exporting tracks in ablelton. Poor sound quality?

dolladub · Post by **dolladub** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:38 pm

I Find when i export my tracks out of ableton the quality always goes down. Il loose bass or high end.

Anyone getting this?

Also whats a good program for converting wav to mp3?

skells · Post by **skells** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:10 pm

I use http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/ its free and supports alot of different formats. You might have to download the lame encoder to get it to write to mp3's

What bit depth and sample rate are you mixing down with?

b-lam · Post by **b-lam** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:29 am

yeh if you're setting the bitrate and samplerate fairly high on the way out of ableton that won't be the problem, but it's worth looking for a fairly good piece of software to go from wav to mp3. I'm using audacity, it sounds fine (and is free).

dolladub · Post by **dolladub** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:28 pm

im exporting at 96000
I find if i go higher than that i start to loose low feq bass.

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:50 pm

ur doing it wrong.

I don't have a clue how to help you here because I have never ran into any issues of the sort. I sometimes export 16 bit even when I want to print something unfinished just to listen to... no sound quality issues to my ears.

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:14 pm

DollaDub wrote:im exporting at 96000
I find if i go higher than that i start to loose low feq bass.

that makes absolutely no sense.

export wav's at 24bit/ 44.1 or 48khz if yr sending out to be mastered. otherwise, 16/44.1 and dither on the way out if you just want to listen and/or bump down to mp3.

if yr clipping yr master, that'll be much much much more apparent in a bounce than in the DAW.

Disco Nutter · Post by **Disco Nutter** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 2:29 pm

I see no obvious reason for this too... Just export at 44.1 kHz and 16 or 24 bits and see how tat works. Check for EQ settings in the program you use for playback, and everything seems finee, but the audio is still fucked up upload a sample for us to hear.

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 2:55 pm

razorlame to answer your encoder question

skells · Post by **skells** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:48 pm

If you have ableton 7 read the manual it has a large section dealing with sound quality. I used to have the problem of my mix downs sounding different after mix down also i used to find things sounded wrong when i bounced tracks inside ableton.

I used to export to 16 bit, but ableton uses 32bit internally so now i mix down to 32bit and i have not had a problem since. My mix downs now sound exactly the same as what comes out of ableton when im makeing a tune.

We need more information from you to figure whats wrong with your mixdowns useing really high sample rates wont affect bass

We need to know what your sample rate and bit depth settings are and we need to know any plugins you are useing on your master track or if you are doing anything to the track after mixdown. with out that we cant help ya

dolladub · Post by **dolladub** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:31 pm

Thanks for all the support guys, much appreciated.

Iv been playing around with you suggestions. Im exporting at
sample rate 4800
24 bit
dither on

Sounds better than what i was at before.

the track i just finished and exported is the first on my myspace page. Please let me know what u think. I can send mp3 for anyone who wants.

www.myspace.com/dolladub

thanks guys.

macc · Post by **macc** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:46 pm

Export at 24 bit, the sample rate the tune is being made at, no dither. It's simple really!

FWIW There's no need for dither if you're exporting to 24-bit as you aren't reducing bit depth (32 and 24 being practically identical when below 0dB).

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:31 am

Macc wrote:Export at 24 bit, the sample rate the tune is being made at, no dither. It's simple really!

FWIW There's no need for dither if you're exporting to 24-bit as you aren't reducing bit depth (32 and 24 being practically identical when below 0dB).

Actually Ableton does require you to choose a dithering algorithm for 24 bit. Which brings me to a question that I always forget to ask... which algorithm should you use? I can't really hear a difference between each of them but then again I haven't had the time to a/b between each of them.

Edit... actually you can choose no dither n/m, I'll use that.

macc · Post by **macc** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:10 am

I'm not sure what algorithms Ableton has, but if you are exporting to 16-bit then a gently noise-shaped one should do, failing that then TPDF/Triangular will do you.

Dithering when not reducing bit depth, ie going to 24-bit wav for mastering elsewhere, is just adding noise. It's not doing any more than that

yeager · Post by **yeager** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:39 am

you can choose no dither at 24 bit in ableton.
1st option in dither options....
every mastering engineer i have ever spoke with all agree
bounce at 24 bit-44.1

puppykicker · Post by **puppykicker** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:03 pm

Thanks Macc... I've actually been wondering about that for a while now and can never seem to get a straight answer (or at least one that makes sense to my feeble little brain).... so 24 bit, 44.1, no dithering. done d.

PK

danny stamp · Post by **danny stamp** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:54 pm

I've never had this issue with Ableton. Just use 16-bit export.

Does that WAV sound crap or just when you've compressed it to MP3?

I use CDEx for MP3 conversion.

I've never experienced the WAV sounding different to the "live" version in Ableton. Ever.

exporting tracks in ablelton. Poor sound quality?

exporting tracks in ablelton. Poor sound quality?

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