KVR Audio

Stupid American Pig · Post by **Stupid American Pig** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:32 am

we live in an age where a home studio can produce results that were unattainable 10-15 years ago, even in some "pro" studios. most people in this forum are "musicians" and not "engineers". Any mainstream(and even every not so mainstream host I have tried) produces results that are more than adequate for realease worthy material. I believe that steve albini said that a pro engineer could produce better results with an SM-57 and a 4 track cassette recorder than a novice in a million dollar studio(even if he/she knew how run the equipment).

seriously, beyond workflow, included features and plugin standards supported, stability, video scoring, and possibly the ability to have projects in the same format as a collaborator. I dont really even see sound quality as being in the top 10 of reasons to purchase a modern DAW that mixes at 32bit or greater.

Sure there are some genres out there that depend on sound quality more than others, and if you *are* a pro engineer then I guess its yer job to get in to the minutia of yer signal chain. But its beyond me why someone could argue about the sound quality of a host when they probably own a consumer or prosumer grade card with decent but not pristine converters, that are chalked full of ICs in the mic pres and then listen to the whole mix through 100 dollar speakers.

when someone has a pristine audio path from input to output then you can worry about things like "jitter free cable" and reverse wound twisted pair speaker cable for the southern hemisphere and mebbe whether or not your host sounds "better" than the other. until then, learn how to use what you got, embrace yer limitations and smack yerself in the head for "hearing more air and presence above 15 khz in hostx"...

bullshark · Post by **bullshark** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:38 am

Always been mystified by the phenomenon myself. A student of psychology could choose this as thesis subject, I'm sure it would be a fascinating read.

Reverse Engineer · Post by **Reverse Engineer** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:41 am

Mac Vs PC

LBN · Post by **LBN** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:42 am

Because Live has a "tinny" sound and FL Studio has a "plasticky" sound.

Reverse Engineer · Post by **Reverse Engineer** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:43 am

LBN wrote:Because Live has a "tinny" sound and FL Studio has a "plasticky" sound.

eXT sounds like glaucoma, and Logic has this really awful karate kid sound.

Atomikk Squirrel · Post by **Atomikk Squirrel** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:44 am

bullshark wrote:Always been mystified by the phenomenon myself. A student of psychology could choose this as thesis subject, I'm sure it would be a fascinating read.

And one hell of a long thesis.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:52 am

Sonar has a certain je ne sais quoi. The old Cakewalk Pro Audio had an uncertain I dunno either. Brand X is 20-40% better than real cheddar cheese at making smooth, creamy salsa tunes.

XorXisT · Post by **XorXisT** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:20 am

I think there is some kind of people that are not sure their music sound good. So they need a Cubase(or whatever) sticker on their shoulders to be sure they sound great.
They need to show to everyone that they use a "pro" tool to make them feel good.
Sorry for my bad english. Just my 0.02.

eduardo_b · Post by **eduardo_b** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:47 am

Stupid American Pig wrote:seriously, beyond workflow, included features and plugin standards supported, stability, video scoring, and possibly the ability to have projects in the same format as a collaborator. I dont really even see sound quality as being in the top 10 of reasons to purchase a modern DAW that mixes at 32bit or greater.

It's the same thing as a recent discussion about knowing if a compressor is working, because they couldn't hear the difference. There were all these posts about how to use compressors, but the question I thought more interesting was if you can't hear the difference, do you really need it?

I see the same thing with the choice of hosts and many plug-ins. Too much concern about details that don't really matter and not enough about basic things that really do. Hosts that process at higher bit rates won't make a bad mix sound any better. But there may be a psychological component at work here that's more about perception than reality.

Laraka · Post by **Laraka** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:51 am

I wonder if thesis writers debate which word processor gives the best reading quality ?

Zycat · Post by **Zycat** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:55 am

It's a valid question because people want the best.

Distorted_Mastermind · Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:00 am

Work flow is the number one thing in my opinion.
There are many options out there nowadays, sometimes maybe too many. It's good in moderation, but easy enough to become addicted to music software and end up spending more time trying new software than making music.
I've been using the same few programs for the past three years or so and have yet to find a reason to switch....also use an 8 track fairly often.

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:03 am

Ive always found that the sound of any host can be affected by reading KVR

eduardo_b · Post by **eduardo_b** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:13 am

UltraJv wrote:Ive always found that the sound of any host can be affected by reading KVR

Actually, there's probably some truth to this.

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:20 am

Stupid American Pig wrote:I believe that steve albini said that a pro engineer could produce better results with an SM-57 and a 4 track cassette recorder

okay,
but who cares about what steve albini says.

For sure a DAW in the wrong hands doesn't make much sense.

But there may be also people that are not able to handle a 4 track recorder.

honestly why do people debate the sound quality of a host?