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Posted by: alibro Feb 19 2009, 12:44 AM

Hi,
I have a Tonelab Le and now it is time to start recording. My question is: how can I get the best results out of the Tonelab into may DAW, record via the optical S/P Dif or with analog outputs of the TLLE?? I want to buy a soundcard, and I want to know if have to look after one with optical S/P Dif or not...
Thank

Posted by: Hammerhead Feb 19 2009, 02:17 AM

alibro,
I have the tone lab LE and to be honest I record straight from the headphone out jack, into my mic in line on my lap top and it sounds great. But now that you ask I bet there are better ways to capture all the audio... I'll follow this thread and do a bit of digging too. By the way what are you using to record?

Posted by: -Zion- Feb 19 2009, 12:54 PM

I use the output channel on the LE directly to my soundcards line-in to record

EDIT: The one called OUTPUT - L/MONO



however, i would guess that the S/P DIF OUT would give you the very BEST recording sound..

Posted by: alibro Feb 19 2009, 01:12 PM

what do you mean with "By the way what are you using to record"? Soundcard??
I have no recording Soundcard yet, but I want buy one these days...

Posted by: fatb0t Feb 19 2009, 02:30 PM

Since the ToneLab (judging by that pic anyway) has no USB or Firewire port you need to record into a sound cart. Line6 has a variety of toneports that are reasonably priced and Reaper is a free DAW.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Feb 19 2009, 02:42 PM

S/P Dif in theory will give you best quality....But I would just get a good sound card and connect via standard cable going from the output jack of the Tonelab...

Posted by: alibro Feb 19 2009, 02:49 PM

i thought about a "Terratec x24 FW"
Is this a good soundcard?? There I have also an optical S/PDIF. What do think about? Or what would you buy in this pricerange?

Posted by: tonymiro Feb 19 2009, 03:30 PM

Terratec is a good card in that price range imo.

I don't use s/p dif to link equipment as I find the limitation of 2 channels too - er - limiting. However, apart from that digital s/p dif is ok for home use.

At some point analogue has to be converted to digital so any DAW has to use an ADC. To me the question would be how good is the ADC on the Tonelab and what are its limitations: is it limited to 44.1, 16 bit or can it do other, higher resolutions; how good is its digital clock; what is the noise floor; and so on. If these are worse then the Terratec then I would use the Tonelab for an analogue signal and convert at the Terratec. TBH I would imagine that the Terratec would be better at ADC - I don't know however as I don't have performace data on the Tonelab.

Cheers,
Tony

Addendum - as the Tonelab has already digitised the signal (which it may have done being a multi-fx) then you may as well stay in the digital domain anyway rather than converting back to analogue to send to a soundcard...

Posted by: mba64 Feb 19 2009, 09:17 PM

I hade a Tonelab Le and I just record it thrugh the analog out`s in to my soundcard 2496, and it sounds god.
No need for digital.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Feb 20 2009, 02:08 AM

I agree with tony, ADC on Tonelab may not be as good as with Terratec sound card. Refer to the Tonelab manual, in the specs it should say about sample rate and bit depth of the AD converters onboard. The check out the specs of the Terratec and see what sort of sample rates it conforms. It should match on one value, probably 44100 or 48000, 16bit/24bit.

Another interesting thing to check out is if the Tonelab is doing AD/DA conversion when outputs the analog signal or the signal stays in the analog domain through the device. If the second case is true, than using the analog out on the Tonelab should be used, and save Terratec's S/P DIF for other uses...

Posted by: Hammerhead Feb 20 2009, 06:33 AM

QUOTE (alibro @ Feb 19 2009, 02:12 AM)

what do you mean with "By the way what are you using to record"? Soundcard??
I have no recording Soundcard yet, but I want buy one these days...

Posted by: mba64 Feb 20 2009, 04:05 PM

I use Cubase SX3

Posted by: alibro Feb 21 2009, 12:30 PM

QUOTE (Hammerhead @ Feb 20 2009, 06:33 AM)

What recording software are you using?