SLMC

EvaMoon · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 748

Interesting.

Here are two sample clips. Test1 was recorded with sound going to a room monitor and Test2 was recorded with sound going to headphones. There's definitely something weird going on with Test1.

But I HAVE recordings of shows played with the room monitor and have not heard this weird thing before. Thoughts? Why would it make a difference?

http://evamoon.net/test1.mp3
http://evamoon.net/test2.mp3

I'd rather play with the monitor than the headphones. I can seem to get enough signal through the phones and sometimes I have people around listening and they probably want to hear the whole mix.

This was recorded locally only by archiving the Nicecast output - not through a stream.

Thanks
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Krell Karu · Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 45

Not knowing your application, I am confused by what you mean when you say

EvaMoon · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 748

Thank you. I have the left channel of my mixer going to line in on my computer. I have the right channel going to a monitor which sits on the floor near my computer. I have nothing panned in the mix. I can listen to the board output through the floor monitor or I can turn it off and listen to the mix from the headphone output on the mixer. I don't listen to mix after it enters the computer because even local there is enough latency to be distracting.

There shouldn't be any left/right variation - the stream into the computer is not stereo. But listening now on a different computer I see that there is hardly any sound in one channel on test2 and I'm hearing distortion on both tests. Why would there be such a difference? The only change between the two was how I monitored the sound.

Gah!
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Norris Shepherd · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject:

umm.. neither sound that bad to me.

Test2 definitely seemed panned to one side.

If you monitor through a speaker, are you monitoring your keyboards, voice and tracks?, or just keyboard, or a combination of these?

If the sound is coming out of speakers... it is going to be going back into the mic for your voice, and this is definitely going to effect the mix, and possibly create some feedback (although it doesn't sound like the feedback is an issue).

I would focus on trying to get a good sound wearing headphones. If the full mix is coming out of speakers, and back into the mic again, it could probly mess some things up.

hexx · Joined: 28 Nov 2007 Posts: 386 Location: Rastafairy Beach

Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1635 Location: None

EvaMoon · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 748

What about latency? I can't listen through the computer even locally because there's a very slight delay that drives me nuts. And if I have nothing panned in the mixer, why would sending both channels sound any different than sending one?
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RayW · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 953 Location: Twin Cities, MN

Eva ... I agree with you about the latency issue with monitoring. There is just enough in the mixer-to-PC chain to be trouble sometimes. I monitor right before the line out of my mixer. I monitor in stereo, both ears, very low latency ... has the added benefit of reducing outside distractions.

Your samples were interesting. I, too, thought test1 was good, but "hot", (but, I'm at work and can't turn my speakers up too loud). And, test2 was panned to one side and a lot lower level.

Distortion is different in the two realms: analog and digital. Analog is much more forgiving of being hot than is digital (which simply clips the offending level and ruins your sound). My mix is analog all the way into the PC. Not sure what happens if you use USB ... is it converted to digital before going to the computer? It might help to think out that sort of signal flow to find distortion points.

But, if you are monitoring on one of the channels, then you could add an imbalance there, if the amp for the monitor is set too high. And, I would assume it to be an analog output to that monitor ... again, more forgiving of a hot signal.

I had a dickens of a time setting my monitor level. It's at 0.5 out of 10, because of the point I'm monitoring at. But, I wanted to monitor there, because it's after my compressor and is the closest representive point to what the listener will hear. Then, it's just a matter of getting the final mixer output and the PC input levels right. I watch the meters on my SimpleCast as I bang my guitar and yell into the mic. From there, I adjust the output of the mixer to get the signal to -2 db, MAX. This doesn't affect my monitoring, because I'm listening just BEFORE that point.

Don't know if any of this is usefull, since everyone's experience and equipment is different. But, it sure helped me get a handle on my signal.
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hexx · Joined: 28 Nov 2007 Posts: 386 Location: Rastafairy Beach

EvaMoon · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 748

There's a long delay in stream to world as you all know - 20 or more seconds. But there's also a delay just going through the computer before it goes out. It's very small, but just enough to be distracting. I can't tolerate it. Would going firewire fix that?

I hear what you're all saying about headphones vs. room monitor, but what do you do if you have people around (locally) who want to hear the music? Plus, I'm used to playing live with monitors - I do it every time I play a RL show or have a band rehearsal. I know I'm not hearing the exact same mix that's going out through the computer, just as the sound going through the mixer at a RL show isn't the same as the sound going to the room, but if you're recording in RL through the mixer, you adjust - make sure you have pickups on everything and check the mix.

I've done another test and smoothed things out some. Oddly, on the missing right channel on test2, I had muted the floor monitor by running down the right slider (right goes to monitor, left goes to line in). I didn't think it would affect the recording, since I'm only recording through line in, but in my second test, I left both sliders equal and turned off the monitor for the headphone test and it seemed to fix that. Any idea why?

The next step would be to test in world through a stream. I tried using Norris' stream last night while he was offline, but I couldn't pick it up. I tried both plugging the address into my browser and checking through inworld media, but never got a signal in, even though it looked like it was going out. Shoutcast said the stream was down.

I think I'm making progress, but I won't know until I test in SL.

Thanks again!
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