Mix/Recent Masters sound great in my headphones, but has digital distortion in car?

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rbuist

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EDIT: see page 2 of the thread for example songs


Hello all,
This is my first post on this forum. I recently spent a bunch of time recording 4 songs and I am happy with my final mix. I took the mixes back to school with me to a friend for mastering. As of now, the most recent mastered versions sound great in studio monitors, my personal headphones (cheap skull candys), and it sounds as good as it possibly can in my car- I'm playing it thru my iphone thru an FM transmitter- my car's CD player doesn't work.

I went to my brother's house for dinner of the weekend and burned the masters to CD. I listened to it in both his car and my brother in law's Jeep and I experienced some weird digital distortion that surprised me. To get rid of the distortion, I scooped the bass frequencies as much as I possibly could from some of the songs with the car's EQ control and it helped a lot, but didn't completely solve the problem. Just so you know, I wasn't blasting the songs either- I had the volume at about 60-70% and I kept the EQ flat for my initial listen. I listened to two commercially produced songs and noticed a small bit of similar distortion from a particularly loud band in one place.

Where do I go from here? I love the sound I am getting in my headphones and don't the bass to sound wimpy for anyone who listens to it in their car; but I also don't want people listening to it in the car to have these weird distortions.

I'm thinking my best option would be to add some sort of compression/limiter to the bass frequencies- one song sounded completely fine while the others seemed to have the distortion issues. Then should I add back some mids and treble to brighten up the overall EQ? Or do I head back to mixing? Or am I screwed?

Thanks,
Ryan

EDIT: My recording setup was an sm57 into a Lexicon Alpha interface, into a macbook pro, onto adobe audtion. Mixed in audtion, mastering is being done in ableton. Instruments are electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass, tambourine, piano, and vocals.
 
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Could be the car stereo, unless the loud commercially released record was poorly mastered.
Try it on another crappy/mediocre stereo where you got the time to test it with reference CD's that you know well.

Another option could be that you've been recorded it in a higher bit rate than 16 which is a good idea, though the headroom is getting decreased when you're exporting (degrading) it to 16 which can cause problems sometimes.
Try if the same problem is occuring when taking the peak level down slightly below 0 DB.
 
WarmJetGuitar said:
Could be the car stereo, unless the loud commercially released record was poorly mastered.
Try it on another crappy/mediocre stereo where you got the time to test it with reference CD's that you know well.

Another option could be that you've been recorded it in a higher bit rate than 16 which is a good idea, though the headroom is getting decreased when you're exporting (degrading) it to 16 which can cause problems sometimes.
Try if the same problem is occuring when taking the peak level down slightly below 0 DB.
Click to expand...

The two songs I listened to that weren't mine were definitely recorded and produced a lot better than mine were so I doubt their mastering was faulty.

I'm not sure exactly what the peak levels are on my songs, but I was sure to make sure we didn't make the tracks look like solid bricks- even so, would I hear these even if I wasn't blasting the songs? Compared to the other bands' songs, my music is bit on the quieter side.

It's just weird, my headphones I have for every day use are no where near great, but my tunes sound just as good as any other band I have in my library on them. It's only the CD/car stereo that brings out these strange imperfections.
 
Faulty CD, due maybe to burning speed or poor quality of CDr, how did you burn the CD? what were the masters? files or CD's If files what software did you burn them with?

alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Faulty CD, due maybe to burning speed or poor quality of CDr, how did you burn the CD? what were the masters? files or CD's If files what software did you burn them with?

alan.
Click to expand...

I recorded the tracks twice (so I played a different CD in each car)- using itunes to burn them, the tracks are AIFF files, and I used the 'maximum speed possible' option. I've done this before on multiple records and haven't had any problems although I suppose most of the stuff in my library are AAC files- would this make a difference?

Additional info (not sure if this helps you)
Sample size- 16 bit
Bit Rate- 1411 kbps
Sample Rate- 44.100 kHz

it seems like the other songs I played them against have smaller bit rates- 256 kbps
 
Crowdsource! Post your track so we can all listen on our systems and give you a better idea of what's going on.
 
EDIT: to shenninsgard

What would be the best spot to post an example song?
 
Bump

Any one else got some ideas on this? I'm hoping to release the record in the near future and would really appreciate some input.
 
rbuist said:
Any one else got some ideas on this? I'm hoping to release the record in the near future and would really appreciate some input.
Click to expand...

Well I would never burn anything important with Itunes, and never at max speed.

Alan.
 
rbuist said:
EDIT: to shenninsgard

What would be the best spot to post an example song?
Click to expand...

Post it here. It is your thread. :) Though the MP3 Clinic might be a better forum.

You need another 5 posts to be able to attach a link tho. You can do it HERE.
 
Example tracks

Okay I'm going to try to put two tracks in here but I might need to get another post down.

Bury: This song is the most problematic over all- it's definitely the most bassy track of the bunch (clean guitar + bass chords). In headphones, this version sounds good, the car stereo struggles to keep up with it. I have a mastered version where the bass is taken down a bits but it sounds a bit weak in comparison. I haven't got a chance to hear a burned version in the car yet.

Ambush: The drop in this this song (1:09) is the most problematic part of the whole record. I can't tell if the bass is the problem or the keys (they sound pretty strange on purpose). I'm thinking a mid scoop will do this song worlds of good but I'm not sure.
 

Attachments

rbuist said:
any ideas?
Click to expand...

Have you mastered these? They are VERY LOUD! I'd go back to the mixing stage, forget mastering for now. Forget volume. Get a good sounding mix first. If it's not loud enough when mixing, turn your speakers up. There is a noise on the rhythm guitar in the first track that hurts my ear. (I only have one that works) It's very crackly, almost like white noise. Is it supposed to sound like that?

The second track sounds way too hot to me. I'm hearing clipping towards the end.
 
Mr Clean said:
Have you mastered these? They are VERY LOUD! I'd go back to the mixing stage, forget mastering for now. Forget volume. Get a good sounding mix first. If it's not loud enough when mixing, turn your speakers up. There is a noise on the rhythm guitar in the first track that hurts my ear. (I only have one that works) It's very crackly, almost like white noise. Is it supposed to sound like that?

The second track sounds way too hot to me. I'm hearing clipping towards the end.
Click to expand...

Yes, these are rough masters at the moment. I definitely want to decrease volume on both of them to some extent. I was satisfied with the mix though.

I'm more concerned about the EQ of the tracks though- to me, I'm stoked on the way they sound in my headphones, but the way they sound in the car is just off some how.

For track 1- I'm not sure what noise you're referring to on the rhythm guitar- it's got a fair amount of reverb on it, the chords are dissonant in some places, and it's relatively bassy in some places. Are you referring to the lead guitar? That one was recorded pretty loud with a Big muff fuzz pedal and delay so there's all kinds of sounds on that. It could also be amp hiss you're hearing.

For track 2- I'm thinking about doing a big mid cut to the overall EQ and generally decreasing the volume when all instruments kick in.
 
Well like I said before, you should forget mastering altogether for now. Get the mix right first. You should put up a copy of each file with nothing on the master bus. Just a plain mix. Everything sounds flat and loud. There is no loudness war on this forum.

Do a mix, no plugins on the master, and post them in the MP3 Mixing Clinic, you'll get a better response from there.
 
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