually I have, and it does sound better when monitoring through the Atomic, but the end result is the same.
 
shasha said:
If you got room, add a 12cm fan to blow into the area where the graphics card is. It doesn't have to be hurricane level winds, just a few cfm will help immensely. I put one in my PC years ago when I went with a fanless cooler from Zalman and it's been running for 6 years without a hiccup.

Do a search for a little application called dpclat.exe. It measures DPC latency (not really sure what that is to be honest), but basically it tells you how well your system will work for capturing audio. Not really sure if this would help you in anyway, but it's good to know. If your latency is a bit too high you can download a program called PCI latency tool to adjust how your devices share and release the PCI bus.

As for the sound quality itself. Well I know for a fact that after upgrading to a nice Focusrite audio interface that everything sounds better overall....except for MP3's. I can hear all kinds of flaws and errors in them now. I know that between new monitors and the audio interface that there isn't a lot of tolerance for garbage; all the warts are exposed.
Click to expand...

Before I knew about the temperature issue, I downloaded a DCP latency check software from TC Electronic. At first it seemed that everything was running optimal, but every now and then there was a big latency boost. I never had any latency issues with the device, but I guess that's not the same thing.

I've also thought about getting a Focusrite interface, with usb instead of firewire. I've taken out the firewire card so that the computer runs more smoothly :) Just a little frustrating not knowing the root problem. So I have to decide whether to replace one thing at a time or just go for it and upgrade everything... ;)
 
xrist04 said:
Are you clipping the inputs of the audio interface?
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No not in the interface. But what I forgot to mention that I do have a output clipping problem in Cubase. When I have two or more tracks I almost always have to lower the main output in Cubase in order to avoid clipping. Because of that, all my recordings are of very low volume. I try to have the output as high as I can without clipping, but I can never have it as loud as it should be...

I usually record over a backing track, and sometimes the backing track itself is enough to clip, so I usually have to lower that track's output as well. Maybe I'm missing something...
 
With my current situation, I have to. I know it's not optimal, but that's not the point. There is something wrong and I have to find out why.
 
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