General Music Chat

For years everything on my damn computer sounded like the chipmunks. I finally got it fixed. Now I can listen to all your tunes and give an honest critique (don't worry I'll go easy on you). I"ve just been too lazy to get it fixed.

don't know about yours, but on my PC, I run from either the nonpowered speaker out or the headphone jack, both are 1/8 inch stereo out, into my home stereo and can really crank it and listen well.

There was something wrong with my soundcard. A friend of mine guided me through uninstalling it and then reinstalling it. It took all of a few minutes over the phone. He works on computers for a living. Everything sounds normal speed now thank God. If I get better speakers it'll sound awesome. Looking forward to listening to everybody's songs on their profile pages.

I listen/ write/ record music on my stock pc speakers, 'cause I figure that's what most of the people out there are listening to, not $2000 flat-response studio-monitor speakers/ amps. Or it could be that I'm to cheep and dont have the money to buy such things..lol..
Glad to hear U got everything working, Bob.

You're right probably, after working on computers for about 10 years I know I've rarely seen anything but the cheap $10-15 speakers supplied with the computer. Most of them, Dell, Compuke, HP etc, ship the cheapest garbage they can find with their new expensive computer and people settle for that and rarely get anything better. The few who do are usually audiophiles or musicians...

I have a set of Polk Audio speakers on my Linux machine, sounds about as good as my stereo, and a cheaper set also with subwoofer on the recording machine (win 2000) but they sound pretty good too. Neither will get the volume the stereo will, but I don't need lots of volume, just decent sound quality.

When I record, I try to listen to the results on every system I can, each one sounds different. First is my stereo, then the Jeep CD player, then friends' systems and cars, anything I can find that will play the CD, I want to hear it. I remember reading an interview years ago saying that the Beach Boys rode around in a VW listening to "Good Vibrations" until it sounded good in the VW, then they figured it would sound good on anything. But they didn't let it rest until they were happy with it in the VW. I try to do the same thing, if it sounds good on any car stereo I can listen to, it should sound good anywhere.

It's a lot different these days, most newer cars have stereo systems that are a lot better than anything in a 60's VW, and usually they are near a match for most home stereos. I still like to try them though, and you would be surprised how much difference you'll notice in the sound from one car to the next or one stereo or computer to another.

Glad you got it fixed Bob, I've never heard what you describe, but I've seen a lot of computers with sound card issues, usually solved the same way, reinstall the drivers.

Hey, Paleopete. Do you ever have sound issues with your Linux? I run Ubuntu on one PC and almost every day I can't play any music on it (or movies sound) unless I reboot and then it's fine. If you know anything about it, I'd appreciate the help. I'm at ratsass@ratsass101.com if you want to e-mail me. And, Bob, glad you got your sound thang goin'. Didn't mean to hijack your thread.
Q. What did the fish say when he ran into a brick wall?
A. Dam!

Linux ftw!

Yeah, Pete I did notice one song I recorded on my PC was illedgeable in my car.
We were in the studio once and the sound engineer liked to listen to the mixdown on his small speakers rather than the studio monitors, because he said it was more realistic for what the general public would be listening to. I always try to keep that in mind.
Good idea about playing it on lotsa different stereos/ systems.

Glad you fixed it Bob.

Hmmmm I don't know? it depends on whether or not you are attempting to master it yourself?

ZXYZ made a really good comment on equipment sold with Pc's and I think he's right too. However if you are going to produce stuff?

Perhaps I am on the wrong track or tack? I'll get my own coat.

rat: sorry, don't know much about Ubuntu, installed it on one machine not long ago but haven't tried to play any media files, just tinkered around with it a bit and played a few games. It's about to be reworked into a recording machine, probably with XP, which is my LEAST favorite OS, but it has a XP sticker so it's that or Linux and I don't know of a Linux OS that's really good for recording. I'll have to dumb it down for performance reasons, won't need all the garbage XP runs, just the basics. But I do have a good sound card for it, probably use that instead of the onboard one.

ZXYZ - I've been doing that ever since I recorded by the Ping Pong method years ago. Soon as we finished one I'd take it everywhere and listen on every system I could get my hands on. Gives you a really good idea what people will really hear.