cables and quality
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jerseykorg
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:43 am
cables and quality
Ok, is there a loss of quality when recording over analog cables? If you record into a lossless format will the quality be the same or is there a degradation? Like if I sample something from a wav in my pc then edit on an esx then record it back on the pc and mess around with it there will there be a drop in quality? Does the kind of cable matter? Is a 10 dollar cable from radio shack as good as some gold plated 40 dollar cable from a pro-audio shop? What's the best way to "store" music you made on an electribe? Record it on a pc with a lossless format then burn to cd?
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jerseykorg
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:43 am
The samples are wav format but I don't think it ever records a song like that. It always keep it as some kind of data that is processed by the esx. I don't think it saves the data from song mode or event mode as an audio file. It just records the information of what happened then reproduces it realtime when you play it back.
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MagpieIndustries
- Junior Member
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:23 pm
The drop in quality is caused by the analog to digital, and digital to analog conversions. The cable doesn't matter. Cheap soundcards WILL. Expensive soundcards do a much better job at converting between digital and analog signals.
Get to know where the conversions occur, and always try to minimize the number of times it happens. In your case, if you transfer a wav from the computer to a smartmedia and into the electribe, the result will be theoretically better than playing it out of your soundcard (DAC), across a cable and into the ESX (ADC). The cable transfer involves two conversions, both of which degrade the signal somewhat. In practice however, you may not notice the difference to a single wav file when it's placed into a mix. But if you are exporting and importing and converting loops or worse still, whole songs, then you probably will notice.
As an experiment, you could send a piece of music over the cables between your PC and ESX a few times, sampling and transmitting the new version each time. After a couple of passes like this you'll certainly notice the difference the DAC/ADC conversion is doing to your audio. Expensive converters will preserve a lot of the signal, but eventually you'll notice the sound getting duller and lifeless, and the noise will start to creep in.
Converting a WAV file to an mp3 throws away a bunch of information, but much of that is not audible. There is a reason it's called a lossy format though. Converting wavs to mp3 and back and forth many times will muck it up aswell. Moving wav files between programs on your computer should in theory not degrade the quality, as it's all entirely digital. Putting a wav file onto CD should preserve its quality by the same reasoning (dont make it an mp3 first). Playing back the CD will depend on the quality of your CD players DAC, which may be better, worse or the same converter as your PC.
But unless you have expensive speakers that can reproduce the differences, none of this will matter too much. Just do a single recording from the esx direct into the pc, and converted once into an mp3. This should be so close to the original sound as to not matter much
Get to know where the conversions occur, and always try to minimize the number of times it happens. In your case, if you transfer a wav from the computer to a smartmedia and into the electribe, the result will be theoretically better than playing it out of your soundcard (DAC), across a cable and into the ESX (ADC). The cable transfer involves two conversions, both of which degrade the signal somewhat. In practice however, you may not notice the difference to a single wav file when it's placed into a mix. But if you are exporting and importing and converting loops or worse still, whole songs, then you probably will notice.
As an experiment, you could send a piece of music over the cables between your PC and ESX a few times, sampling and transmitting the new version each time. After a couple of passes like this you'll certainly notice the difference the DAC/ADC conversion is doing to your audio. Expensive converters will preserve a lot of the signal, but eventually you'll notice the sound getting duller and lifeless, and the noise will start to creep in.
Converting a WAV file to an mp3 throws away a bunch of information, but much of that is not audible. There is a reason it's called a lossy format though. Converting wavs to mp3 and back and forth many times will muck it up aswell. Moving wav files between programs on your computer should in theory not degrade the quality, as it's all entirely digital. Putting a wav file onto CD should preserve its quality by the same reasoning (dont make it an mp3 first). Playing back the CD will depend on the quality of your CD players DAC, which may be better, worse or the same converter as your PC.
But unless you have expensive speakers that can reproduce the differences, none of this will matter too much. Just do a single recording from the esx direct into the pc, and converted once into an mp3. This should be so close to the original sound as to not matter much