Sound quality of rendered edits

[fgimian]

Audio cards are responsible for what you hear during your mixing stage. The better the audio card, the more accurate the output will be and thus you may be achieve high quality results while mixing. The sound card does not intercept the rendering stage whatsoever, this is a fact not just an opinion. As mentioned, you may take out your audio card and rendering will still be performed. The factors that you may be referring to are the sample rate and bit depth ... for best quality CD audio you should use 44.1 khz, using a higher bitrate would mean you have to resample the audio to place on CD which is generally not a good idea as you will lose a lot of quality. If you wish to record at a higher sample rate, choose 88.2 khz as it tends to resample way better to 44.1 khz.

Finally I would like to address this quote...

Pal, I'm not a not a 13 year old wannabe techo producer + I'm not that stupid and inexperienced that I wouldn't know that sampling rate makes a difference

There is no need to insult a particular genre of music. There are a large number of high quality dance musicians out there (i.e. not what you hear on the radio) and having produced all genres from punk to classical to dance, I can assure you that a high quality dance track requires as much attention as a band recording. Many trance (type of dance music) tracks contain complex classical melodies behind a pumpin dance beat. I for one use full orchestral arrangements with my dance stuff which often takes me more time than recording a rock song.

Cheers
Fots

[.jon]

Can someone prove that the same file sounds different when exported with different cards, and played back on one card?

[j_T]

So, if this is indeed the case, then why are many of us still not using onboard sound and ditching higher end soundcards? I want to know why my Audiophile sounds better than my Vortex 2 card..on both playback and rendered tracks to cd?
Legitimate questions considering the topic at hand.

The file on your hard disk contains just a sequence of "1" and "0". When you listen to your music from that file you hear a conversion (via D/A converter) of these digits to an analog signal. The quality of D/A converters differs indeed between soundcards. And as a result the quality of the sound you hear.

BTW, the same ist true for recording: Your analog signal is converted to digital data (via A/D converter). Worst case would be bad A/D converter for recording followed bye bad D/A converter for listening (plus crap speakers )

Short: You get different sound from the same file bye using different soundcards.

Regards,

Tommay

[bastien]

Can someone prove that the same file sounds different when exported with different cards, and played back on one card?

Yep. Export two files, open them into Audition, paste one inverted on top of the other...

I bet you end up with zero...

[.jon]

Don't worry, Bastien - I'm not going to bother

[james]

I don't think it's been mentioned so I'll chime in as well.

Why use better than internal audio?

An improved soundcard/interface also gives dramatically better audio input. For example, most internal cards are only 16 bit / 44.1k.

This is at least as important as the audio monitoring quality which is also affected by everything else in your signal chain (cables, power amp, monitors).

[davor]

I'm pretty sure my audio card is somehow involved in the quality of sound of vst instruments as well as quality of export -- at least when the card ASIO drivers are used- my experience after 3-4 years of using it.

Well.. you are still wrong.

The only difference the card makes is to the sound you monitor while you do it: unless this prompts you to make different choices than you would have done otherwise, the rendered results will be identical.

NOt in my case. Tell me then, why is it that when I remove the stereo card out buss in Cubase, Cubase won't do the export.

[valley]

Why use better than internal audio?

An improved soundcard/interface also gives dramatically better audio input. For example, most internal cards are only 16 bit / 44.1k.

Also dedicated realtime audio cards typically have drivers that are more suited to the requirements of audio work, offering, as they do, lower latencies, and often improved efficiency.

[Lunch Money]

The two things are not correlated, davor. Who knows why Cubase acts the way it does? That doesn't change the fact that your computer does the rendering independently of the soundcard.

Greg

[valley]

Don't worry, Bastien - I'm not going to bother

Best if you don't.

[valley]

Who knows why Cubase acts the way it does?

I'm sure if you read the manual, it'll make sense what is happening. It certainly isn't what davor believes it to be, but that's a conversation that I suspect is going to lead to much head-banging on both sides.

That doesn't change the fact that your computer does the rendering independently of the soundcard.

POCO's and UAD1's aside of course.

[Lunch Money]

I'm sure if you read the manual, it'll make sense what is happening.

I'd rather watch shadows move across my walls.

POCO's and UAD1's aside of course.

Naturally!

[davor]

The two things are not correlated, davor. Who knows why Cubase acts the way it does? That doesn't change the fact that your computer does the rendering independently of the soundcard.

Greg

That's not true in my case, sorry. You may repeat the thing till the cows come home, but my experience tells me it's not the case in my case:) EOD

[rpc9943]

agreed about rendering. it is all cpu. i turn off my firepod sometimes and render. how do you think that would work? impossible if theres no card. not to mention how the hell do you think it would use the sound card? ludicrous!

RONC

[nuffink]

The two things are not correlated, davor. Who knows why Cubase acts the way it does? That doesn't change the fact that your computer does the rendering independently of the soundcard.

Greg

That's not true in my case, sorry. You may repeat the thing till the cows come home, but my experience tells me it's not the case in my case:) EOD

So what would change your mind? An affidavit from Charlie Steinberg?

You're wrong, it's that simple. Everyone here knows you're wrong and yet you keep insisting that you're right.

Ignore us. Stop posting. Forget that this thread ever happened. Be happy in your ignorance.