Members GZsound Posted February 6, 2010 Members Share Posted February 6, 2010 I need some advice here. For some reason, my mixes sound just fine on my monitors..all three sets...but I am getting a pretty drastic difference when I reference the mixes on my home stereo. I record at 48K 32 bit and after doing all my manipulation, I convert the stereo mix to 44.1 16 bit. I am getting some high end "crackle" almost a fragged sound on a couple of songs and that isn't usual for my mixes. The files are done exactly as I have done for years. No overs, everything at -5 db, nothing clipped on recording or mixing. On playback of the converted files, some sound "crunchy".. I'm wondering if the file conversion could be causing the problem? I use Adobe Audition to convert the file, have dithering enabled, etc. pretty much the default conversion program. It's worked well for over two years..but now..I don't know. Any suggestions? I know that the tracks are better quality now with an upgrade in mic preamps and there is more high end clarity..but why would that translate to an audible high end distortion after conversion to 44.1 16 bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 6, 2010 Members Share Posted February 6, 2010 Does the problem occur when you convert to other file formats, other bit-rates, etc.? Does the problem only occur when you monitor at home? Does it occur on other speakers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Instrospection Posted February 6, 2010 Members Share Posted February 6, 2010 I know that if you master with Steinberg Wavelab 6 Essentials, it is possible---if you don't turn the plugins off--that it will render it with the plugins again. I had done a montage of the songs in the master sequence, and it would burn it with this clipping and it was making me absolutely irate.....like this phantom EQ ing! Turns out that once the plugins were turned off, it rendered the master correctly. So it may be an issue with that. When you convert it in any way, make sure that the plugins are turned off. That may be obvious, but it wasn't to me at the time! Could be a burner issue, too. I know that my original burner ended up being screwed and would read information incorrectly, leading to audio anomalies and skips and whatnot. I replaced the burner with a Pioneer and it went away. Also, it could be in the dither. Try a different type of dithering or different dithering program if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zooey Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Pop the CD you burned back into your PC and import the audio. If it sounds bad through your studio monitors, you know you have a conversion problem. If it sounds good, you have a mixing/monitoring problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted February 8, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 Pop the CD you burned back into your PC and import the audio. If it sounds bad through your studio monitors, you know you have a conversion problem. If it sounds good, you have a mixing/monitoring problem. Ahh.... That's a great idea. I have been wondering if it might be a bad batch of CD's or perhaps a bad burner, although I have two new burners in my computer and the problem was showing up regardless of which burner I used. But....man, thanks. That may give me a clue.. I appreciate the ideas. And introspection.. I do use Steinberg plug ins, but as far as I know, they shut off when I close them after running the process. And normally, the only couple of plugs I use are multiband compression and the ME Loudness maximizer. However, like I said, they shut off after closing...as far as I know. I don't think that's the problem, but thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HairyScaryMark Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 It might be useful to provide an audio example of this problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 Yea if you can post a small clip we can analize it might help you out. There are many types of recognisable distortion and depending on when it kicks in can identify the cause. If its rythmic, it may be cause by saturation. Others can be caused by resources being taxed and its a matter of latency and CPU power. If you post a short clip I can plug it into a static frequency analizer and see if its caused by frequency spikes, Sub Frequencies, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted February 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 9, 2010 Yea if you can post a small clip we can analize it might help you out. There are many types of recognisable distortion and depending on when it kicks in can identify the cause. If its rythmic, it may be cause by saturation. Others can be caused by resources being taxed and its a matter of latency and CPU power. If you post a short clip I can plug it into a static frequency analizer and see if its caused by frequency spikes, Sub Frequencies, etc. Thanks, but I know where it is. The problem is that it shows up on the CD, not in the file. Something is happening that is adding a high end "crunch" that doesn't exist in the original files. I haven't yet had time to bring the audio file back off the CD and analyze it, but tomorrrow is dedicated to getting this project done. I now have all the files on two computers, one brand new, with two Plextor CD burners in each one, so I'm going to try burning the final CD on all four CD burners with four different brands of CD and see what happens. The "distortion" shows up mostly in the lead vocal. Very strange. thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.