Faders

I haven't listened to the file, but from what I read it seems to be recorded/mixed at a very low volume. So my GUESS is that there is nothing wrong with the the mastered file either. But you may have some problem in your listening setup, either in software or hardware, so when the loudness is brought up to a normal level (by mastering or normalisation) it distorts.
 
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Well, why not upload the mastered version as well to see what we hear in the distortion?
 
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Ok here it is......... for what I hear here and when burned on cd, the distortion is mainly on the vocals although some hard picked bass notes on the guitar have a fuzz on them .............. Like I said , with the vocals at least, I thought it could possibly be the pre amp or the Ribbon ... so I re recorded the vox with a condensor straight in to the Tascam and it was the same.........

http://dikbanovich.fr/jh.mp3
 
Yep - the level of the wav that you posted is WAY low.

So I pulled it into my DP, max'd the fader level and digital trim (which prolly wasn't necessary), then sent it to mixdown (no mastering effects), then normalized. This is the result:

https://soundcloud.com/porterhousemusic/testwav/s-xh6pgVL2XUP



I dig your material. This is a cool song and style, great guitar playing, and a good recording. You get this level/distortion thing squared away and polish it a little and you've got something really good here.
 
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I've got it cranked and I don't here any distortion on this mp3 you've posted.

Anyone else hearing distortion on the above mp3?
 
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Hi David, That's cleaner than I could get it using normalisation ... there's still distortion to my ears here on the stronger vocal and guitar bits......... mastering just accentuates it ......

So is the problem simply a low record level? Thanks for that!
 
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It sounds to me like the mastered version has a harsh EQ in the trebles. I noticed it right away in the guitar licks.
If you get a good sound to begin with, you really don't have to EQ much in mastering
 
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So it seems from what you're saying is the problem is with my computer media....... but if that were the case how is it that everything else I listen to is clean and full? I even listen to some Tex Mex accordian at full trottle here just to see and there was no problem, and I'm sure that any problems would have shown up with that!

So I don't understand how this is coming about ?
 
I heard the harsh treble as well in the mastered version...... That can be fixed in the next mix and master I think if I can figure the distortion...
 
Man... I'm sorry.... I'm just not hearing it. Sounds clean to me. If anything - it sounds like *maybe* the mic might be overloading just slightly in the loudest parts of the capture.
 
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No need to be sorry David, that's really good of you to go to all the hassle, Thanks for that !

So is it possible that boosting a low level signal could cause distortion when boosted, given that none of it at any stage breaks the "sound barrier" so to speak?
 
In David Porter's WAV I hear distortion in a couple of places including in the opening verse on the "I" of "I was born".
It's hard to know what caused that without knowing your setup and meter levels. Did you lightly compress the vocal?
 
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and I agree with David that it just sounds like the vocal mic is overloading slightly here and there
 
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I think there was a little bit of compression used on the way in..... but how does the mic overload when the signal level is so low.... I thought that would have avoided overload or am I thinking wrongly on this?
 
If you were singing too close to the mic, distortion is not always from clipping.
 
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I'm no expert - but I'm pretty sure that any given mic has a max db threshhold... meaning even if the level of the signal entering the preamp is low - the mic can still be overloaded by sound pressure.

There's also the distinct possibility that the mic is faulty - to some degree.
 
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That is possible Noto, this is a new ribbon mike to me so it's very possible I haven't figured it properly..... it seemed to respond better to my style of singing being about 30cms away with a pop shield... I tried 50cm but I didn't like the sound ...... I'm a mike eater on stage ....... So we never noticed until the signal was boosted .....
 
Which ribbon mic are you using? I've been using a AT 4081 that I really like
 
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It's an Apex 210B which I got second hand a few weeks ago ... long ribbon... so yes - maybe it is faulty... put through a Triton Fethead into my preamp .... I use a short ribbon, a Pronomic RM1 on the body of the guitar through a Fethead to preamp and a Lewitt 140 on the neck end....

I was getting a great vocal sound with the Pronomic on my last Cd recorded on the DP01 ....

I redid the vocals on another track today which was suffering the same distortion problems on mastering with an AKG Perception 220 that I dug out of a never go there corner and plugged that straight into the DP24 ... mixed and mastered with that but I had the same problem .. weird
 
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Di Ba said:
But just normalising on the tascam isn't mastering or is it..........?
Click to expand...
I would say normalization is certainly mastering - even though a mastering engineer would never use normalization. Also, many people think of bringing the peaks to 0 dB when normalization is mentioned, but normalization can be done to any audio level. Another point is that mastering software these days usually normalizes to a 'True Peak' value and not the real digital peak (the o dB sample value). This true peak value is an estimation of what the analog audio after D/A would 'show', also referred to as Intersample Peaking: a number of digital peaks at 0 dB will be translated by the D/A converter as an 'over' (or, distortion).

As to your files, I agree the mix is unnecessarily low in volume. In the mastered mp3 however I can't hear any clear distortion, though at some points I wasn't so sure. I'll give them a listen in the studio later on - and see what analysis with Wavelab shows..
 
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