USB tone vs other ways to record

terran236

terran236

Member
I couldnt find the answer to this anywhere and i have been looking for some months now. :geek

My question is why does the direct monitor sound different than the recorded sound? It doesnt sound bad but it's not as clear as it could be. It's 90% of the quality that i hear when hearing it live monitored. Just seems like some clarity is lost.

Am i doing something wrong? Is it my computer? :-\ I don't know what the hell it could be.

Anyone know? Thank you for your time and help.:)
 
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You might want to look into what quality you are recording at. I'm not an expert on this type of stuff but you could have your quality set way lower which would result in something sounding not as clear, etc.
 
I personally have not noticed a difference between the USB direct recording or the XLR analog outputs. I record at 48kHz/24bit. It may mean that I either don't hear it myself or that there is no difference. I just got a new Oscilloscope. Maybe I can take some measurements.
 
The sound you hear in the monitors, is the exact sound you should hear when you press "record" unless something is really wrong. My own personal experience is that I hear things slightly different when I'm playing it as compared to when I listen to it played back after I recorded.
 
sheky said:
The sound you hear in the monitors, is the exact sound you should hear when you press "record" unless something is really wrong. My own personal experience is that I hear things slightly different when I'm playing it as compared to when I listen to it played back after I recorded.
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I would hope nothing is wrong! :-\ lol, i mean its not a huge difference but it is noticeable. Still sounds good but just seems a little clarity/punchiness is lost.
 
You're probably hearing your strings along with the processed sound when recording. Listening back you don't hear the strings being played, as You're not playing, and perceive it as a loss of clarity/quality. That's my best guess. Also, volume differences.


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For the strings problem, try adding a looper, record something in the looper then record what the looper plays to your daw then compare... If it sounds different from the loop, it's not related to string perception.
 
What do you mean by "Live Monitored"? The subject line makes me think you're comparing USB recording vs XLR out -> active monitor, but the context of your post seems like you mean comparing Monitoring through your DAW vs Listening to recorded sounds through your DAW.
 
TheGoatLord said:
You're probably hearing your strings along with the processed sound when recording. Listening back you don't hear the strings being played, as You're not playing, and perceive it as a loss of clarity/quality.
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This. ^^^

Unless you have enough volume to completely drown out the trebly acoustic sound coming off your guitar, it will sound different and have less high end.
 
Sidivan said:
What do you mean by "Live Monitored"? The subject line makes me think you're comparing USB recording vs XLR out -> active monitor, but the context of your post seems like you mean comparing Monitoring through your DAW vs Listening to recorded sounds through your DAW.
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Maybe it's the strings as mentioned. But yea i mean USB -> active monitors vs recorded track -> active monitors
 
If you're listening through the same signal path, they should be exactly the same, provided you're recording at a high quality. Get another guitarist, have them play the guitar in another room. Monitor the sound, then record it and listen. Is it the same? Also, try headphones instead of speakers to see if there's a difference.
 
I'll echo what has already been said. I have experienced both issues and freaked out both times.

Hearing "in the room" string noise can make a huge difference between live and recorded. Spacial clean-mid gain patches are often more susceptible to this. One thing you might want to do is to record dry and wet and mix some dry in or bake the dry into the wet signal by either using a row to pass dry signal (with a volume block if necessary) to the output or by using the air parameter in the CAB block. If you record with these settings the live vs recorded still won't' sound the same but you may have more acceptable clarity.

The recording quality also matters. I have recorded in 24 bit 48KHz for quite some time. One day I accidentally created a DAW project in 16 bit 44.1Khz and spent hours trying to figure out why the tracks sounded so dull compared to live. I had forgotten how much of a difference the frequency mattered in the high end and the bit depth for trails.

Hopefully you are experiencing one of these issues. If not, detail your setup... it could be a routing, eq, or built in effects issue in your DAW or interface.
 
TheGoatLord said:
You're probably hearing your strings along with the processed sound when recording. Listening back you don't hear the strings being played, as You're not playing, and perceive it as a loss of clarity/quality. That's my best guess. Also, volume differences.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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This is the issue I've always had especially when recording bass or guitar parts w lots of strumming. Try recording a dry and processed track at the same time and play them back but add a 2K high pass filter to the dry track. At some point I want to experiment w recording a room mic and mixing that w the processed sound so I can get the high end snap attack from the strings.
 
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