My Apogee duet sounds dull!?..

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My Apogee duet sounds dull!?..

Hi, i record into Garageband, my recordings are very much bedroom recording, involving male vocals and acoustic guitar. I use a Rode nt1a condenser mic into the Duet (with phantom power).

Recording the source is fine, no problem, however, when i play back the raw recording with no eq or compression etc the sound is very dull and muted. This is not what i expected from the apogee, especially as i am using a Rode nt1a, known for its top end bias. This is the same on vocals and acoustic. I have tried different xlr cables and also my SM58, this results in the same problem. . This might simply be how things are and my misunderstanding, but let's just say the raw recording from the duet is dull. Any help would be appreciated

Apogee duet-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 18, 2012 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Apr 18, 2012 7:09 PM in response to jamiewales

How are you monitoring the audio?

Or, perhaps your ears are "dull"?

x

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Answer 2

jamiewales Author

Level 1

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Apr 19, 2012 1:35 AM in response to Studio X

Granted i am not using 'proper' monitors, i use my marantz pm4000 amplifier and mordaunt short speakers, also use my Klipsch S4 earphones, i also have listened to the audio through my iMac speakers for comparison. I do understand that these will colour the sound but all outputs seem to suffer from the same problem, but it's high end stuff. I did have some M-audio monitorsa year or so ago and the sound was so uncoloured and dull that i got rid of them, thinking they were the culpret.

cheers

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Answer 3

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Apr 19, 2012 2:13 PM in response to jamiewales

Time to start doing A/B testing.

You'll need another audio interface to use.

You might try another microphone as well.

Test each mic with each audio interface and have a listen.

The other alternative is you are so used to listening to audio that has been jacked up, that a true flat response (ie, no tweeked frequencies) doesn't sound normal any more. When that happens, reference monitors certainly won't sound "good", but they will sound like what was recorded. which is the whole point of having them in the first place.

Good luck.

x

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