I need a .wav recording primer.

Gentlemen, I need to find a primer on how to sample .wav sound successfully (so that it doesn't sound like a tin can).

I just recorded my son's piano recital using a simple setup. 4 condensor microphones on two grand pianos. Both pianos have a treble and bass microphone going into a stereo mixer.

This mixer then combines all 4 signals two channels (left and right). This left and right channel then goes into a generic hi-fi 6 head vcr.

I then have the audio output's from the vcr split (one pair to my computer, and the other pair to my receiver).

The vcr's analog recorded sound is great (warm, clean, full). The cassette deck that is hooked up to the receiver is also pretty good too (about as good as a cassette deck can be expect to sound). However the computer which sampled the recital in real time @44.1k x 16 bit sounds tinny, thin, and fake.

I've tried to warm up the sound digitally by adding loudness contour, reverb, etc. but it still sounds fake. No, it's not my computer's speakers either. These .wav's still sound fake on a cdr that is played on the "real" cd/receiver combo.

I'm using a Vortex 2 sound card on a 1 GHz Slot-A t-bird/MSI-6195 machine with 512 of CAS2 PC133.

Again, the analog devices sound quite good, so I can't blame the humble microphones, mixer, vcr setup. For some reason, the computer just doesn't capture a realistic sounding .wav file.

I've noticed this problem for years using many different soundcards. 16 bit sampled stereo .wav's even at 44.1k still have a thin tinny fake sound to them.

Does anyone here know of a good website that has digital recording primers?

There has got to be way to make .wav files sound real. It's just not right for a $67 Walmart vcr to blow away a computer as a recording device.

Thanks,

Brian H.