My Recordings Make all Speakers Crackle

[rossowj]

Hello,
I have run into a huge problem here. I record with a presonus audiobox into cubase le. When mixing and mastering my recordings sound fantastic through my headphones (i dont have monitors), even as an mp3 in itunes my recordings sound great through my headphones. But when I put them on a cd or onto my ipod and try to play them, they make every set of speakers crackle. It's really annoying because I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I tried turning down the bass on each recording, that didn't seem to help. Do you guys and girls have any idea what I am doing wrong?

I feel like there might be too much of something ie. reverb, bass, mids. But i can't seem to put my finger on it

I mix pretty standardly - guitars panned all the way left and right, drums bass and lead vox in the middle, and then piano, lead guitar, background vox wherever i feel really.

I am also using ozone once the whole song is mixed down into 1 track for mastering

any help is greatly appreciated

 

[bouldersoundguy]

You evidently can't trust those 'phones if the result is consistent bad sound everywhere else. I would guess that you are clipping at some stage of your process and can't hear it until you listen on some other playback system.

What levels are the peaks when you are tracking and mixing (in dBFS)?

 

[rossowj]

You evidently can't trust those 'phones if the result is consistent bad sound everywhere else. I would guess that you are clipping at some stage of your process and can't hear it until you listen on some other playback system.

What levels are the peaks when you are tracking and mixing (in dBFS)?

hmm, that would make sense. Why doesn't the output clipping turn up in headphones? i didn't even think of that, wow am i dumb

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Another thing to look at is the "Sound Check" option in iTunes. It automatically adjusts the levels of songs so they play at about the same level. It may not be the cause of your specific problem, but it will mislead you about your levels.

What kind of headphones are you using?

What are your tracking and mixing levels?

 

[jdier]

I wonder if it is something with how you are burning CDs.

Questions:

Your stuff sounds good as an MP3 in itunes.... Do other songs sound good there too? Play yours back to back with another MP3. Do they sound the same?

If they do sound the same, then burn a CD with both your MP3 and another MP3 on it and then play it on a stereo or in your car. Do they both crackle, or just yours?

 

[rossowj]

I just checked all of my track levels on two of my songs and they're all fine. Even when I'm in ozone, I'm making sure both sides of my output are in the green and don't exceed -4.0. How do you guys use ozone, on every track? or do you mix down all the tracks together and use it on that?

EDIT: jdier, its just my songs that crackle when i play em in my car stereo

 

[bouldersoundguy]

At this point it would be helpful if you posted something so we can hear just what it sounds like.

 

[gcapel]

I wonder if it is something with how you are burning CDs.

Questions:

Your stuff sounds good as an MP3 in itunes.... Do other songs sound good there too? Play yours back to back with another MP3. Do they sound the same?

If they do sound the same, then burn a CD with both your MP3 and another MP3 on it and then play it on a stereo or in your car. Do they both crackle, or just yours?

I suspect this as well. I have heard this phenom before and it was a cd burning problem.

 

[jdier]

Just for clarification (then I will leave you alone) have you done a CD with your song and another song burned at the same time onto the same disc?

Can you post a wav of your song?

(How about flying an mp3 of a popular song into your DAW software and then processing it like you do your songs)