Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

So I just got an evolver and it's great. However, it might be my
imagination, but I feel like I lose something in the A/D conversion on
my SB live when I record. It's weird because it sounds fine going
through the line in to the line out of the soundcard (but maybe that
circuitry bypasses A/D conversion??). 

Anyone have any insights on this issue? What differentiates a cheap
A/D from a good one and how does the SB live stack up? (if it sucks,
tell me what about it makes it suck). 

Austin

the said A/D converters on SB Live are rather thin and sucky in my
experience. i used to have one and the difference when moving to
proper sound cards was really something to write home about.

t.. /polyfonken


--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "austin_v_huang"
<austin_v_huang@y...> wrote:

> So I just got an evolver and it's great. However, it might be my
> imagination, but I feel like I lose something in the A/D conversion on
> my SB live when I record. It's weird because it sounds fine going
> through the line in to the line out of the soundcard (but maybe that
> circuitry bypasses A/D conversion??). 
> 
> Anyone have any insights on this issue? What differentiates a cheap
> A/D from a good one and how does the SB live stack up? (if it sucks,
> tell me what about it makes it suck). 
> 
> Austin

polyf0nken wrote:
> the said A/D converters on SB Live are rather thin and sucky in my
> experience. i used to have one and the difference when moving to
> proper sound cards was really something to write home about.
> 
> t.. /polyfonken
> 


You get what you pay for when it comes to soundcards....

Ok, but what's really going on from an engineering standpoint that
causes the deterioration in sound quality?

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, Robert Krueger <rkr1@t...> wrote:

> polyf0nken wrote:
> > the said A/D converters on SB Live are rather thin and sucky in my
> > experience. i used to have one and the difference when moving to
> > proper sound cards was really something to write home about.
> > 
> > t.. /polyfonken
> > 
> 
> 
> You get what you pay for when it comes to soundcards....

> Ok, but what's really going on from an engineering standpoint that
> causes the deterioration in sound quality?

Clocking is a big issue - cheaper cards have less accurate clocks which
introduces jitter, which means the stereo image is poor and sometimes
highpitched noise is introduced.

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, Robert Krueger <rkr1@t...> wrote:
> polyf0nken wrote:
> > the said A/D converters on SB Live are rather thin and sucky in my
> > experience. i used to have one and the difference when moving to
> > proper sound cards was really something to write home about.
> > 
> > t.. /polyfonken
> > 
> 
> 
> You get what you pay for when it comes to soundcards....

Can you say where the price-point cutoff for good A/D converters 
lies?  I've got a preamp-compressor (I forgot who made it, DBX, 
maybe?) with a built in converter that blows my soundcard out of the 
water...  But I dropped a few hundred clams on it.

Jonathan

austin_v_huang wrote:
> Ok, but what's really going on from an engineering standpoint that
> causes the deterioration in sound quality?
> 
> --- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, Robert Krueger <rkr1@t...> wrote:


It comes down to the quality of the components used to build the cards. 
    It's no different than the difference between a set of $30 budget PC 
speakers and a set of studio reference monitors.  Or that of a $40 
budget DVD player compared to home theater $400 player.  I dunno if 
you've seen the difference between those set of players, but I'm sure 
you have an idea about the speaker reference.  I hope this makes better 
sense to you.

Regardless of the fact that the soundcard is fairly weak... what
settings are you recording at?
bitrate? samplerate?

-Chris

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "austin_v_huang"
<austin_v_huang@y...> wrote:

> So I just got an evolver and it's great. However, it might be my
> imagination, but I feel like I lose something in the A/D conversion on
> my SB live when I record. It's weird because it sounds fine going
> through the line in to the line out of the soundcard (but maybe that
> circuitry bypasses A/D conversion??). 
> 
> Anyone have any insights on this issue? What differentiates a cheap
> A/D from a good one and how does the SB live stack up? (if it sucks,
> tell me what about it makes it suck). 
> 
> Austin