Home stereo speaker distortion

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davecg321

New member
Hi.


Basically I've just zipped off a quick master of a track, a little compression, e.q and some limiting. The track is incomplete but I thought I'd add the usual mastering plugins on my stereo out as a way of keeping things close to that of commercial mixes

I am happy so far with the mix.

Everything sounds great withing my DAW, listening on my monitors. However, when i listen to the mix on my stereo (through aux input) I find that when I crank the volume up to moderately loud one of my speaker cones starts to distort/ratlle. The other is fine. (The part in question that is causing the distortion is a classical guitar rhythm part, strummed with the back of my nails. The only fx I have on the guitar is Sound toy's decaptitor and some room reverb)

Having said that if I listen to a commercial mix at the same volume (the commercial mix being a tad louder than mine) there is no sign of the speaker distorting.

Could the reason for this be that my mix/master isn't loud enough to begin with, and that I'm compensating for this by cranking the volume on my amplifier.

I've listened to my track through other means (headphones and sperate stereo) and still no problem.

If I want to get the desired volume out of my home stereo on this particular track. Is it just a case of perhaps injecting a tad bit more gain on the limiter, and not having to rely on cranking my amp??

It's really annoying me as I'm really happy with the tone and mix and the altogether sound of the track.

Dave ;)
 
Why don't you post your track? Without hearing it we really can't help you much. As well.......it always helps for us to know the basic setup you're using and the models involved.
 
It's possible (as Mike was implying) that the distortion is coming from the DAW to stereo connection. Didn't hear anything unusual on my speakers, but I didn't want to crank it too hard...the voice is WAY louder than the guitar and at volume it will run you out of my studio, but it still doesn't distort my M3-8s. The guitar never came close.
 
Sorry, I must of worded my previous post wrong. I am not running an aux from my DAW. I have run off a mixdown onto my tablet, which I then connect to aux input on my stereo.

The issuse you bought up with the vocal being a lot louder has been duly noted ;) alsi it's just a scratch one for the time being.

All other commercial mixes I've listened to so far on the same setup (as mentioned above) are ow louder in most cases and do not exhibit the distortion I've described

Thanks for the replies
 
If you are not using the same playing set up, then you have no way of knowing what the problem is. Your stereo CD player may have a louder output, may be hitting the amp input differently than the aux input - specially from a tablet that might have a lower output, or even inherent distortion in its D-A converter.
 
Okay, first off: You're worrying about commercial mixes. Please don't. Get your mix sounding the best it can. Pump your mains or post box volume if you need to have it loud. Then when you're ready to "master" the track (to get that commercial sound) put a stereo rendering of your good mix on a stereo channel in your DAW and a reference track that you're trying to get close to on another stereo track. A/B them to get the mastering where you want it.

Mix first, master after.
 
davecg321 said:
Sorry, I must of worded my previous post wrong. I am not running an aux from my DAW. I have run off a mixdown onto my tablet, which I then connect to aux input on my stereo.

The issuse you bought up with the vocal being a lot louder has been duly noted ;) alsi it's just a scratch one for the time being.

All other commercial mixes I've listened to so far on the same setup (as mentioned above) are ow louder in most cases and do not exhibit the distortion I've described

Thanks for the replies
Click to expand...
Seems like this has to come down to three possibles-
It's louder (than your other 'ref comparison tracks) and the speakers are distorting
Or the voltage going into the 'aux is high enough to distort the input (and/or the speakers and the input are overloading
Or what you are calling 'distortion' is not clipping or overload, but some other nasties/tones' that happen to be highlighted'.

Hmm, just thought of another. Could you be overdriving the output device?
Anyway, turn it down, see if any of this clears up.
 
What doesn't fit in my mind (it's a tiny space, after all) is that the guitar part is doing nasty things to the speakers, but not the vocal (which is much hotter). Can't wrap my head around how that could be unless there's something else at play. He's said that it's quieter than the reference tracks. Distortion would get worse when the vocals hit if it was signal chain issues. Which means that somewhere an artifact is getting introduced. i.e. some sub frequency is being added in the render or by the tablet that actually moves the speaker, but doesn't show up in the audible. High pass @ 20-25 Hz might be worth a shot.
 
BroKen_H said:
What doesn't fit in my mind (it's a tiny space, after all) is that the guitar part is doing nasty things to the speakers, but not the vocal (which is much hotter). Can't wrap my head around how that could be unless there's something else at play. He's said that it's quieter than the reference tracks. Distortion would get worse when the vocals hit if it was signal chain issues. Which means that somewhere an artifact is getting introduced. i.e. some sub frequency is being added in the render or by the tablet that actually moves the speaker, but doesn't show up in the audible. High pass @ 20-25 Hz might be worth a shot.
Click to expand...

That's why I offered an 'option 3- Define 'distortion'.
Also, don't know if it's been said-- but check with the 'ref tracks'.. from the same play device.
 
The track compared to reference tracks is quieter.

I firmly believe there is no digital distortion occuring as I'm keeping levels at sensible levels. I've hi passed the guitar but hadn't thought to chucj chuck on a hipass on the 2bus.

I thought perhaps that the decapitator plugin could be enhancing some unwanted frequencies somewhat. I may do away with it and see if that changes things.

As I said before, may it just be a case of adding more gain on my limited to bring the level up further. Rather than relying on more volume on my stereo after mixdown (make sense??)

I realise I'm thinking way ahead of myself here and shouldn't worry too much about mastering at this stage, but I want to make sure it's not a problem that can't be fixed after I've tracked everything.
 
This is what I love about this place, Dave. Where in the world can you go and find four guys who are willing to put their heads to your problem and try to help you fix it. Keep us posted! We're still here to help, but I'm at the end of my options as to what it could be without more information.

Next step: Do your due diligence to isolate what's causing the problem. Bypass plugins and re-render. Play other tracks through the tablet. Try a different cable between the tablet and aux...try the same setup on a different aux (like in a car). Some of that should narrow it down.
 
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