recording problem

[SHP]

i use a fantom XA, and i have difficulties with recording stuff. when i play something on the synth it sounds kind of good, but i can't get a decent recording. first i tried my sound card's line-in, the result was dull, lifeless. kindof like it is coming from a box, with too much of the bass. i figured my card is no pro equipment, so this must be the problem.
then i installed memory into the synth, and tried its internal sampler. same bad result.
on fantomized.info i read that i should play with the compression when recording, and this helped, but solved only part of the problem. now i can get the higher frequencies, but still, i hear the difference between the synth and the sampled sound. when listening to any of the recorded versions on headphones, the two channels are somehow "closer" to each other, and to my head, than on the synth. it doesnt have the space and depth of the original. what more can i do?
thanks in advance

[Enigma™]

Moved to Gear Talk.

[SHP]

i'm sorry, i wanted to open the thread in gear talk, but i was reading general chat and gear talk simultanously, and must have clicked in the wrong window.

[T3E]

I hope this doesn't seem overly simple, or patronising, but are you recording in Stereo? It sounds very much as if you're hearing the playback in mono, which is definitely going to sound "smaller" and boxier, and could certainly cause some tonal issues (like too much bass) if there were any phasing problems with combining the two channels.

Can you give a bit more info about your setup?

[Grey Loki]

It does sound to me like you're recording in mono - when you record, I take it that you only use the left output of your keyboard? I know things like this are REALLY simple, and it's sometimes insulting when people suggest it to you, but I can think of countless occasions when i've been engineering a gig and forgotten to turn up the amps or something equally silly, then wondered why I wasn't getting any noise.

[SHP]

i have already thought about that i may be recording in mono, but i think it is not the case. when i use the internal sampler of the synth, i don't think i can possibly do anything wrong. :) i just push the button, and the synth is supposed to record its own sound without me having to plug cables.
when recording thru the line-in of my sound card, i use the headphone output of the synth, which is stereo. so the cable comes from the synth to the sound card, and i have my headphone plugged into the soundcard's headphone out. the sound in the headphone is perfect again, but the recording is not (i also select 44kHz, 16bit, stereo for the wav file in goldwave/sound forge).

[Grey Loki]

Hmm. Perhaps a playback EQ you're not aware of somewhere? I know that some soundcards have a small EQ in their volume settings. Also, have you tried another recording program?

[ZuL]

About recording using your soundcard, you've got your outputs and inputs correct in a sense but what about the cable that you're using? Is it a TS to TS cable? As far as I know, since you're recording out from a stereo output, you should use a TRS to TRS (stereo) cable too.

Another question, what about the channel that you've set in your recording software? Is it a single mono track or is it a single stereo track?

[SHP]

i have tried both goldwave and sound forge, the latter i even tried with higher frequencies/bitrates, but to no avail.
actually i have no idea what cable i'm using, and the guys over at fantomized.info also suggested a new soundcard/cable so this is something i will definiately try.
OTOH i still don't get why the XA's internal sampler has a dull sound too.

[hephiroth]

here's a thought about your current set-up for recording to your computer's soundcard:

you're using the headphone jack to go to the line-in. while that does technically work, a headphone jack isn't exactly line-level because it carries some electrical current or something intended to "power" the headphones...either that or the signal is just way stronger or something...i don't know the science behind it, but it's not really line-level.

what you might look into is buying a cable that has a 1/8" stereo plug on end and a 2-pronged RCA L/R input on the other. then, just buy a pair of RCA > 1/4" converters, and you can plug those into the L and R main outputs of your Fantom and run them into your line-in with the 1/8" plug. then, just make sure you're recording in stereo, and you should be good to go...

this might help give you a cleaner recording. the other thing i've found with recording is to always turn the bass down a little more than sounds right on the keyboard because it's often louder on my computer. not sure why...

-jeff-