I've run into an interesting problem

T

Toasta Whales

New member
The song I am working on right now has only two components so far; a drum beat made on Beatcraft and a yamaha electronic piano part (which was recorded through a guitar cable into my USB mixer) I listened to the playback and on the fourth chord of the piano part there is a small, but apparent, distorted "rip". I proceeded to mute the drums and when I listened to the keyboard part by itself the "rip" wasn't there, and it wasn't part of the drum track either. From trial and error I discovered it somehow a combination of both of the elements, but I don't know how to fix it or what the problem is exactly. Can someone lend me a hand?
 
I think NL5 is asking if you are clipping the master bus. Does the "rip" (what's a rip?) happen in the same place every time you play back the drums and piano together?
 
Toasta Whales said:
I haven't even touched it.
Click to expand...

He's saying the sum of the signals may be clipping your master.. the master being the last fader in your mix that all of the individual tracks / instruments go thru. This is your master level essentially. So if the sum of the drum part and the piano part combined are causing the overall level to exceed 0db on your master this translates into clipping, which audibly translates to distortion / static / rips? / pops / clicks.. etc..

If this is the case then there are several possible solutions.. firstly make sure you're tracking at an acceptable level.. most will stay between -6 and -18 to ensure propper headroom.. if you clip during recording then you might as well track it again at a lower level.. If that's not the issue then look at your compression and eq.. make sure you're not causing clipping in any of your plugins.. Could be a problem area in the frequency spectrum where the drums and the piano happen to both occupy the same frequency at the point where the clipping is occuring and are fighting for ownership.. Make sure you're giving everything it's propper space..

What happens if you turn the piano way down.. does it still distort? Same with the drums.. when you turn the levels down low on both the drums and piano do you still hear it? If so then you probably clipped while tracking.. you could fix it with the pencil tool and you'll get varied results, but it still won't sound as good as just not clipping to begin with.. That's my two pennies.. hope it was helpful.. best of luck.
 
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