Is an External Mixer Crucial for Pro-Tools?

All right, Gang... Here's my rather Plaintive Plea. First, i'll describe my 'Setup': Presonus MP20 Mic Preamp Apogee Stereo Anolog/Digital Converter Digi001 & of course, Protools. My problem is essentially the quality of sound. I haven't seen a problem mentioned in the forums here, but the sound that I'm getting recording as well as monitoring is pretty bad. It almost sounds like AM radio - sort of muffled & phased. I'm thinking that the problem might not be having an external mixer to EQ the signal prior to going through to the Pres and the other components. Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions? I'm pretty darn frustrated at this point. This is an 'upgrade' from analog (which I unfortunately sold off) - I've never had these types of problems in the past. - Thanks! Ben

Ben, In my 6 months here this is the first report of that sort of sound quality problem I've heard of. Don't get discouraged. It isn't Pro Tools I'm sure, but more likely somethign about the way everything is hooked up right now. When you say the sound is bad, is this during playback? Have you bounced a file to disk, burned it and tried it somewhere else? Or make an mp3 and test the sound elsewhere? What sort of mic? I would suggest bypassing all the external equipment for now and just using the 001 mic pre's. That's all I'm using and I'm getting good results. I don't have a mixer at all. I think that many folks have external mixers, but they're not required, and obviously, if you start EQ'ing your signal coming in, then you're stuck with that in the basic data on disk. Normally most people here would just add EQ in the mix stage and not while tracking. Regards, Mark <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Madcap: All right, Gang... Here's my rather Plaintive Plea. First, i'll describe my 'Setup': Presonus MP20 Mic Preamp Apogee Stereo Anolog/Digital Converter Digi001 & of course, Protools. My problem is essentially the quality of sound. I haven't seen a problem mentioned in the forums here, but the sound that I'm getting recording as well as monitoring is pretty bad. It almost sounds like AM radio - sort of muffled & phased. I'm thinking that the problem might not be having an external mixer to EQ the signal prior to going through to the Pres and the other components. Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions? I'm pretty darn frustrated at this point. This is an 'upgrade' from analog (which I unfortunately sold off) - I've never had these types of problems in the past. - Thanks! Ben<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey, Thanks for your Input, Mark & Allen...! Mark - to answer your question, the sound is bad in all situations - even just monitoring. My primary Mics are condensers - An AKG C1000 & an AT4033, and I have numerous new cables ... so that doesn't seem to be the issue. My cables and connecters seem to be working fine - but it was a great suggestion. About the only thing that I've noticed, is that When recording in -stereo-, I get a -much- improved sound... But this wasn't necessary on my analog setup. Thanks again for the suggestions... Any further ideas? - Thanks and Sincerities, Ben

Just as an addendum, Most of my work is accoustic - So I'm doing a lot of Micing. But plugging a mic directly into the machine doesn't seem to result in anything decent either, particularly electric bass. :/

In that case, could be it's in your monitoring setup. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Madcap: But plugging a mic directly into the machine doesn't seem to result in anything decent either, particularly electric bass. :/<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with JMS. Sounds like a monitoring issue. How do your headphones sound? Is there anything running in the background like an anti-virus program or other audio program that is trying to attain the Digi001 hardware. I had problems with this at one time. Sounded scratchy. Try that demo with the headphones connected to Digi port and get back to us. Allen

Wow, Gang... Lots to Say... To address the issue of the 'Being There' Demo, it sounds fine - whether it's through my monitor or headphones in the Digi itself. I tried screwing with the input levels, as Matt suggested above, and it granted -some- improvement, but nothing too exciting. It's a brand new Digi001 - and the other components are just as fresh from the factory. Unfortunately, right now I don't have the opportunity to test other outputs, as my Monitors are shot - I'm just using headphones. What else could I try with my monitoring set-up...? As it was suggested, it's likely that it is something obvious - but I'm still at a loss at 1:30 am EST - good thing tomorrow is a 'mental health day' at work. Again, thanks for everyones tips and suggestions... I'd love to hear more of your input! - Much thanks, Benjamin

Just another thought - You can't alter the input levels when your input is SPIDF... I'm also noticing that I'm picking up some of the Hard Drive Hum from my computer as well as from the Project X external drive that I have set up... How do you guys deal with filtering that out without lowering the gain on the mic...? - Regards, Ben