Exported file sounds different than in Cubase - partially solved possibly

thecolourbox

Hi all

I'm doing something for my dad at the mo, mixing his recorded singing into a backing track. Got it sounding decent enough in Cubase, but when I export a mixdown, the resultant file sounds different when I play it back than it does in Cubase. Sounds louder, and a bit like a poor quality rip of a CD or when people used to download crap mp3s from Kazaa or Limewire etc.

Any ideas why this is the case? It's no wonder people think my recordings that I send them sound shit if this is the case. Bizarrely the reverb effect is increased also, another thing I'm always told sounds shit in my recordings.

I've tried mp3 and wav, mono and stereo. When I open the mixdown wav in Cubase, it sounds how the original project did during mixing.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Matt

Bod

It could one of many things tbh.  Could you provide a screenshot of your mixdown settings?

thecolourbox

It's the gift that keeps on giving, this set up

Here's a screen grab:

thecolourbox

What I haven't done is test it with an audio interface, was just using headphones. But not sure why it would be different if using the same output in both Cubase and for MP3/Wav playback in other software?

Fretwired

PC or Mac?

Check your mix down settings. Do you want to mix down to a wav file or an mp3? What's the sample rate and bit depth in the mix down? Do they match the recording? Are you going through the whole signal chain in Cubase?

What software are you playing the finished wav/mp3 through? Could it be downsampling the Cubase file? Could there be some EQ curve? Programmes like iTunes often do this ..

Bod

OK, all looks to be fine with your mixdown settings.  How about effects etc on the master bus (stereo out)?

thecolourbox

Bod said:

OK, all looks to be fine with your mixdown settings.  How about effects etc on the master bus (stereo out)?

Is that as in effects added to the output on the mixer?

thecolourbox

Fretwired said:

PC or Mac?

Check your mix down settings. Do you want to mix down to a wav file or an mp3? What's the sample rate and bit depth in the mix down? Do they match the recording? Are you going through the whole signal chain in Cubase?

What software are you playing the finished wav/mp3 through? Could it be downsampling the Cubase file? Could there be some EQ curve? Programmes like iTunes often do this ..

It's PC. 

I just don't understand why the same exported WAV file sounds awful in Windows Media Player and VLC player but acceptable in Cubase, using the same headphones etc

Bezzer

Ah ... Windows Media Player and VLC ... bear in mind these will use any audio "enhancements" that are running whereas Cubase will not.

Is media player EQ is on?  Is Special Sound on? Do you have any audio software control panel with audio settings?

That's the sort of crap caught me out in the past.

Fretwired

Bezzer said:

Ah ... Windows Media Player and VLC ... bear in mind these will use any audio "enhancements" that are running whereas Cubase will not.

Is media player EQ is on?  Is Special Sound on? Do you have any audio software control panel with audio settings?

That's the sort of crap caught me out in the past.

^^

This is your problem .. the audio engine in Cubase is superior to the one you'll find in WMP. That said you need to mix for your audience.

thecolourbox

Fretwired said:

Bezzer said:

Ah ... Windows Media Player and VLC ... bear in mind these will use any audio "enhancements" that are running whereas Cubase will not.

Is media player EQ is on?  Is Special Sound on? Do you have any audio software control panel with audio settings?

That's the sort of crap caught me out in the past.

^^

This is your problem .. the audio engine in Cubase is superior to the one you'll find in WMP. That said you need to mix for your audience.

Oh right, don't suppose there is a "crap media player" plugin for monitoring then? Not sure how else I'm supposed to know how to make it sound better in that. I think I just need to give up and let others do it instead

I still don't understand why there was so much reverb on the mixdown one

Couldn't repeat the experiment with the interface because whilst I can get the interface to work in Cubase via asio4all, I can't get it to work on Windows.

Sod it all, I give up

PolarityMan

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

thecolourbox

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

I would but know the plugins on it well so don't have the time not energy to start from scratch elsewhere. Also not sure an audio mixdown from reaper would be any better as surely the problem is with the playback

Fretwired

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

It's nothing to do with Cubase .. :-)

Fretwired

thecolourbox said:

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

I would but know the plugins on it well so don't have the time not energy to start from scratch elsewhere. Also not sure an audio mixdown from reaper would be any better as surely the problem is with the playback

What soundcard are you using? Is Cubase using your dedicated soundcard whilst WMP is using the standard Windows audio codec? Go into the Windows System Control Panel and check the Sound Panel to see what your machine uses as standard to playback music.

Stuckfast

Try those same export settings, but with the sample rate set to 44.1kHz and the bit depth to 16-bit.

The 32-bit format isn't universally supported and is a waste of space anyway.

thecolourbox

Fretwired said:

thecolourbox said:

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

I would but know the plugins on it well so don't have the time not energy to start from scratch elsewhere. Also not sure an audio mixdown from reaper would be any better as surely the problem is with the playback

What soundcard are you using? Is Cubase using your dedicated soundcard whilst WMP is using the standard Windows audio codec? Go into the Windows System Control Panel and check the Sound Panel to see what your machine uses as standard to playback music.

I've no idea, System Config or the Control Panel? Where would I look?

Musicwolf

Fretwired said:

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

It's nothing to do with Cubase .. :-)

I would agree.

What was the monitoring system during mixdown?  I'm reading 'headphones' direct from the PC's (I'm assuming laptop) headphone socket.  What sort of headphones (brand, model)?

The fact that you are describing playback as being louder than mix doesn't fill me with confidence that you are making a proper comparison.  The first thing that I would do when comparing two audio files is to get them as close as possible to the same volume.

PolarityMan

Fretwired said:

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

It's nothing to do with Cubase .. :-)

It did back then, drove me nuts

thecolourbox

Musicwolf said:

Fretwired said:

PolarityMan said:

this is why abandoned cubase back in the SX days

It's nothing to do with Cubase .. :-)

I would agree.

What was the monitoring system during mixdown?  I'm reading 'headphones' direct from the PC's (I'm assuming laptop) headphone socket.  What sort of headphones (brand, model)?

The fact that you are describing playback as being louder than mix doesn't fill me with confidence that you are making a proper comparison.  The first thing that I would do when comparing two audio files is to get them as close as possible to the same volume.

I didn't change any volume though, same headphones, same socket, same volume level. Totally different sound.

Don't worry, it's not worth fixing.

PolarityMan

maybe you could try rendering it down as wav then reimporting the wav into cubase at unity
 
if it still sounds different then then you know its the mixdown (you could also potentially phase test against the rest of the mix)