why does this happen and how do i stop it? (tracks clipping)

[Syrnett]

when recording individual tracks in Adobe Audition on my laptop, I can get each track fine on its own... when i go and play the tracks together, its clipping horribly. if i lower each tracks level to stop the mixed clipping, the overall mix is way low on the volume side.

 

i am admittedly a complete novice at recording so any input would be appreciated.

 

-Erik

[riffy]

That is just the way it is bro.

Combined tracks have more output than one. Lower the track volumes a bit, then lower the master output so there is no clipping. When you master, normalize or eq at the end you can

bring the volume of the overall track back up!

 

Gary

[Alanfc]

and once you've got the whole song bounced to a single stereo track, then you can go about goosing the volume back up again

 

here's a bunch of free stuff, most important for your stereo final track's volume is the "mastering limiter". But this can totally be abused watchit

 

free:

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

[Syrnett]

cool...thanks guys.

 

will give those things a shot. glad to know its at least a normal thing as opposed to something i am directly causing.

 

-Erik

[Alanfc]

sure,

one other thing,

you're better off compressing spikey/peaky individual tracks to be smoother, rather than crushing the master as much. Compression is your friend and your enemy.

(amateur here)

[Mark Blasco]

Normal mixes are a lot softer than what you hear on a CD. Mastering brings up the overall volume without clipping by using compression, limiting, EQ, etc. When you mix a tune, do not expect it to be as loud as a mastered track.

[Def_Pearl_Pilot]

 

Originally posted by Syrnett when recording individual tracks in Adobe Audition on my laptop, I can get each track fine on its own... when i go and play the tracks together, its clipping horribly. if i lower each tracks level to stop the mixed clipping, the overall mix is way low on the volume side. i am admittedly a complete novice at recording so any input would be appreciated. -Erik

 

 

That's interesting. I've never had this happen. What happens when you try muting the tracks and unmuting one by one?

[Riverdragon]

you may also want to check the buffer size in your soundcard application. You may be able to adjust it within adobe. I can't remember what I have mine at now, but when I first started out I had the same problems you are having and that did the trick.

[Syrnett]

 

Originally posted by Def_Pearl_Pilot That's interesting. I've never had this happen. What happens when you try muting the tracks and unmuting one by one?

 

 

currently, the more tracks going simultaneously, the worse the clipping gets but any one at a time is great.

 

-Erik

[Syrnett]

 

Originally posted by Riverdragon you may also want to check the buffer size in your soundcard application. You may be able to adjust it within adobe. I can't remember what I have mine at now, but when I first started out I had the same problems you are having and that did the trick.

 

 

thanks man. will definelty check into that first.

 

-Erik

[tommythelurker]

I think the posts from Alan and Gary pretty much nailed it.

[afxwinter]

I'd attribute the clipping to the bass frequencies doubling up and overpowering the mix, at least that's what happens to me on occasion. Have you tried EQ'ing the tracks to lower whatever's peaking out?

[anomaly]

Originally posted by Alanfc and once you've got the whole song bounced to a single stereo track, then you can go about goosing the volume back up again here's a bunch of free stuff, most important for your stereo final track's volume is the "mastering limiter". But this can totally be abused watchit free: http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

 

Thanks for that link man. I've been looking for some stuff to enhace my recordings with.

[GregMan]

I dont know Audition but I know Sonar 5 pretty well. Send like tracks (ie all guitar, all vox, etc) to their own busses. At each buss have a limiter at the end of the chain (and prolly an eq and compression -suit to taste ) and make sure the limiter snags everything before it hits 0db. Output all busses to a "master" buss that has its own limiter as well. I actually use two masters - one for drums/vox and the other for everything else. Output your master(s) to your soundcard outputs.

 

Resulting stereo wav then to be mastered.

[Alanfc]

Originally posted by anomaly Thanks for that link man. I've been looking for some stuff to enhace my recordings with.

 

sure no prob,

but watch that Limiter,

I found that I had to use volume envelopes on my stereo files for big peaks. Its not exactly graceful with those (crashes, big snare intros-outros, etc). But overall it was doing its job. I set it to with a high threshold (like -2.0 and lower, up to -.2 ) just to control things. Not purely for its volume properties. I'd use a few compressors in a chain before that to goose the volume. Eventually I just used it set to -0.2. You'll just have to see what it does when you start cranking down the threshold further on. It will get louder but it will shave off the upper freq's and expose the bottom. Making for a boomy mess.......atleast that was my amateur experience with it. But even with my fancy Waves limiter it does that a bit. Warning, if you've not used one before, turn your monitors down first !

[GregMan]

Alanfc is correct. Crank your monitors down before applying the limiters. I like the L2's but recently have become a Voxengo Elephant fan - and the price is right too !

 

Actually I guess I use a lot of Voxengo routinely (Voxformer on vocal buss, Gliss EQ everywhere, Soniformer during mastering in wavelab...)

[Alanfc]

 

Originally posted by GregMan Alanfc is correct. Crank your monitors down before applying the limiters. I like the L2's but recently have become a Voxengo Elephant fan - and the price is right too ! Actually I guess I use a lot of Voxengo routinely (Voxformer on vocal buss, Gliss EQ everywhere, Soniformer during mastering in wavelab...)

 

 

ahh I almost bought the whole suite!

Alot of lovers for that on the Sonar forums there are.

I used their SPAN analyzer alot when looking at pro cd's/references.

[AtillaTheHungry]

 

Originally posted by GregMan Resulting stereo wav then to be mastered.

 

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait just a minute there! You not only use a limiter on everything while mixing, but you do it TWICE?!?

 

Dude, just NOT a good idea. That is what mastering is for, and you are screwing it up before anyone even gets a chance with it. Mastering engineers hate that.

[GregMan]

check out some of my clips and let me know what u think. Constructive criticism, k ?

 

http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik5/Ride_the_Wave_8.1m416.mp3

 

http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik2/FE7.1m416.mp3

 

http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik3/Pay_Attention_10.2m416.mp3

[Riverdragon]

fyi - I have my DMA Buffer Size at 512.

[sysera]

Originally posted by Riverdragon fyi - I have my DMA Buffer Size at 512.

 

You're right about the buffer size. This can cause an effect similar to signal level clipping quite easily if it's set too low.

 

There's a fine line to walk with the buffer, too high and your latency will increase, too low and your tracks will start to sound like Rice Krispies cereal for no apparent reason.

 

[Syrnett]

 

Originally posted by GregMan check out some of my clips and let me know what u think. Constructive criticism, k ? http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik5/Ride_the_Wave_8.1m416.mp3 http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik2/FE7.1m416.mp3 http://home.comcast.net/~dhbmusik3/Pay_Attention_10.2m416.mp3

 

 

very nice production overall.

 

for constructive critism, one thing that popped out to me was the vocals seems to sit too much on top of the tracks to me. Of course this is personal preference oriented. especially when in "softer" parts of your songs.

 

for example, in the first link you gave, from 1:40 - 2:00ish, the vocals blend very well in the mix. but from 0:00 - 1:40 they seem to sit way on top of the mix.

 

hope this makes sense.

 

-Erik