audio converters advice, please...

As far as I know, professional sound is a question of a) the preamp b) the A/D-Converter (or c) both together) One of the more professional a/d-converters (though a bit complicated) would be the E-Mu 1212 with 120 signal-to-noise ratio (and the same converters as the pro tools system. not too expensive by the way. The Audiophile 192 is said to be great, too ... I'm still working with my Tascam US-122, so I can't really tell ...But, hell yes, there must be some secret homerecording-sound-heaven that we can be part of by spending some more money. I do believe that, too :-) Cheers, Markus

matey. mate i would go rent some high class ada to put your mind at ease. so you can compare. one can really chase ones tail on this stuff n worrying in bed at night. an old gruff LA engr once said to me... "think about the normal bloke in the street who hears yer song for the first time, will he really care what you used if he likes the song" ?? frankly i dont think normal (non AE super duper types) spend all day analysing what ada was used on a song. i dont have a choice, gotta use diy n budget gear. cos ret'd. but in the past ive used elite gear n i dont think frankly the gulf is all that wide mate. yes for uber AE's who obsess over this stuff n have zillion buk budgets. but the other side of the coin mate is... a hit was done in europe with crappy ada in a blaster card awhile back. (its wonderfull wot trak clean up n mastering can do.) also what put things in perspective for me was once, years ago i heard the individual traks from a multitrak tape of a hit record. there was all sorts of gunk n splices n stuff..automated out of course. but didnt stop it going huge. for example old ampex 2 inch multitraks had a snr of -55db. your sound device wallops it. not tryin to be a yoyo head, just presenting some perspective. for all you know, mebe the amp your useing to drive yer monitors is a bit noisy..dunno. god bless.

Try this: put a sensitive, dynamic, well-recorded CD into your computer drive. The kind of thing that would be most likely to reveal ""grainyness" or whatever. Load a track from the CD into reaper. Turn off input monitoring and set up a new track to record. Using decent balanced cables, plug the outputs of your soundcard into the inputs of your soundcard and route the CD track so that it records through your hardware. Now listen to the recorded tracks. This will reveal EXACTLY how good your soundcard is capable of sounding. No need to wonder. If your home recordings do not as good as this test, then the problem is not your converters (or at least, they're not the weakest link). BTW, Tedwood's updgrade from soundblaster to 2496 was upgrading from a bad soundcard to an adequate one. Once you get away from internal soundcards, which are exposed to the noise of computer guts, the price/performance knee becomes a lot more gradual. FWIW.

yep, that's a good point to start with. I'll follow your previous advices about the overall studio care and I'm going to get a fine branded cable as well to loop-connect my SC ... err, monster cables? ;-) thanks for tips paolo

just to be clear i should have mentioned that i wouldnt use a blaster if i was given one. but a 2496 yes...from the recordings ive heard done with one. right now from reading forums n talking to folks.. the recurring recommendation i'm hearing for good ADA at a reasonable price is echo audiofire range. but as always try one n run your own tests. mebe i'm stoopid ..might be too much bubble n squeak addled my brain,..lol...n my wifes lovely english pancakes... but ive done yeps nice idea with just the daft cheap toneport gx playing back a cd n it sounds pretty decent. the other reason i wouldnt spend large is tech can change dramatically. if i remember there is software called the rightmark analyser software you can use to test a sound device n various other software etc . just google. frankly i dont obsess bout this stuff like i used to.. i just write another song..lol. its all just fun for me. ps... fyi...heres my cheapo ada in action.. motagator gave me some more space it seems.. so i added a song called summer where justin had asked me a long while back to do some vocs/lyrics on his summer backing. so on summer its justins backing n my vocs. mebe my vocs suck..dunno. i just do my best for fun. but i like it. it has a vibe i like. n some of my friends like it too. but biased obviously..lol. mebe my vocs show up my poor ada. dunno. (used art tube mp plus cass dek pre on vocs if i remember.) i just got off heavy on justins backing n its vibe. i just tried to do what i felt was the most appropo voc style. so i tried to do an emotional vocal bout a guy loosing the one he loved. particularly one of my aims with the lyrics was to show that guys can cry n get emotional too over someone they have loved and lost. as you can see right at the very end i was straining on the vocs... "my heart wont forget "lyric...but i kept it in.. cos i didnt have a choir available for this part , which is what i felt the song really needs at this point. ie..a choir singing "his heart wont forget". be kind on my vocs..lol. its a different vocal style for me. i just like experimenting with lotsa different vocal styles for fun.

right words, scott, I've surely get rid of many garbage my room is full of and place there some acoustic stuff to improve the listening quality... I could agree with your low rating the tannoy's (they are ageing compared to many other brands' monitors by now), but I feel comfo with them when it comes to listen to commercial cd's... that's why I feel the issue I posted. My first step is going on my room's acoustic, and check it out whether I must say bye bye to my old monitors or stick with them. thanks

that's fine, Scott, thank you: I'll search seriously for threads about this argument... cheers