New song. Piano vst distorting

D

davecg321

New member
From 3:37 and any other places where the piano is played alone I am hearing distortion /clipping of some kind. Please start the song from 40's in as I need to edit/sync the beginning to video.

Nothing clips in my daw and there are no intersample peaks occurring at mastering stage. Note also that this clipping/distortion is happening on one of the most subtle/quietest parts of the song

Bear with me whilst I work out how to upload said mp3 ;) i can't find 'manage post' link..? I am using an android phone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzDFJeF9FvdWTlJnMTdCQ3lEMWc/view?usp=drivesdk

Any idea what this might be as it's really bugging me...?
 
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What's the name of that piano patch, dave? Armistice reckons it's the "Upright needs tuning in echoey room" patch you've got there.

I've given this three listens now. Definitely a record for me in the clinic. It's in a class of its own.
 
I've given this a few listens now too. Its just one of the weirdest pieces of music I've ever heard.
 
Hey dave, if I'm hearing the same thing, it sounds like it could be a few things in my experience, daw is pegged on cpu, daw is missing writes to disk, a cell phone is sitting by the mic (not the usual sound but who knows), your phantom power is weak/cutting out, or a capsule is dirty causing crackles during/after breathing (singing) into the mic. Doesn't sound like typical clipping to me, my guess would be it's not levels.
 
The odd sound could be the digital piano beino picked up on the vocal (spill) I am the using the yamaha ivory vst for the main piano sound. Is that what you meant by odd/weird? Or is it just not your cup of tea? Haha

Bubba: I could upload my project folder and you could give it a go ;)

I'm thiking it could be daw missing writes to disc as I am mastering on the stereo out thus maybe overloading my cpu... ??

Its definitely not a phantom power issue as the sound your hearing on the distorted parts is purely vst. Plus it doesn't distort at all during playback in my daw.

Hmm
 
Sorry, I totally missed the vst clue. That's a damn good vst! I'd try printing without the mastering plugs and see if the crackle is still there, could be a limiter getting too aggressive or something.

If you get the option, make sure it's rendering "offline" (not realtime) to rule out PC performance issues.
 
easlern said:
Sorry, I totally missed the vst clue. That's a damn good vst! I'd try printing without the mastering plugs and see if the crackle is still there, could be a limiter getting too aggressive or something.

If you get the option, make sure it's rendering "offline" (not realtime) to rule out PC performance issues.
Click to expand...

There is no crackle if I mixdown without master plugs.

What do you mean by rendering offline?
 
I recorded it live. Nt1a on the vocal (some bleed from the digital piano speakers)

I used the midi out going straight into yamaha ivory vsti for my main piano sound.

I wanted to record this live as I'm going to sync it to video.

Any comments on the mix? I can't seem to get less reverb on the piano, even with the settings turned low the samples are still very 'live' sounding
 
So it's something in your mastering chain.

Some compressors, limiters and eqs, especially ones that emulate hardware, can get overloaded and do strange things.

Gain staging is still important in the mastering chain. My guess is that you are overloading one of the processors, or you have the gain staging messed up between them.
 
I think I migres be overloading my limiter. Should is just raise the overall level of my tracks?

At the moment I'm having to add an extra 8-9 dB of gain on the limiter. Keeping in mind this is highly dynamic music.

Any thoughts?
 
The piano has a lot of energy at 120Hz and 160Hz. That may be eating up your headroom and/or interacting with some processing.
 
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