Good converters with cheap sound card

[Djembe]

I have some good preamps going into a Mytek Stereo192 ADC into an M-Audio 1010LT sound card. Is my signal path being compromised by the sound card ?

[warhead]

Well...it's probably not compromised much using the SPDIF on board, if it's compromised at all.

War

[mds]

Yeah, you're probably fine. Conversion is the difficult task, passing SPDIF is pretty simple with any remotely decent sound card. M-audio stuff is certainly up to that task.

Mike

[Djembe]

Thanks guys for your prompt response.

So the next question is how much improvement in sound will there be on the channels that AREN'T going through the Mytek, recorded at the same time.
(presumably clocking through the SPDIF input)

thanks
Blair

[Djembe]

Anybody?

[Dave Peck]

Originally Posted by Djembe

Thanks guys for your prompt response.

So the next question is how much improvement in sound will there be on the channels that AREN'T going through the Mytek, recorded at the same time.
(presumably clocking through the SPDIF input)

thanks
Blair

You mean going into the analog inputs of the M-Audio and using the conversion in the M-Audio? I'm betting you'll hear a difference, more noticeable with complex signals and acoustic sources (as opposed to things like synth direct outs).

But it's easy enough for you to find out. Just patch the same stereo signal from the output of the preamps (NOT before the preamps- you want the conversion to be the only difference for this test) into both the Mytek and a pair of analog inputs on the M-Audio card. Record both stereo tracks simultaneously onto adjacent DAW tracks. Now play them back, muting one, then the other while you listen. There's your difference. If they sound the same to you, you can verify how similar they are by inverting one and playing them both back to see how completely they cancel. Any audio that won't go away is the difference between the two tracks.

BTW, you may have a problem with different amounts of latency between the Mytek conversion and the M-Audio conversion. Maybe not enough to be an issue when recording a real session if the inputs are completely unrelated, like guitar into one and snare into the other, but if there is any common signal between them, like snare mic into one and tom mics into the other, each with a substantial amount of bleed from the other source, it could really screw things up. The test described above will also allow you to check for this. Compare the two test tracks you recorded to see if one is slightly delayed relative to the other. You'll have to align them before you can try the invert-and-cancel test.

DP

[Djembe]

Thanks Dave
Got a few other technical issues to deal with at the moment, but will give it a try when I get a moment.
Blair