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MG ROBERTS
MG ROBERTS
Participant
June 17, 2021
Question

Project sounds great in Audition, but all exports sound truly horrific! Please HELP!!!!!!

  • June 17, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 262 views

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie on Audition and am having a Newbie Nightmare.

I have digitised an old cassette tape, of a live concert, from 1984.

I mucked about with a few settings and effects, a bit of EQing and a successful stereo widenting (Effects Rack/Presets/Stereo Widwener Wide (Hass effect), and the resulting file sounded so much better.

I've tried exporting the changed audion to WAV and MP3 - and in both instances the results sound dreadful. EQ changes are lost, stereo is lost and the original mild distortion has almost doubled.

I even tried an A/V screen capture of the whole 90mins of the audio playing in Audition - same result.

I know I've probably had the source file too loud, but it DOES sound great in the Audtion build.

 

I have no experience about mixing, but this is driving me around the bend ..... what am I doing wrong??

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1 reply

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
Community Expert
June 17, 2021

I think that you need to describe the exact process you're using (all the steps, and all the details, even if you think they aren't relevant) before we can work out where you're going wrong.

    MG ROBERTS
    MG ROBERTSAuthor
    Participant
    June 18, 2021

    Here we are ....

    1. Imported WAV file
    2. Levels constantly in the red, so cut to -3db
    3. Set Stereo Widener (Hass Effect) in the Effects Rack
    4. Effects - Filter and EQ - Graphic Equalizer - 30 Bands) - Gentle Low Boost
    5. File - Export - File - FLAC

     I've obviously missed something!

    MG ROBERTS
    MG ROBERTSAuthor
    Participant
    June 19, 2021

    Firstly you should find out why everything's in the red - and reduce the record level so that your original wav file isn't distorted. Because that, you cannot undo - you need the peaks below 0dB to start with. And make sure you store your file in the 32-bit Floading Point format, because this uses some nifty processing which makes them pretty much immune to overload errors. Obviously they can't take care of distortion in the original digitising, but they can be rescaled either up or down after this, without loss.

     

    Your next step should be to us Normalize, and set it to -1dB. This will optimise the file size to use all of the dynamic range available. Then you do the rest of your effects. But note - if you put boosts in the chances are that you will overload your final file. How do you fix this? Normalize again, and the Floating Point file will be back within the gamut again. Then you export the file.

     

    One other thing to note is that ideally, don't use the Graphic Equaliser, but learn to use the Parametric EQ instead. This doesn't introduce the phase errors that any Graphic EQ will, so everything sounds more like it did originally - only with your boosts and cuts. Generally it's a higher-class EQ, and once you get used to what it can do, you won't find it wanting. I don't think I've ever used Audition's Graphic EQ for anything.


    SteveG .... thank you so VERY much!

    I finally have a better-sounding version of my live tape (Talking Heads, in Australia, 1984) which is not distorted now. I followed all of your instructions, and the Mixdown turned out beautifully. Although (and again perhaps I've missed something) none of the stereo effects made it through to the final version (it's almost mono) - again even though those effects are distinct in the Audition session. But overall I'm absolutely thrilled. My cassette is now not keeping the speed constant (overplayed recently!!) so is now redundant.

    Thanks again for your help!

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