How can I fix a sudden drop in energy and volume when a number of instruments come in at the same time.

[Silbers]

It sounds fine in the DAW (Ableton 10) but when I export to WAV and MP3, it becomes very noticeable.

 

[TalismanRich]

I'm not sure what you mean by "energy".

There should be no difference between listening to a mix from the DAW and the rendered track unless you have some type of processing going on (like in Windows sound system). Is your playback done through a media player of some type that could be changing the sound?

I remember someone claimed that one DAW sounded different from another. He did a mix using just stems, no additional mixing or processing. He claimed one sounded better. If you took the two files, inverted one and combined them you got total silence. The two files were identical.

 

[Silbers]

Thanks. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'energy'. The volume drops noticeably for a bar or two somewhere near the beginning of the track when a number of instruments come in together.
I'm using PotPlayer for playback but to me it doesn't seem likely that this particular multimedia player is responsible seeing as the issue happens just once in the track just when all the instruments start playing together.

 

[TalismanRich]

Make sure all the "audio enhancements" are turned of in Windows. You want audio to be unadjusted by the OS.

 

[rob aylestone]

If adding extra sounds reduces level then it is cancellation - are you certain the things coming in are not perhaps copies of others in the mix - but like mentioned above, are inverted. Adding an extra brass copy to thicken the sound can accidentally reduce the level, not increase?

I suppose the best thing is set up a loop covering the time where the dip happens and mute tracks individually so you can hear which ones cause it?

 

[Silbers]

Make sure all the "audio enhancements" are turned of in Windows. You want audio to be unadjusted by the OS.

View attachment 151624

The audio enhancements were all off when I checked.

Anyway, you were correct! I tried playing the track in another player (VLC) and it played back just fine so thank you very much for your help in this matter.

 

[Manslick]

Check your DAW to see if you’ve got compression set so that you’re getting ducking. I’m not familiar with the system you’re using so I don’t know exactly what to tell you to look at.

 

[TalismanRich]

I've never heard of PotPlayer but I'll be sure to avoid it if it messes with the audio. I have VLC, Audacity and the old legacy Media Player for simple playback. I don't care for Microsoft's newer stuff. The old standby worked just fine.

 

[Silbers]

Check your DAW to see if you’ve got compression set so that you’re getting ducking. I’m not familiar with the system you’re using so I don’t know exactly what to tell you to look at.

It was a playback issue. PotPlayer isn't behaving properly making me think there was a problem with the rendering process. The track sounds fine using the VLC player.

If adding extra sounds reduces level then it is cancellation - are you certain the things coming in are not perhaps copies of others in the mix - but like mentioned above, are inverted. Adding an extra brass copy to thicken the sound can accidentally reduce the level, not increase?

I suppose the best thing is set up a loop covering the time where the dip happens and mute tracks individually so you can hear which ones cause it?

The problem turned out to be the player I was using. As soon as I changed PotPlayer for VLC the problem disappeared. I didn't see this comment of yours yesterday as I forgot to refresh the page.

 

[Silbers]

I've never heard of PotPlayer but I'll be sure to avoid it if it messes with the audio. I have VLC, Audacity and the old legacy Media Player for simple playback. I don't care for Microsoft's newer stuff. The old standby worked just fine.

PotPlayer is made by a S.Korean company. This is the first time I've noticed anything up with it and I've been using it for years. Anyhoo - thanks again.

 

[rob aylestone]

Not sure if you're planning to stay now you are sorted - but think about what happened. SOMETHING in you track makes the player do this, maybe listeners will also be hearing this, so it's best to see if you can replicate it. If you have a moment - experiment.
find a sound - voice, synth or guitar and record it - just 20 seconds. put it on the left channel only, then copy it to the right for 20 seconds, then both. Then in your software, invert one of the two side by side tracks (your software might have an invert, flip, phase or similar worded option - basically just makes the waveform go up instead of down and vice versa.

When you play this back in stereo - what should happen is that when both play it should sound a bit louder, and when the inverted pair play back it should sound a little lower. On headphones, the inverted bit often sounds very weird. Try the media player you had issues with compared to the alternative and see if they behave the same. If you then export the thing as a mono track, all should stay similar until the inverted section when it should go 100% silent! If this happens, your DAW is working perfectly - your media players should both work the same. If they don't, something is wrong with one of them - maybe a setting?

 

[Silbers]

Not sure if you're planning to stay now you are sorted - but think about what happened. SOMETHING in you track makes the player do this, maybe listeners will also be hearing this, so it's best to see if you can replicate it. If you have a moment - experiment.
find a sound - voice, synth or guitar and record it - just 20 seconds. put it on the left channel only, then copy it to the right for 20 seconds, then both. Then in your software, invert one of the two side by side tracks (your software might have an invert, flip, phase or similar worded option - basically just makes the waveform go up instead of down and vice versa.

When you play this back in stereo - what should happen is that when both play it should sound a bit louder, and when the inverted pair play back it should sound a little lower. On headphones, the inverted bit often sounds very weird. Try the media player you had issues with compared to the alternative and see if they behave the same. If you then export the thing as a mono track, all should stay similar until the inverted section when it should go 100% silent! If this happens, your DAW is working perfectly - your media players should both work the same. If they don't, something is wrong with one of them - maybe a setting?

Thanks - I'm not technically minded but I'll see if I can follow your suggestions.

 

[TalismanRich]

If the same thing doesn't happen when using another player, then it isn't a flaw in the audio file, mix or conflict of the instruments. It's some type of "enhancement" being done by the offending program. Any type of autoleveling will completely change the real sound of the track.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

It was a playback issue. PotPlayer isn't behaving properly making me think there was a problem with the rendering process. The track sounds fine using the VLC player.

The problem turned out to be the player I was using. As soon as I changed PotPlayer for VLC the problem disappeared. I didn't see this comment of yours yesterday as I forgot to refresh the page.

Could be some sort of limiting or volume normalization on your player, attempting to "equalize" the perceived volume of songs in a playlist? That would give you the sort of ducking effect you're describing.