Hi All, I need some help. I hope I am posting this in the right forum. I am using the real track 2870 Piano Acoustic Rhythm Celtic AirDave Ev 085 in a song I am producing.
The tempo of the song is set to 85bpm. My issue is the A7sus chord that is played sounds off. It's as if the recording volume was too hot when recorded and now it is somewhat clipping.
And during some chords there's like a weird after effect kinda like a warbbling noise during certain passages.
I have set my Master to Flat Dry and center. So there's no reverb at all.
Is there a certain setting I need to adjust? As it becomes fairly noticeable during the just piano parts.
I am using a 2012 Mac Mini Core I7 with 16 gigs of Ram. I would appreciate any assistance. Thank you.
Thanks heaps for providing the songfile. It does the job perfectly. Also, thanks for freezing the tracks. This forces the file to regenerate exactly the same as you heard it.
When I soloed the Piano and listened to it, it sounded fine. When I muted all the tracks except the Piano and Bass, though, there were areas in the song that were less appealing to me. Occasionally low notes on a piano can cause low frequency conflicts with bass notes elsewhere.
I'll be interested to read how others who try the file find it.
Have you tried just playing the Piano by itself and then pairing it with other instruments to see if the problem is a result of a combination of instruments? When I arrange my songs in Reaper, I always pair tracks and play them to make sure that there are no aural conflicts arising.
So I have soloed the piano so I can clearly hear the parts. In my machine, it plays perfectly. No hot spots and no warbling. To note, my machine is well past a decade old. It runs XP Pro 32 bit on the i5 Intel chip and 4GB memory.
I did pay close attention at the places where you indicated you were hearing abnormalities. I didn't hear what you hear obviously. That doesn't mean you don't have a problem, it's just that I can't replicate it on my old DAW.
At this point, you are playing detective to find out what is going on. I'm thinking it's either a setting issue or related to the soundcard hardware and driver.
My question would be... what sound card or interface are you using and what driver is it running? Check that all your sampling rates are set to 44.1Khz Check Preferences> audio and midi driver. Latency and buffers should be set low for latency and mid to high for buffers....or whatever works best for you.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Hi thanks for the suggestions I will try that out later on today. As for the soundcard I am going directly out of the headphone jack on the Mac Mini into some computer speakers with a sub...lol
I know, it's not really a pro setup and that might be what's causing the issue. I just don't have the coin at the moment to drop on better speakers.
but thanks again I will try your suggestions about sample rates and latency
Hi thanks for the suggestions I will try that out later on today. As for the soundcard I am going directly out of the headphone jack on the Mac Mini into some computer speakers with a sub...lol
Hold it, I do believe you guys are comparing performance of BIAB on a PC versus a Mac. The BIAB builds between operating systems are pretty independent as best I understand.
Thanks again for replying. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to the track. It's so odd that you hear no issue at all. So now I am left to determine what is causing the sounds I am hearing. It is possible that it could be my speakers. It's a logitech system with a subwoofer for computers.
Probably not the best to mix music on, but it's all I can get for the moment.
I do hear the odd noises when I just listen to the piano soloed. But as suggested I am going to check my sample rates and latency when I have moment. And see if that may be the issue.
Hold it, I do believe you guys are comparing performance of BIAB on a PC versus a Mac. The BIAB builds between operating systems are pretty independent as best I understand. [/quote]
Would that be causing the sound issues I am experiencing? I wouldn't think that different operating systems would be an issue? Would it, who knows???
Good advice to check in the Mac Forums. The Mac people are generally better able to advise on issues that occur on the Mac systems and to identify in discrepancies in functionality between Mac and other operating systems.
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Hi thanks for the suggestions I will try that out later on today. As for the soundcard I am going directly out of the headphone jack on the Mac Mini into some computer speakers with a sub...lol
Hold it, I do believe you guys are comparing performance of BIAB on a PC versus a Mac. The BIAB builds between operating systems are pretty independent as best I understand.
