Bad Sounding Stereo Bounces

[twonky]

Hey Cats!
I hope some one knows what I am talking about:

In the process of mixing a song, drums in particular.

6 tracks altogether.
Kick, snare, tom1, tom 2, over head L, over head R.

I have everything sound how I want it to as far as levels and eq and compressors and the like.

Now I would like to mix these tracks down to a stereo track to free up some CPU resources and to maybe run an effect or whatever.

Why do the following things happen?:

a. The Stereo reduction sounds very different than the 6 track I bounced down from i.e. fidelity loss and volumes between instruments sound different?

b. Is there a weird phasing problem between the Stereo drums and the 6 mono tracks when played together like the tracks are not lined up right?

I use Samplitude Producer 6.0 to record and mix.

I would greatly appreciate any wisdom you have to give.

Twonky

 

[TexRoadkill]

Need more info. What file formats are you using for tracking and the mixdown? I'm not sure about your second question. Are you combining the stereo drum mix with the original drum tracks?

 

[twonky]

Hi Tex!

Well Samplitude file format at at least its audio files are called .HDP files which I understand are essentially .WAV files maybe w/ some graphic info shoved in there as well.

When you are working in a project (VIP) the HDP is then called an "object" Objects can be cut up like little pieces of pie and messed w/, moved, effected, prodded, poked, you name it. they are like little independent states in the United Objects of Samplitude.

That is the beauty of Samplitude. I digress (sort of) the answer to one of you questions is: Due to the fact that I am running about 36 tracks n this particular song on a 500mhz PIII. I want to bounce the 6 drum tracks down to a stereo pair. In samplitude (and I would assume most other like programs) the effects, be they comps, verbs or wiggly stuff are summed down to the stereo bounce as well. The EQs should be there and the volume too. That stereo track should be a perfect little composite of your other 6 tracks only using much less CPU power.

I have been given some advice on the Samplitude newsgroup that I have yet to try so hopefully that will solve my problems.

As far as my 2nd question at a couple of point in the song I want to bring the origional 6 tracks in for a couple of seconds because the stereo track will have a bit of a goofy effect on it ghosting the origional tracks. when I play the stereo w/ the origionals it is very thin and phasey sounding, like the tracks are slightly offset.

Wassup wit dat?

Twonky

 

[TexRoadkill]

With the first issue I was curious what bit and sample rates you are using for the raw tracks and the mixdown but I should have been more specific. The mixdown should sound exactly like all the tracks playing back. If it doesn't there is probably some type of setting that needs to be changed.

The second problem is most likely caused by plugin latency. Whenver a plugin is put on a track it causes a bit of delay compared to the original signal. It is usually not noticed until you try to mix the plugin track with a copy of the original. The solution is to to slide the raw track later in time to match up with the latency of the plugin track.

You may be able to find the exact latency caused by the plugins in your documentation. Or you can just slide the tracks around until it sounds right.