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Thread: How to improve recording quality

  1. #11
    I should say also that you need to check the settings on your recorder to make sure that it is in stereo mode, that any low cut filter mode is turned OFF (very important), and that encoding is set to either WAV (16 bit, 48K is what I normally use, but you can use 24bit 48K for slightly better quality (but at the cost of a MUCH bigger file) or 44.1K 16bit will give you a slightly smaller file and slightly less quality. 320kbps MP3 setting will give you the smallest file and consequently least quality, but should still be decent. Don't use any setting less than that.

  2. #12
    Moderator pete's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    The focusrite will do nothing for you, it is a USB interface for a computer it will not work directly with a recorder.

    There is no problem with the record output on the mixer either. What I suspect your problem to be is that the DR40, like most small recorders, does not have a separate "line" input, it only has a combined "mic/line" input which is too sensitive to handle the signal from the record output of your mixer. What you need there is an attenuator cable.. which you can buy. You need a minimum of 10dB of attenuation.. up to 20 would be good. You put that in between the recorder and the mixer (you will probably need an adapter from female stereo (trs) 1/8 inch to dual RCA in addition to the attenuator cable).

    Then yea you will want to set your recorder to a level where it does NOT hit the max but comes within let's say 6dB of max.. this will guarantee that you do not get any clipping (distortion) in your recording. Once you have got your recording, copy it to your computer then use the (free) program "Audacity", load it into Audacity and use the "Normalize" effect to bring your recording up to the maximum possible level.
    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    I should say also that you need to check the settings on your recorder to make sure that it is in stereo mode, that any low cut filter mode is turned OFF (very important), and that encoding is set to either WAV (16 bit, 48K is what I normally use, but you can use 24bit 48K for slightly better quality (but at the cost of a MUCH bigger file) or 44.1K 16bit will give you a slightly smaller file and slightly less quality. 320kbps MP3 setting will give you the smallest file and consequently least quality, but should still be decent. Don't use any setting less than that.
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  3. #13
    Member steveryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    The focusrite will do nothing for you, it is a USB interface for a computer it will not work directly with a recorder.
    The Focusrite 2i4 has two unbalanced left and right RCA outputs and one balanced left and right 1/4" output.

    I was under the impression that it will improve any audio signal that goes into it regardless of which output I'm using. Is this not correct?

    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    What I suspect your problem to be is that the DR40, like most small recorders, does not have a separate "line" input, it only has a combined "mic/line" input which is too sensitive to handle the signal from the record output of your mixer.
    It has an independent line input. There's actually 3 options:

    - Line
    - Mic
    - Mic + Phantom

    The DR-40 is dope and favored by a lot of DJ's. It's one of the few recorders that will allow you to record the line input from the mixer and the mic at the same time to pick up the crowd noise.

  4. #14
    Yet the recordings are not coming out good, so you are doing something wrong.
    What type of cable are you using to connect the mixer to the recorder?

  5. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by steveryan View Post
    The Focusrite 2i4 has two unbalanced left and right RCA outputs and one balanced left and right 1/4" output.

    I was under the impression that it will improve any audio signal that goes into it regardless of which output I'm using. Is this not correct?
    No it's not.

  6. #16
    Technoez Rek_Aviles's Avatar
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    Are you trying to get it louder without distorting or just better sound quality in the recording off the bat?

    mitchiemasha alluded to it but no one else suggested bouncing the recording out to a DAW to boost the levels after some subtle EQing. Record a few dbs below 0, try to keep your tracks evenly leveled, as much as you can, throughout the mix (especially during transitions) and boost the overall sound post-production.

    I'm no expert here, maybe im missing something but thats the easiest way to get a clean but louder mix.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by steveryan View Post
    just sounds like a weak recording.
    Yeap... that's what I'm on about. If you upload the file I can smash it for you. I'll do the first one free. I also splice out mistakes. As in, if you make a mistake, leave a gap and do the mix again, record about 2 hours to cut down to 1, the tracks are re-editted back together, seamlessly, sample accurate. Sometimes you might want shorter version of the song to get more in a mix, like the radio edits but with the club mix, dj friendly intro/outros, I make those too.
    Last edited by mitchiemasha; 07-02-2019 at 02:18 AM.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by steveryan View Post
    It's one of the few recorders that will allow you to record the line input from the mixer and the mic at the same time to pick up the crowd noise.
    That sounds interesting, does it record them as 2 different tracks, if it did you'd have even more control, have parts with the crowd louder etc. Back in the mini disk days we tried splitting the left and right for a while, left was the MC's (also picking up crowd), right the music. The Mc's were alwasy way too loud and it was easier to rebalance the recording. I'd of much preferred that as 3 channel recorder. It's be a good idea to be able to Low cut the mic recording but not the line in. Personally i'd simply retrack everything in a DAW. I use Cubase 10 and Ozone 8.

    Obviously, the "mistake" part in my other post is for home, demo purposes, you wouldn't do that if you were infront of a crowd.

  9. #19
    Member steveryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    Yet the recordings are not coming out good, so you are doing something wrong.
    What type of cable are you using to connect the mixer to the recorder?
    I was recording in MP3. Haven't recorded anything yet since switching to WAV yesterday. When I record something in WAV I'll report here.

    The cables are good. I have RCA to XLR when going from the mixer. 1/4" to XLR when going from the Mackie. All cables are brand new.

  10. #20
    Member steveryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rek_Aviles View Post
    Are you trying to get it louder without distorting or just better sound quality in the recording off the bat?

    mitchiemasha alluded to it but no one else suggested bouncing the recording out to a DAW to boost the levels after some subtle EQing. Record a few dbs below 0, try to keep your tracks evenly leveled, as much as you can, throughout the mix (especially during transitions) and boost the overall sound post-production.

    I'm no expert here, maybe im missing something but thats the easiest way to get a clean but louder mix.
    True, but I'd have to get a DAW. I could use Audacity I suppose, but this plan makes my Tascam useless. The plan was to find the easiest way to record high quality. I should be able to do that with the Tascam.

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