Muddy/distortion sounding strings

B

Blackwiz

New member
I cannot get the muddy distortion sound out of my strings for nothing in my song. I realize its my strings because when I mute the strings, it doesn't happen. I dont know what the problem is. Im pretty much new to the whole recording computer based and my last major device as a Tascam DP-01 and even then, I just had to figure out the device myself. Meaning, compared to some of you guys, im just a newbie at recording.

The crazy thing is with the strings is that I dont recall having the problem(unless I just wasn't paying enough attention) and now I have this problem. I tried eq'ing the strings and just messing around with them.(mind you, i moreso just mess around with the settings and whatnot).

It appears to be the strings. Now I dont know if im just doing something so simple wrong or not. I have all the faders set real low at the volume i want the tracks played together, but low, so I know nothing is peaking.

Please someone help.
 
I'm sorry, what?
You need to communicate your problem a little more clearly, this isn't going to get you anywhere.
 
Zed10R said:
Dude has a sampled string section (I believe) that comes out muddy...clarification is needed...:p
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Cut the low mids, also try a hi pass to cut any low end that might be too much for the mix at hand. Boost the hi mids around 2-5K, try boosting the highs also.
Firstly try to take out the mud from the strings. Then play about with the highs to bring more clarity to the strings if need be.
If you have reverb on the strings then cutting the low end of the reverb can clear up a mix nicely.

Eck
 
My fault if it seems like I didnt explain well.....I'll try to take your advice eck, if i can understand it.(being new to this sucks).

Actually though, the track as a whole is slowing down and giving me problems. I checked the VST performance and the ASIO performance was all the way up. I remember learning that this definitely isnt a good thing. Could this be affecting the strings at all(i figure its affecting the whole tracks performance problems that Im coming across).

How do I go about lowering this by the way?

Excuse my lack of knowledge.
 
The first thing to do is freeze the strings, or if you don't have that function, render them, bounce them, whatever your DAW supports. Make them real audio tracks. Then compare them with the samples and make sure they are as clean as the samples they came from. Once that process is done and verified, and they sound fine by themselves but don't sound right in the mix, then deconstruct the mix till you find what elements are causing friction with the strings. It can be a matter of EQ and such, or it can really come down to an arrangement problem.
 
Robert D said:
The first thing to do is freeze the strings, or if you don't have that function, render them, bounce them, whatever your DAW supports. Make them real audio tracks. Then compare them with the samples and make sure they are as clean as the samples they came from. Once that process is done and verified, and they sound fine by themselves but don't sound right in the mix, then deconstruct the mix till you find what elements are causing friction with the strings. It can be a matter of EQ and such, or it can really come down to an arrangement problem.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1 What RobertD said! :D

G.
 
Blackwiz said:
My fault if it seems like I didnt explain well.....I'll try to take your advice eck, if i can understand it.(being new to this sucks).

Actually though, the track as a whole is slowing down and giving me problems. I checked the VST performance and the ASIO performance was all the way up. I remember learning that this definitely isnt a good thing. Could this be affecting the strings at all(i figure its affecting the whole tracks performance problems that Im coming across).

How do I go about lowering this by the way?

Excuse my lack of knowledge.
Click to expand...


Yeah, giving a more specific explanation like this changes everything.
So.... +2 to Robert D
 
Can anyone tell me how do I lower the VST Performance ASIO? Its seems to be all the way up and the the song(so far) plays slow and with static. I can't even record vocals yet. How do I fix this please??
 
Blackwiz said:
Can anyone tell me how do I lower the VST Performance ASIO? Its seems to be all the way up and the the song(so far) plays slow and with static. I can't even record vocals yet. How do I fix this please??
Click to expand...
Robert D was helping you with that. Freeze the track and that will free up some of your computer's resources.

Lowering the size and number of buffers you are using may help too but lowering them also puts more demands on your computer. So once again, freeze the tracks with the VST instruments and the ones with lots of plugins.

Make sure your system performance is optimized for background tasks too if your using Windows XP; Start/Control Panel/System/Advanced Tab and select Adjust for best performance of: Background services."

There's a number of other tweaks for performance you'll find by following this link:
http://www.pcmus.com/TweakXP.htm
 
NYMorningstar said:
Robert D was helping you with that. Freeze the track and that will free up some of your computer's resources.

Lowering the size and number of buffers you are using may help too but lowering them also puts more demands on your computer. So once again, freeze the tracks with the VST instruments and the ones with lots of plugins.

Make sure your system performance is optimized for background tasks too if your using Windows XP; Start/Control Panel/System/Advanced Tab and select Adjust for best performance of: Background services."

There's a number of other tweaks for performance you'll find by following this link:
http://www.pcmus.com/TweakXP.htm
Click to expand...



Oh, my fault. I thought when he told me to freeze the tracks, that was to figure out what the problem was with the muddy strings. But if I freeze the tracks, won't that make it impossible edit, or is there a way to unfreeze a track?
 
Actually, I dealt with that problem already. I ended up changing my strings...a couple of them gave me the same problem, but one worked. But on different songs, my main problems is after so many tracks, I end up with the high VST performance so its hard to really continue.
 
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