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My track is distorting

Hey i wonder if anyone can help me.

My song is distorting pretty badly when played loud. All the individual track levels are fine. Nothing is redlining. I have a compressor on the master but thats intact as well. The master channel appears to be fine as well. I have no idea why its distorting


Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Few questions

1) Does the master channel definately never go into the red at any point?

2) Is it distorting when played in your sequencer or after you've rendered it and played it on cd or itunes etc?

3) Only when you turn the volume up? Is it fine when its quiet?

Either way, I don't have a clue but I'm sure a little more info will help those on here who do know what they're talking about

Remove the compressor on the master, does the master level hit red now? If so, that's why it's distorting. Lower the levels so it never hits red (and preferable peaks at -3 dB), then enable the compressor/limiter again (and of course make sure it still doesn't hit red).

Cheers

PS. Listening at low levels can sometimes hide compressor/limiter caused distortion. That happened to us long time ago when we got our brand new song played in a club ... and it sounded distorted as hell at that high volume! Learn a lot since then

Low frequencies will often distort a track while not being audioble.

Try cutting low frequencies on the master and see if it still distorts

Falk: When i turned off the master compressor the master was indeed redlining - however when i turned it down and applied the compressor again it was sounding the same, just softer.

Subtle: I tried cutting the lows - no good

I don't know, im really baffled.

Does the track sound fine without the compressor in there? Is it only a compressor on the master channel, or is there a limiter and/or eq as well?

If it's just a compressor, then it's a good bet it's the compressor that's causing the issue. Which compressor is it, what settings are you using?

quote:

Originally posted by Addikted Falk: When i turned off the master compressor the master was indeed redlining - however when i turned it down and applied the compressor again it was sounding the same, just softer. Subtle: I tried cutting the lows - no good I don't know, im really baffled.

Try this.

Turn off the compressor.

Turn down every sound u have by the exact same amount. (i.e. turn down the kick 3dB, turn down everything else 3dB).

Then apply a highpass filter to the master channel and set it for 20hz so that everything below 20hz is filtered out. You wouldnt believe how much inaudible noise is generated in that area.

Then while watching the dB meter on the main channel, play the tracks chorus, or the section with the most sounds playing. What you want to find is what dB the mix seems to stabalize around with the most sounds playing, so you need to ignore random peaks because these are what you WANT to compress.

Then apply a compressor with the highest ratio possible, a hard knee and a threshhold of what you just observed (so if the mix stabalized around -2dB you put ur threshold for -2dB) Then set your attack for fastest possible and release for between 800-1000ms preferrably.

Then while watching the dB Meter on the main channel, subtly apply gain until you hit around -0.3dB

Then render.


If you are still having trouble send me a PM and i will help you out.

youve blown your speakers perhaps?

Yes, as Nightshift says, turn down the level on every channel is what you wanna do. Then you apply the compressor, begin with no makeup gain at all, then work it until you get the compression you want. Also you might also wanna try a brick wall limiter instead of a compressor, which makes sure no peak ever gets over -0.3 dB

Actually what you're doing with the compressor on the master channel is what many refers to as mastring. Personally I prefer to do it in a separate process, which means I finish the whole track, make it peak around -3 dB, do a decent mix. Then it's time for mastring which I do on the wav file to bring up the volume and get the final touch in EQ. Everyone has it's own way of doing things tho...

Cheers

You're clipping the input of the compressor plugin. Turn down the input gain, if this fails turn down the individual tracks. And upgrade to a host which shows you the ins and outs of each plugin, like ableton.

just wondering why one would have a compressor on the master when producing a track. an entire specrum of views would be appreciated.

sounds dumb but start by halving every single level in your mix, then turn up the master.. ;-)

quote:

Originally posted by Stevemarble just wondering why one would have a compressor on the master when producing a track. an entire specrum of views would be appreciated.

I find that it helps tighten up the low end of my track. Try it out and see, dont go too mad on the compression or you'll ruin your track

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift Try this. Turn off the compressor. Turn down every sound u have by the exact same amount. (i.e. turn down the kick 3dB, turn down everything else 3dB). Then apply a highpass filter to the master channel and set it for 20hz so that everything below 20hz is filtered out. You wouldnt believe how much inaudible noise is generated in that area. Then while watching the dB meter on the main channel, play the tracks chorus, or the section with the most sounds playing. What you want to find is what dB the mix seems to stabalize around with the most sounds playing, so you need to ignore random peaks because these are what you WANT to compress. Then apply a compressor with the highest ratio possible, a hard knee and a threshhold of what you just observed (so if the mix stabalized around -2dB you put ur threshold for -2dB) Then set your attack for fastest possible and release for between 800-1000ms preferrably. Then while watching the dB Meter on the main channel, subtly apply gain until you hit around -0.3dB Then render. If you are still having trouble send me a PM and i will help you out.

im not suffering from this problem, but thats a handy tip

nice one

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift Try this. Turn off the compressor. Turn down every sound u have by the exact same amount. (i.e. turn down the kick 3dB, turn down everything else 3dB). Then apply a highpass filter to the master channel and set it for 20hz so that everything below 20hz is filtered out. You wouldnt believe how much inaudible noise is generated in that area. Then while watching the dB meter on the main channel, play the tracks chorus, or the section with the most sounds playing. What you want to find is what dB the mix seems to stabalize around with the most sounds playing, so you need to ignore random peaks because these are what you WANT to compress. Then apply a compressor with the highest ratio possible, a hard knee and a threshhold of what you just observed (so if the mix stabalized around -2dB you put ur threshold for -2dB) Then set your attack for fastest possible and release for between 800-1000ms preferrably. Then while watching the dB Meter on the main channel, subtly apply gain until you hit around -0.3dB Then render. If you are still having trouble send me a PM and i will help you out.

This sorted it! Thanks so much man

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