Analog to digital Recording via Cakewalk

[sundog]

I was talking to someone about recording voice and music through Cakewalk and he said that the cleanest recordings are made from an analog to digital device that is them routed to computer interface optically. He tried to tell me that recording with a mixer straight into cakewalk (in my case with a USB interface does not yield the cleanest purest signal . I thought digital conversion was accopmlished by cakewalk . IS this so and if so why????

[sundog]

OK; I guess I must make some degrading statement about being a beginner or a newbie or something like that.....

Can anyone enlighten me now ????
r,
Sundog = Sunidiot

[darenw]

Generally, it's best to feed digital data into a computer because it's less likely to get polluted with electronic interference from all the digital doodads, electromagnetic interference from fans, etc. Digital signals, being "all or nothing", dont' care about a few millivolts of junk riding along on them. But analog signals convey slight nuances in sounds in the form of slight nuances of voltage - easily mucked up by interference.

I always get nervous feeding analog signals into a computer sound card's Line In jack, just because i know those source of interference are so close by.... of course the sound card has shielding, but never so good as in a separate digitizing unit outside the computer, far from the nasty CPU, with its own purified power source.

Not to say that an external unit isperfect, either...for professional production work, i spend half my time hunting for and fixing sources of noise. Another half is spent hunting for and replacing bad cables. That leaves.... well, you figure out how much time for actual recording and mixing!