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Joined: Feb 2008
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Do I need some sort of 'interface' to go between my CD player and my PA mixer that would give me better sounding files? I just run direct from audio out (or headphone) from the CD player into the Mackie PA mixer...
Does it matter if I plug into a regular mic channel on the mixer, or the 'tape in' input?
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Does it sound bad the way you're doing it now? If not the it's not broke. Don't try to fix what's not broke. If it sounds bad then just make all the files on your laptop computer and plug your computer card output into your mixer. That'll sound good and it won't take up any space, hardly, on your hard drive.
Russ Anyday above ground is a good day Computer is Hp Pavillion Vision 6 Ghz quad core AMD processor 8 Gig memory 1 TB hard drive 6 GB hard drive Windows 7 Premium Loose nut behind the keyboard 
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Did you read my answer to this same question in the BIAB forum?
And Russ is correct; if it doesn't sound distorted and it is loud enough, then you are fine.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Yes I read your original response... and at your suggestion, moved the same here...
My files aren't 'broke', but they definitely do not sound as 'crisp/clean/ as they do running thru my PC and BIAB... so I thought maybe there was some interface I was missing..
Does the WAV rendering process, and subsequent conversion to an MP3 degrade the quality of the original SGU file? I have a very good, clean PA setup - JBL eon speakers and a Mackie mixer... so that is not the problem...
Thanks...
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This is the part of my other response that was important:
Line Out on the CD player could go into Tape In on the mixer.
Headphone jack on the CD player could go into one of the mic inputs (regular channels) on the mixer, but turn the volume on the CD down to almost nothing to start.
So, which way are you connecting your CD player to the mixer, so we can know what your setup is?
There should not be a need for any other interface.
The WAV rendering process does not involve any loss of quality. Conversion to MP3 does, since that means you are compressing the file. What bit rate are you using for the MP3?
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Like I said - Audio Out on the Sony CD player into a mic channel on the mixer..
Tried going into tape in on the mixer, but there was not enough 'bottom end', so I use the mic channel and bump up the bass...
I use Audacity for the MP3 conversion, and the bit rate is 192.
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OK, that helps. I agree, Audio Out is likely a headphone jack, rather than a Line Out, because it didn't work well with the Tape In. My SONY portable Discman CD player has both outputs, which is why I have asked. If you don't have a Line Out, you'll have to play with the volume control on the CD player, and you want to start soft then get it up as high as you can without introducing distortion. Only then turn up the Mackie.
If you DO have a Line Out on the CD player, you should be using that instead.
192 bit rate should be fine. If you don't like the sound, that's likely not the problem.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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The Sony has an A & B 'phones' and an Audio Out and Video Out (since it is basically a DVD player).... I use the Audio Out to the Mackie... I assume that's 'better' than the phones?
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Then I would think the best audio connection is Audio Out to Tape In.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Please state the model number of your DVD player and the model number of your PA/Mixer. Also, depending on your editing, and your conversion, how 'hot' is the audio file. You can open the file in Audacity and look through the file. The wave form , at some point along the way, should touch the bottom of the window or the top of the window.  As you can see, there is an area that goes almost to the bottom, and almost to the top. If you are not getting peaks like this, then the actual wave file is very weak, and will require a lot of volume to hear it. The problem is, you can 'normalize' or do a gain change which will, in software, increase the total volume of everything in the file. Unfortunately, as you increase the total gain, you will also increase the noise floor, so it may be possible that your input to the mixer will be at a reasonable level, but it will be full of hiss and background noise. If that is the case, then you need to go back to whatever your recorded the backing track in and re-record it at a higher level so that does not happen. Gary
Last edited by Gary Curran; 04/18/10 04:22 PM.
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Quote:
OK, that helps. I agree, Audio Out is likely a headphone jack, rather than a Line Out, because it didn't work well with the Tape In. My SONY portable Discman CD player has both outputs, which is why I have asked. If you don't have a Line Out, you'll have to play with the volume control on the CD player, and you want to start soft then get it up as high as you can without introducing distortion. Only then turn up the Mackie.
If you DO have a Line Out on the CD player, you should be using that instead.
192 bit rate should be fine. If you don't like the sound, that's likely not the problem.
You and Gary have brought up some interesting and probably obvious points. I could tell from listening and always strongly suspected that that headphone output was not as strong as the output jacks. I just ordered a cable with RCA plugs and a female 3.5mm stereo jack for my ext. laptop speakers. From what I see, most mp3 players only have a headphone jack so we're stuck with that for output. Sure makes you think about making sure that you make a good quality recording to maximize your output results. FWIW
Stan
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