I had been thinking this is due to my recent microphone being a bit older and having suffered in the past, but I now got a real monster of a Brauner together with a decent preamp, and still the issues persist, even more so as the microphone is able to capture more at a higher quality and lower noise. When I monitor the input, i.e. the pre-amped Brauner, there is a lot of clarity audible, just like Brauners have. I noticed after recording, the recordings sound rather dull, as if the process of recording cuts off a lot of action in the mid hi and high spectrum. It doesn’t matter which microphone, sample or bit rate (44.1 and 48k at 32bit) or DAW I use or if I go in directly or through the preamp - the difference between the direct monitoring and the recording’s sound persist.
Does this just have to do with a less-so-decent A/D conversion? Why can I monitor in much better quality, but the recording is mediocre?
The monitoring goes through the DSP mixer inside the UR44, so it always goes through the A/D and D/A.
Check if you have the software monitoring active on your DAW (mute the channel in the UR mixer), phasing issues might make it sound better during monitoring because you have set it up that way. Or maybe the loopback-monitoring on the UR44 is active (happened to me a couple times) or some driver issue where the sample rates or clocks don’t match up.
Other than that, you might have some plugins active on your master channel in the DAW, unlikely if you tried multiple ones though.
thanks for taking the time to answer . Yes, the A/D → D/A process is still there, obviously. And no, I don’t have software monitoring activated. Had a Presonus Firebox before and am really spoiled since I have the UR44, and use direct monitoring anytime I record anything.
No, no software monitoring, no DSP effects on direct monitoring, no DAW effects at that stage. It was pretty simple, and someone on Gearslutz had the idea and he seemingly nailed it: It was my perception. When singing myself, I obviously hear myself differently, that’s pretty clear, but the difference was really obvious. I did a test recording with someone else and made sure the volume of the recording was the same monitored through the headphones. The result wasn’t 100% the same, but it was quite close. So it was my own perception of my body resonance and a recording played back at a lower volume, causing it to sound duller .
Well, yes, of course, I did, but it wasn’t as apparent as now, since I listened double-focused due to a really superb microphone plus preamp I got myself. I always thought it to be a bit dull and distorted, and I always thought it would be due to a rather badly treated mic I had before… it was more a mixture of different things .
. Yes, the A/D → D/A process is still there, obviously. And no, I don’t have software monitoring activated. Had a Presonus Firebox before and am really spoiled since I have the UR44, and use direct monitoring anytime I record anything.