Im a bit confused on the topic concerning dacs and sound quality.
Im believe that good music trumfs good sound quality any day, but i would like my music to sound as good as possible.
Coming from a long period of psytrance production, which was 100% in the box and recording hardware was no issue, im now grown up and moving into techno music. So more hardware based, and thus a new confusing field to understand. And after listening to the function one guys lecture at point blank music school, i get a bit nerdy about sound quality.
Question #1:
I have a laptop and an elektron rytm. I use the rytm as a soundcard and synth/drum machine via overbridge. Great and flexible can do almost anything. But how is the sound quality of the rytm changed via overbridge? Its analog, but sends digital info to the computer. Does this conversion have to do with digital to analog converters? (or analog to digital converters). If so, how good are the analogs dacs? Does the sound quality of the analog rytm change in the process? As opposed to recording through my rme ucx card.
This leads to my next question.
Question #2:
If i record my modular synth into the rytms input and send it over overbridge, i guess its converted via the rytms input to digital bits through the converters and then sent over overbridge. Again, is the sound quality diminished compared to if i sent it through my rme ucx card? Rme as i understand it has good converters.
Question #3
For live use, overbrigde needs to convert digital from the computer into analog and then out through the mixer/PA. Are the converters good for this?
Im a bit clueless, and i may have it wrong.
I just want to learn a bit and make my hardware sound as good as possible. Trying not to obsess too much about it
I think you pretty much got it right, the elektrons do have ad and da converters. For me they sound good. I tested it and for me it was fine… just record something and try it for yourself
there are many topics on this forum about this already: search for ob sound quality…
Of course audio which goes over USB needs to be converted to digital first.
I’m not sure if the ADCs in the Rytm can compete with the ones from your RME card, but they are definitely not on the “bad” side.
Since you have an Elektron Rytm why not perform the comparison by your own instead of waiting for theoretical answers from strangers on the internet?
Especially with audio “quality” is such a personal thing (not even measurable sometimes). An ADC can be technically the best most linear converter and some people still prefer another one due to its “warmth” (non-linearities and what not).
To add to my above posting: the ADCs in the Rytm have at least one advantage to them. Any additional analog way between the sound generation and the converters will influence the signal (cables, connectors etc.) and the ADCs in the Rytm are as near as possible to its sound generation circuits.
But that is just a technical fact. What counts is if you like the sound after the conversion.
Anyway, i found another topic which is identical to this one, and its the usual split between some hear a difference, some do not.
So i guess “it will get the job done.”
Rme in the studio to be sure, overbridge when away from home. Either way, people will probably dance to bangers thats gone through overbridge
Btw: have you ever thought about how many AD->DA conversions are going on in a modern eurorack system (where many modules are digital based) before the sound hits the output?
