If you take the same outboard gear, the same instruments, the same mics...and record the same song at the same levels at the same sampling rate...okay, so everything the same!!

And record it into Cubase, Sonar, SoundForge, Pro Tools, etc.

Barring any natural human deviations, will it in fact sound the same?

It seems that the answer would in fact be no, however, I read in SOS that Sigur Ros use SoundForge as it sounds "warmer" than Pro Tools.

pyxis360 wrote:I read in SOS that Sigur Ros use SoundForge as it sounds "warmer" than Pro Tools.

I'm pretty sure THAT is a load of shit to be honest. Up until recently Protools did not have a 48 bit mixer, so therefore you could get digital truncation by the time you sum everything. But now pretty much all sequencers have 48bit at least in the mixing strage. This is to cope with the increased word length after the gain changes and pans most people use when mixing "in the box".

So in theory there are differences in sound that could occur within the mixer, but I think most of the latest versions of software have reached a point where they are hardly noticable.

I've definitely never listen to a digital recording in one app and thought "hmm that sounds warmer than in logic!" load of shite.

you can say that yeah, they sound just the same, but for example, the way you 'work' with certain sequencers and probably the internal mixer inside them may give the mix a certain colour.
music made in Reason for example, has a very distinct sound - you can notice it. other sequencers sound a bit warmer or muddier, with less top-end - the one i use, Sony Acid 4.0 , is an example of that.

I think like most things with digital recording, it all comes down to ergonomics. Like the way you make mixes completely differently if you use a control surface, or if you mix with a mouse! Or if you use an analogue desk to mix through.

I think these things and engineering and recording make a much bigger difference to the sound than anything else, but technical differences are so easy to place them blame on for things that don't turn out quite right.

I also think if you're going to start concerning yourself with software architecture like this then you should also be thinking about the computer hardware you're using, as in processors, memory, motherboards, because when talking about this level of fidelty they must make a similar difference.
But I won't ever comment on a thread about that because it's MAD.

Saturday, when you say "work" do you mean how you end up using the sequencer to create music?

If that's the case then let me refine the question as I'm sure a sequencers environment has some effect on how you make decisions and ultimately this effects how the music will be created.

Let's assume that you're just strumming a mic'd acoustic guitar, G C D, and having vocalist sing a simple melody...nothing else, say just a minute of recording. No plugins, etc. Just straight to the computer.

I don't think under these controlled situtions the outcome will differ based on different sequencers.

Thoughts?

It would seem that if everything was held constant then the only thing that would effect the actual sound of a source would be the sampling rate. If this too is held constant then physically the quality of the sound should not change.

Thus, in terms of quality of sound, it makes no difference whether you purchase Logic, Cubase, Pro-tools, Sonar, etc., and should not be a deciding factor when buying. Obviously which you think is easier to use or which will provide more is really the main issue.

I was just wondering if anybody had heard or had information on whether certain sequencers "color" the sound.

I should imagine in such a situation the difference would be so uttlerly minimal that you'd never notice it.
But like I said, the mixer architecture would be the only thing I've ever heard of making any difference to the sound quality.

Hi David, maybe you could expand upon this "mixture architecture", I don't know what you mean but it sounds pretty interesting. I mix in the box and was gonna shell out for a console so maybe knowing a bit more would help make that decision for me.

In any case, thanks!

pyxis360 wrote:Saturday, when you say "work" do you mean how you end up using the sequencer to create music?

If that's the case then let me refine the question as I'm sure a sequencers environment has some effect on how you make decisions and ultimately this effects how the music will be created.

Let's assume that you're just strumming a mic'd acoustic guitar, G C D, and having vocalist sing a simple melody...nothing else, say just a minute of recording. No plugins, etc. Just straight to the computer.

I don't think under these controlled situtions the outcome will differ based on different sequencers.

Thoughts?

yup, i was talking about "how they work". sometimes the internal mixing does sound different (my example of reason), but about your actual question: i talked in other electronic messaboards swear they are difference between some sequencers. what it´s true is that, if there IS a difference, it´s minimal and not important.

pyxis360 wrote:Saturday, when you say "work" do you mean how you end up using the sequencer to create music?

If that's the case then let me refine the question as I'm sure a sequencers environment has some effect on how you make decisions and ultimately this effects how the music will be created.

Let's assume that you're just strumming a mic'd acoustic guitar, G C D, and having vocalist sing a simple melody...nothing else, say just a minute of recording. No plugins, etc. Just straight to the computer.

I don't think under these controlled situtions the outcome will differ based on different sequencers.

Thoughts?

This scenario seems to indicate that you don't understand what a sequencer is. If all you're doing is strumming an acoustic guitar and singing, both with microphones, there is no place in that arrangement for a sequencer. A sequencer would be useless in that situation, as sequencers are not used for recording anything, but rather are used to control the generation of sounds by MIDI devices. A sequencer tells your drum machine what sounds to make, when, or tells your synth what sounds to make, when. It doesn't do anything to your acoustic guitar, as your acoustic guitar doesn't have a MIDI port by which the sequencer could send it data signals telling it what to do.

If *all* you have going on is what you described, an acoustic guitar and a vocalist singing a melody, and nothing else, then a sequencer would be pointless and do nothing towards helping you record your guitar and vocals.

Are you maybe confusing a sequencer with a digital audio recording application?