I'm having quite a problem with uploading a track to Soundcloud and with the mastering for it.
Story goes like this. I made the track in logic. I mixed it down and then I uploaded it to Soundcloud. But after doing this some clippings start to appear in the audio. I extracted a a snippet from the track to show you this:
As you can see the SC one has some new glitches and dirt on it, and it's not the audio quality because I have uploaded tracks before and they sound just fine.
Also I had this track mastered and when it came back from mastering these glitches also appeared so that means that when the engineer imported it in Cubase got screwed like in the Soundcloud case. Same glitches appeared.
As I said the original unmatered WAV file sounds just fine, so it must be some sort of transcoding to blame.
Yes it does (ruïn) transients and sometimes even obscures reverb tails etc.
Their algo sucks but it's fast and gets the job done. (show (a quick thumbnail of) your work to the world for free)
To find out DURING production how much your precious tracks will be ruïned by dumb computer guys that think they own the place check out this handy plugin
thread moved to mastering forum, for more replies.
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I too think they are transients brought up by a compression algorythm. My iTunes, and as you can see even Chrome (the Dropbox) link play the file as they should.
Only when transcoding to Soundcloud it gets ruined.
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Cool plug-in. I downloaded the demo. Let's see here.... :-D
That Sonnox tool is superb, no doubt about it - it is very revealing and shows you how easy it is to end up with a distorted mess with MP3, as the levels seem to overwhelm the decoders if you are too close to full scale digital 0dB.
I've got nothing to add about SoundCloud though, but it seems logical that if the master is clipped then putting it through soundcloud will only exacerbate this problem.
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aaah but do you know FOR SURE it has no clipping???
did you try with a lower volume version?
edit: reasons why are in a post below this one
Soundcloud (or any lossy codec) will sometimes pick up on some distortion and ruin your track. especially the midrange is often shafted.
Then, your "master" has clipping? It's been mastered by someone?
Perhaps you mean, your final mix has clipping.
I'd advise against clipping a digital bus. especially when they are unhappy about sonic quality. in order to have PUNCH electronic music needs to have some dynamics.
oh well...
Last edited by Reptil; 5th July 2012 at 12:01 AM..
Reason: add
Why would you upload an .mp3 to Soundcloud? Soundcloud will encode it again, and that is of course bad. Upload .wav and let Soundcloud do the encoding. Sonnox Pro-Codec is good for checking if your .wav will distort when encoded ...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Noooway
Why would you upload an .mp3 to Soundcloud? Upload .wav and let Soundcloud do the encoding.
The only good reason to do it, is if you want to download enable the track, but only want to give out an mp3 and not a full res version.
You are absolutely right - but there are a lot of people out there that assume 'well it's compressed so sending it a wav is pointless'. I try as often as I can to explain that losing information twice is much worse than losing it once.
The lower the res of the resulting compressed audio....
The more headroom and removal of ISP's is needed to keep it clean.
The HF has a harmonic relationship with the lower frequencies.
The codec drops the HF off like a stone, above 10k..16k..whatever..depending on the target res.
The HF keeps all other frequencies at bay.
Remove it and all hell breaks loose because the harmonic relationship has been broken.
Things will go through the roof and serious clipping will indeed occur.
Surveys have shown that many kids actually like this distortion.
Surveys have shown that many kids actually like this distortion.
Go figure...
IMO they mostly don't know any better.
a lot of ppl. out there have NEVER IN THEIR LIFE heard decent playback.
or maybe once or twice but their ear-brain is tuned into the distortion artefacts and a perpetual smiley curve
the following video is kind of an advertisement, but a lot of what the man says is true. playback WAS usually better 20 years ago.
BUT... It's not all bad! The pendulum swings the other way again, and a good sound is becoming a selling argument again.
Will try to assimillate what you guys have written here although I'm not that advanced in the mastering department...
Thank you.
really... you don't have to!
concentrate on getting your mix right.
sounds that work (and reinforce) with each other instead of fight (both dynamics (horizontal) als frequencies (vertical).
leave the mastering to mastering guys at the labels, once you got a record deal. the track has to sound as perfect as possible before any mastering takes place.
of course a competative demo helps. but if a guy deciding to put out your track doesn't recognise it from snot, I'd find another label.
it's simple... be a jack of all trades, or a master of one. focus on the mixing!
and if you do it yourself, it's NOT really mastering. it's just extended mixing. another set of (capable) ears is needed. a mastering guy that UNDERSTANDS your genre and what you try to do.
mastering electronic dance music as a rock track is not going to cut it. (pun intended) so shop around.
Soundclouds realtime streaming is fixed at 128kbps mp3, and not a particular good encoder either by the sounds of it. Reminds me of listening to 128kbps mp3's from 10 years ago. No real way of getting around that. But of course if you are to upload its better to upload to soundcloud as uncompressed .wav/.aiff, at least that way its not converting to mp3 twice.
Just a few weeks ago , I noticed on soundclouds' F.A.Q page that every uploaded track is streamed at 128kb/s mp3 , regardless of the quality / bitrate of the uploaded original file.
I was uploading 256 wav and wondering why the hats sounded clunky , harsh and phasey when i'd spent time taming them.
Although streaming is 128.....anyone who downloads will download the originally uploaded file , at the higher quality.
IMO they mostly don't know any better.
a lot of ppl. out there have NEVER IN THEIR LIFE heard decent playback.
or maybe once or twice but their ear-brain is tuned into the distortion artefacts and a perpetual smiley curve
the following video is kind of an advertisement, but a lot of what the man says is true. playback WAS usually better 20 years ago.
BUT... It's not all bad! The pendulum swings the other way again, and a good sound is becoming a selling argument again.
Soundcloud & youtube make everything sound like shit no matter what haha, there's little you can do. I always upload stuff to youtube and soundcloud then give a link to my stuff on Soundowl.com for higher quality listening & downloading.
Yeah great clip. Its good to know a little more about why Funktion 1 has become so popular. I know whenever I've heard their systems at venues, they always sound so good!
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