Pimp My Mix: Part II

D

dkerwood

Member
So I finally got back the tentative mixes on the four tunes we recorded in December. The idea is that I take a listen, give my buddy a list of things I like and don't like, and he'll tweak that for the final mixes.

As always, I thought I'd run them past the good people of HR. I already have a few comments on them, but I don't want to bias anyone.

One More Time
Love Song
I'm Gone

I'm still waiting for song 4 to arrive in my Gmail inbox, and I'll post it as soon as I have it.

Thanks!
 
Is there any chance you could repost with a higher bitrate sample? For some reason these sound like they were compressed down to 22.5KHz/64Kbps.

Or am I missing something here...?
 
Yeah, something is wrong. They sound like am radio. Somewhere along the line they got drastically compressed to the 22.5 level, even though they are not that actual size now.
 
Wait, wait, wait. Could that be a setting on Adobe Audition??? I've thought they sounded boxy since the guy recorded them. If so, he'll need to re-record the WHOLE THING.

FWIW, he sent me the files in WAV format and I simply converted straight over to mp3 @128.
 
so is "pimp" some sort of ghetto slang for "make sound like crap"?

sorry, just obeying the sig ^^

128 kbps mp3 ain't the best format to begin with, but, make sure it is actually set to 44.1 khz and not 32khz.. because there is that option in AA's MP3 export dialog corresponding to 128 kbps and it might be easy to choose by accident.
 
To clarify: He used Adobe Audition to record the whole session. I didn't get to listen to any of the work until the last day (that's when I came in to do guitars and vocals). That's when I noticed that some of the audio (specifically acoustic guitar, vocals, and drums) sounded rather boxy.

His AA is setup to record to WAV format, and he mixed down to WAV (lossless, right?).

He sent me the WAV files and I used Win Media Center to convert to 128 mp3. I could have gone bigger, but lightningmp3 has a cap on file size, and I wanted to play it safe. For what it's worth, I've listened to the original WAVs and the uploaded mp3s ad nausium, and I can't tell much, if any, difference.

Is there ANY way to salvage this, or did we just throw $150 out the window on this guy? I wanted to use him because although he has almost identical gear to my setup, he's much more patient with my band members than I am. Plus, sometimes, it's nice to get an outsider ear for the big picture.
 
Right-click the WAV files in Windows. Go to 'Properties' then the 'Summary' tab. Look to see what the sample rate/bit depth of the WAV files are.

Then when converting them to MP3, make sure you have it at: 44100 sample rate, and a bitrate of 128KBPS, or whatever bitrate you want.

I'd put the bitrate at 192 KBPS.
 
Wow. Just... wow.

Bit Rate: 352kbps
Audio Sample Size: 16 bit
Audio Sample Rate: 11kHz

Crap. How do we repair this? I mean, yes, we didn't pay MUCH for this CD, but I expected something usable!
 
dkerwood said:
Wow. Just... wow.

Bit Rate: 352kbps
Audio Sample Size: 16 bit
Audio Sample Rate: 11kHz

Crap. How do we repair this? I mean, yes, we didn't pay MUCH for this CD, but I expected something usable!
Click to expand...

Re-track it!
 
dkerwood said:
His AA is setup to record to WAV format, and he mixed down to WAV (lossless, right?).
Click to expand...

100% correct. Although it's quite possible to record an 4KHz wave which sounds something like music played over a telephone. In short, it's lossless, but you can still record shit sounding audio.

Anywhere between 44.1KHz and 192KHz is the standard.

Basically, if the sound guy doesn't have any >=44.1KHz WAV files of your original performance, you have to do it again, and (no offense) get another sound guy!

Or suffer endless complaints that your mix sounds worse than AM radio!
 
whoever this guy is he obviously doesn't know shit if he recorded at 11khz and can't tell. something like that just isn't "fixable". that's like trying to add back audio fidelity that was never there.

WAV *IS* lossless, but never ever record anything below 44.1 khz @ 16 bit. 24 bit is even better, and obviously 32 bit but the higher you go the more you strain your system and eat HD space, and everything will have to come back down to 16 bit later anyway cause that is what cd specs are.
 
dkerwood said:
Wow. Just... wow.

Bit Rate: 352kbps
Audio Sample Size: 16 bit
Audio Sample Rate: 11kHz

Crap. How do we repair this? I mean, yes, we didn't pay MUCH for this CD, but I expected something usable!
Click to expand...
If this is for the actual wav's he sent you, the only thing to hope for is that this was only the setting he used to render the final mix at and hopefully he did the actual recording at some standard rate, if the multitrack wav's on his computer in AA are at 11khz then... yes redo. if their at 44khz or higher then have him re-render/export at the CD standard rate 16/44.1.

PS yeah at least convert to mp3@160-192kbs
 
Sigh. I've got an email out to him, but I suspect that all those hours of work are now out the window. I compared these to three songs he did for us this summer, and the difference in audio quality is obvious.

The original plan was to put these four on an EP with the original three, but there's no way I can do that now, unless I down-convert the originals to match.
 
Did you pay him?? Maybe he sends lo-fi wavs until he gets his final money??

There is NO WAY that this guy tracked it like this. Listening to these, they sound like they might be pretty good in their real version. This would almost have to be done deliberately, the balance and reverb sound good. I dont buy it, this is a fluke and somewhere are the real tracks. He either exported wrong or sent you lofi for a reason, like he is waiting on money.

For what its worth, the first one is catchy. Go find your tapes/ :D
 
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