My "burned" version sounds like Ass!

M

Mox

New member
I am freaking out!!! When I burn my tracks, the cd version sounds all tinny and "computery"

1) I use Sonar and record live instruments, in Sonar it sounds warm and delicious!

2) I export as a wav. (16 bit) and the wav sounds warm and delicious

3) I transfer to MP3 and e-mail everywhere and the MP3 sounds warm and...well you know...

4) in Roxio 5, if I preview the track (wav) it sounds the same.

5) I burn the cd and the cd version (in the same system that is playing the original..and my car, and the house) sounds like all the highs have been tweaked and my cymbals go from warm and rolling, to tinny and artificial/computery!

the worst part is that if I burn a cd of a commercial (not my stuff) songs, it sounds fine!

What the frig is goin on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mox!
 
Assuming you are burning from the 16-bit wave (and not the mp3 version) the burned CD should sound exactly like the .wav - on the same identical playback system. Nothing in the burning process should change the 1's and 0's.

As for it sounding differenct on other playback system's (house, car), we'll that's a different animal. That's why people pay to have their stuff mastered - so it will sound good on all different playback systems. Most of the people around here will burn a CD, listen to it on several different systems, and then come back and tweak the mix based on what their hearing. With more experience and better monitors, you can get there a lot faster.
 
Your right...it SHOULD sound like the original, thats whats driving me nuts! I'm burning the wav., I'm not listinging to it in the car and noticing it's bass heavy or something, it's blatently broke!...the part that IS happening, as wierd as this sounds, is "1"'s are turning to "0"'s. Cymbals sound organic up to the playback of the burned copy. What I haven't tried is to see what happens when I "rip" the crappy version back onto my PC.

for the Love of God please help!
 
Stuff like this always happens to me... and 9 out of 10 times it turns up to be user error.

So, probly you have the Normalizer or the Realizer or some other POS roxio thing clicked on on some sub menu.... so look for that. If still bad... Try a DIFFERENT cd burning prog.. and see if it is the same prob... or not!

mm-kay.
xoxo
 
Whats killing me is that I use the same blank discs and the same program when I make a mix disc of "commercial" stuff, and never a problem...I think the next step is to e-mail it to a buddy and burn it there to try to narrow down the problem.
 
If you use everything the same when you burn commercial cd's and it works fine.....then it has to be between your 'digital masters' that are in the 'puter and your burning program. Where do you source commercial cd's from when you're burning a copy?
 
Maybe import a commercial mix into sonar, then export it the same way you would one of your mixes. I dunno.
 
I'm sampling at 22kHz with a bit depth of 24, which i switch to 16 when I export. But I can't stress enough, wav on the harddrive sounds yummy, wav on the disc sounds yukky.


I'm going to try to burn a disc with the track as a MP3 and listen to it in my MP3 player.
 
Dat dere's your problem, Mr. Mox

CD's have to be burned at 16 bits AND 44.1kHz sample rate. The fact that you are recording at 22kHz means that your stuff is being resampled along the way to the CD.

Since Sonar does not have resampling cabability, this must be happening through your burning software.

You really need to be recording at 44.1. Resampling can have a significant impact on the sound. Programs such as Wavelab have decent resampling ability, but it is really a step that should be avoided - particularly upsampling such as you are doing. I doubt the resampler in your CD burning software is any good at all. And that, I'm sure, is the source of your problem.

You can try getting better resampling software, but my recommendation is to go back to square 1 and rerecord at 44.1
 
BTW, you were correct, the 1's and 0's were being changed. :)

I had just assumed the starting wave file was 44.1 and 16 bits. Once again I'm shown you shouldn't make assumptions.
 
It was that stupid Roxio!!!!!!!!!

I burned using MusicMatch, which crashes and I need to re-boot to get my disc out, but the fact that I'm now almost not crazy I guess is worth it.

Now over to sampling rates (its the little pc things that are hard to learn on your own) I was under the assumption that sampling is a key cog in the Latency debate...when i track drums I'm recording 6, sometimes 8 tracks at a time...on two different sound cards! My ears are telling me that my current sampling rate is great and if my memory is correct, I had to play awhile to get the two cards to work in harmony, but i was clicking away and I'm not real sure what exactly in all the setting was the one that made the system work........
 
Just so you understand with sample rates- Anything under 44.1 will most likely sound like ass. A sample rate of 22khz means that the highest frequency you are recording is 11khz. That is just a slight step above telephone quality.

If you have to make a choice between less tracks or lower sample rates go with less tracks.
 
Or use an exciter afterwards :D :D :D

Seriously 22kHz may be ok for a reporter but not for music... The last thing is 32k which is said (thoug I doubt) to have music cassette quality... But then you'll still have this resampling problem...

aXel
 
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