I believe this is the root of the issue. Even folks who use Mac computers use a good interface and do not rely on the built in sound card. The sound card is responsible for making the music hit the speakers sounding right. While better speakers are always a good idea.... I would upgrade the sound card or interface first. Buy a nice USB based interface that is compatible with a Mac and runs ASIO (I assume that's a thing with Mac as well) and see if that doesn't solve the problem. There's a reason we all use external interfaces and not the onboard sound.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Hi thanks for the suggestions I will try that out later on today. As for the soundcard I am going directly out of the headphone jack on the Mac Mini into some computer speakers with a sub...lol
Hold it, I do believe you guys are comparing performance of BIAB on a PC versus a Mac. The BIAB builds between operating systems are pretty independent as best I understand.
I believe this is the root of the issue. Even folks who use Mac computers use a good interface and do not rely on the built in sound card. The sound card is responsible for making the music hit the speakers sounding right. While better speakers are always a good idea.... I would upgrade the sound card or interface first. Buy a nice USB based interface that is compatible with a Mac and runs ASIO (I assume that's a thing with Mac as well) and see if that doesn't solve the problem. There's a reason we all use external interfaces and not the onboard sound.
The built-in audio output on most Mac's is generally quite good. Most support 24-bit 96khz audio and sound quite decent - not as good as a decent inexpensive audio interface, but good enough for most.
ASIO is a Windows-only thing, as it was developed to get around the latency inherent in the Windows audio backend. Mac's use CoreAudio, which itself is low latency.
It's possible, assuming FireItUp has good speakers and good ears, that he's hearing the artifacts of the audio compression used in most versions of BIAB. You can compare the audio quality between the uncompressed RealTracks (Audiophile version) and the compressed RealTracks by downloading the following file:
Often people hear these artifacts as a "swirling" sound, usually most audible on drums or piano. Keep in mind that comparisons like this depend on a multitude of factors, not the least of which being your ears - some people simply can't hear the difference. You might hear it more by soloing the instruments, or by using a dynamic processor or EQ, or only in the mix. Hearing the differences also depends on your equipment - for example I can hear the difference when I use my multi-thousand-dollar home studio (RME Fireface 800 and Mackie HR824 monitors or Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones) or on my home theater system (Onkyo/Technics/Paradigm), but not when I use the cheap Labtec speakers on my desk at work. Then again, I might have been able to hear the difference using the Labtecs if I hadn't ruined my ears by being a drummer...
Hi Simon, thanks for the insight. I listened to the samples in the demo and was able to hear slight variances for the piano. But for the most part all the others sounded pretty much the same.
Maybe it is the artifacts of the audio compression I am hearing? So I guess the next step would be to save up and get the high quality version of BIAB. LOL
Hopefully one day I will be able to. It's strange as it is not an ongoing thing with the "Swirling" sound I hear. It only occurs on certain piano chords and I have heard it on certain guitar parts as well.
All this to say it's not enough to deter me from using BIAB as I LOVE IT! I find it interesting that others can't hear what I am hearing. But as mentioned there are so many variables (Speakers, room, cpu, soundcard, etc) so who knows???
Anyhow thank you everyone for trying to help me out with this issue I appreciate the time. Perhaps I will just keep regenerating the piano part for the song I am working on LOL until I don't hear the "Swirling"...or maybe I will eliminate the 7th chords in the song.
FireItUp: One other thing it could be is the tempo stretching settings. If you render the song to WAV, select the option for "Render Using Highest Quality Tempo Stretching" then play the exported WAV file and see if you can hear the swirling again. You can also click the Gear icon in the mixer and set the Tempo/Pitch Stretching Quality to High, though this will use more CPU power while playing back.
FireItUp: One other thing it could be is the tempo stretching settings. If you render the song to WAV, select the option for "Render Using Highest Quality Tempo Stretching" then play the exported WAV file and see if you can hear the swirling again. You can also click the Gear icon in the mixer and set the Tempo/Pitch Stretching Quality to High, though this will use more CPU power while playing back.
Hi Simon
For the life of me I cannot find a "Gear" icon on the mixer, nor do I see the option for "Render Using Highest Quality Tempo Stretching"
I am using BIAB 2020 for MAC. Label me confused LOL
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