Distortion!!! Any and Everybody Come In And Help Me! I SUCK!

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The Engineer

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Well, the last two songs I have made are shit. In both songs, somehow a few words manage to distort, even though there not clipping on the software meters!! It's only a few words and they mostly distort on the drum kick. Then I thought it was the producer that just had shitty kicks, so then I even recorded some vocals on good quality beats, and they still distort on a few words. Then I compress the fuck outta them until they sound like shit and they STILL distort. Of course the obvious statement would be "Why don't you EQ them numb nuts?" I tried that, still distorting. (Well of course I did about a 10db raise around the 80hz area and that got rid of it, but come on how do you think the vocals sounded?) Everything on my patchmix is set at default 0.0 and btw I'm recording 16-bit, 44100 sample-rate, If that matters at all. I'm also recording Hip-Hop/Rap
Vocals. Also my attack is pretty fast and release is around .5s - 1s

Any tips, this is pissing me the fuck off...!!!
 
Oh and it's just the beat, I don't have all the instruments to re-arrange. :(
I was thinking it could be something with my patchmix or I don't know what, but I'm not sure.
 
Maybe it's the microphone you are recording with thats distorting...
 
Ok then maybe it's your monitors...

Have you tried listening to it somewhere else?
 
Yup, different car systems and my home stereo, still distorting. :(

bigwillz you wanna come to my house and mix it for me!? :-]
 
The Engineer said:
Yup, different car systems and my home stereo, still distorting. :(

bigwillz you wanna come to my house and mix it for me!? :-]
Click to expand...

Are you in houston?
 
Go to http://www.soundclick.com/verbalist and listen to "Orion feat. Jay R. - Distant Love" At 1:13 Orion says "College" and that distorts, not WAY TOO noticeable, but it just ruins everything. There are other words in there that clip also. And 2:35 he says "Frat" party ... that distorts too .. ha

Any ideas now?
 
What's your signal chain? Why are you recording in 16 bit and not 24? In 16 you have to record hotter signals to get the most out of the bit depth, in 24 you don't have to push the meters so hard coming in and it can give you a lot of headroom to work with. Looks like you're going to have to re-record.
 
I'm using CEP. :( I know, I know. I have nuendo, but I'm too afraid to try and learn it, cause I'm so used to CEP. :(

Signal chain is : Roland MMP-2 to E-MU 1212m to Audio-Technia 4040 microphone.
 
You wouldn't be afraid to learn it if you actually paid for it, now would you? It's amazing how actually earning something can be a motivator to do the right thing...

G.
 
If it is distorting when the kick hits, then I'd have to say that the whole mix is clipping. When you mute the beat, do the vocals still distort? If so, you'll have to retrack them or just punch in the parts that are bad. If not, then just roll back the gain on your kick track.

Oh yeah, if you just have drums and vocals in the mix, you may not notice the distortion on the kick but you'll certianly notice static on the vocal track.
 
Have you tried doing a volume envelope on that track? You said it sounds fine when you solo the track. When two frequencies are perfectly in phase, it will sound like a huge volume increase. Backing off a bit on both the vocal and rhythm tracks at that particular spot should remove any distortion. I'm not sure if you can do this in CEP though.
 
IronFlippy said:
Have you tried doing a volume envelope on that track? You said it sounds fine when you solo the track. When two frequencies are perfectly in phase, it will sound like a huge volume increase. Backing off a bit on both the vocal and rhythm tracks at that particular spot should remove any distortion. I'm not sure if you can do this in CEP though.
Click to expand...

Yes, envelopes are possible in CEP.
 
SouthSIDE Glen your actually right, I take free programs for granite! :( I re-installed it on my pc last night and was recording a few vocals, it's actually not that difficult. So I am now recording 24-bit in Nuendo! Woot Woot! I also set a slightly faster attack and made the release longer to about 250-350 ... That seemed to help a bit ... Also Isn't the WHOLE mix supposed to be hitting right around 0db? I'm afraid if I lower everything, then when I put it on cd and listen in a playback system it won't get very loud at all, unless you have a big ass amp and expensive speakers ..

Thank you everybody for all of your help, this is MUCH appreciated! I'm giving you all fuckers rep points!
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
You wouldn't be afraid to learn it if you actually paid for it, now would you? It's amazing how actually earning something can be a motivator to do the right thing...

G.
Click to expand...

A clear case of karma induced distortion. I'd recommend backing way off on the piracy knob and pushing up the honesty fader.
 
The Engineer said:
SouthSIDE Glen your actually right, I take free programs for granite!
Click to expand...

Do they take other kinds of rocks, or just granite?

-RD
 
Haha I don't know how to spell the damn word! I take free programs for "granted" There ya go! Happy! Ass-Hat. :)
 
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