16 bit exported wavs sound like CRAP.

Uladine

Uladine

New member
Ever since I installed my new OS hard drive it seems like everything I export in 16 bit from sonar 2.0 has this nasty gainy distortion that sounds terribly harsh. It's especially noticable in the high end.

My exported wavs used to sound exactly like my project files. Maybe when I reinstalled everything I set something wrong? I believe Sonar is set up to record in 24 bit/48khz, but I've also tried 24/44.1 and the same thing occurs. My songs sound perfectly clean in the project file, but once I export it to 16 bit it goes to crap.

I'm guessing maybe this is a dithering problem? I don't know much about dithering except that it is the process of reducing the bit rate of an audio project or something like that. Please help me figure this out. I'm helping a band record a demo and I can't give them a finished product that sounds like a chainsaw (exaggeration).
 
Oh yea, and sometimes the distortion will be like on and off. Like a short buzz signal twice every second or so. Weird I tell you. Weird.
 
...Have you tried uninstall & reinstall your SONAR ? Or may be the card's driver ? (...even thought I don't believe it has something to do with the driver, but it could... who knows ? ;) ) What's the new OS ?
 
Uladine said:
I'm guessing maybe this is a dithering problem? I don't know much about dithering except that it is the process of reducing the bit rate of an audio project or something like that. Please help me figure this out. I'm helping a band record a demo and I can't give them a finished product that sounds like a chainsaw (exaggeration).
Click to expand...
Could be.

Whenever you drop a project from 24 bits to 16 bits you should dither (which is actually the process of adding noise to the file).

Check under Options > Audio > Advanced and make sure the checkbox for Apply Dither is checked. Sonar doesn't have the best dithering algorithm, but it certainly is better than simply truncating the file.

Also, if you plan to burn to CD, I would not recommend recording at 48kHz sample rate. Stick with 44.1

Mike
 
Cakewalks dither REALLY sucks.

My setup is limited to 48khz recording, but when I burn to CD for 'testing' (ie playing back in my car on the way to work) I use programs like goldwave to dither from 48k to 44.1. Goldwave has a great dither algo- way better than Sonar 2's which made all my songs sound like CRAP. The pocking and clipping was horrendous!

Try using a third party program like Goldwave to resample at a lower more friendly freq instead of CW's dither. Export directly to whatever you recorded in and then open the file up in your favourite editor and voila! Great sounding resamples.

:D
 
So I can just export my 24/96 project into Goldwave and use it to convert to 16/44.1 Wav. with better results than with Sonar? I knew I kept Goldwave around for something. Do you use it for your MP3 conversion as well?
 
Re: Cakewalks dither REALLY sucks.

DavidChristophe said:
My setup is limited to 48khz recording, but when I burn to CD for 'testing' (ie playing back in my car on the way to work) I use programs like goldwave to dither from 48k to 44.1.
:D
Click to expand...
Sorry, but you don't dither to change the sample rate. Dithering is used (or should be used) when changing bit rate. Changing from 48K to 44.1K is resampling. Personally I have yet to find any program that resamples worth a damn. However, I record at 44.1 to start with, so I don't resample as a matter of course.

AFAIK Cakewalk/Sonar does not have the ability to resample anyway. You would have to use 3rd party software to change the sample rate. It does, however, allow for changing the bit rate, but as already mentioned, the algorithm isn't the best.
 
Resample != Dither

Oops. You're 100% right. I got confused. Resample != dither!
I stand corrected.

From a resampling point, I find Goldwave (http://www.goldwave.com) really quite good. I record everything at 48k and resample to 44.1 to burn to CD. I also use it to pad .5 second silences at the start, and for general mastering purposes.

Try it out...

David
 
mbuster said:
So I can just export my 24/96 project into Goldwave and use it to convert to 16/44.1 Wav. with better results than with Sonar? I knew I kept Goldwave around for something. Do you use it for your MP3 conversion as well?
Click to expand...

Actually, I use bladeenc to encode to mp3. But that's just me. Goldwave CAN do the mp3 encoding... I don't use it personally.
 
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