Sound card recording sound quality

stu

Im sure this has been asked here before but I cant find it.
Anyway.....

I got hold of a Samson Q6 mic, I know its not going to give me the best sound quality but it should sound a lot better then the head set mic I was using. The thing is, it doesn't. I sounds the same, pretty much. So that made me think it might have something to do with the sound card. I am recording through an entry level Acer laptop (E625) with the mic plugged straight in. I recorded some guitar stuff. I placed the mic just off the center of the speaker and about 10-15cm away.

So my question is, does the sound card have an impact on the recording quality and if so how much?
Or is it my bad microphone placement techniques? because I have heard that can also change thing (although I think I got it right from what I have read up)

ryanguit

Is the level high enough, is there hiss?
Have you tried mic in other placements? Never trust what you read without messing around with the advice.

AlanRatcliffe

It's a combination of many things, but in the case of using a mic into a built-in soundcard, it's almost certainly 90% down to the quality of the card. Built-in sound cards tend to be the cheapest of the cheap and mic is rather a critical application (because mics have very low output, so the preamp has to apply a LOT of gain).

Mic placement plays a big part in the tonal shaping, but not sound quality - that's down to hardware.

stu

Thanks Alan. And since this is the cheapest of the cheap laptop the sound card must be a real piece of crap.

So can anyone recommend a good external sound card that will not cost me too much.

[deleted]

I've been wondering how to increase the volume of my recordings. I don't seem to have much leeway between moderate to loud and I always have to turn my volume on my speakers all the way up if I want to hear my recordings at a decent volume.

I try to turn up the input button, but then I go into the red and generally don't improve on the volume. I found a little thing in the recording program where there's a "volume" control, and it goes to an arbitrary number ...127. When I turn it all the way up I'm just in the red even more. Argh, I guess that's just the quality of the mic then, becuase the sound card isn't too bad...or is it? It's Edirol UA 4FX.

Well, if there's anything I can do to improve the volume I'd be gratefull.

AlanRatcliffe

Your guitar recording obviously has a wide dynamic range, from very soft to very loud. This could be the way it is supposed to be (i.e. a very dynamic piece of music) but it is also because we're forced to mic closer to minimise the room reverb. Miking closer tends to accentuate volume changes from movement, playing inconsistencies and playing dynamics (usually the room helps even these out).

A dynamic recording isn't bad per se, but it takes a high quality recording and a similarly high quality playback system. Otherwise the quieter sections tend to get lost in in the noise floor (background noise).

Miking a bit further away helps - you get a smoother dynamic response at the expense of a bit more room reverb (you could also use more dampening to help lessen the room sound).

Another option is to use some subtle compression on the recording, which reduces the dynamic range by boosting the quieter bits and cutting the louder bits. This can also end up boosting the room noise and must be done subtly to keep the sound as natural as possible (especially with classic guitar). More on compression here: http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/compression.shtml

[deleted]

Thank you so much! I will see how the "room reverb" goes (anything that smudges out my mistakes can't be that bad ? ).