Exported file sounds different than in Cubase - partially solved possibly

Fretwired

thecolourbox said:

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?

It's all futile though in honesty. My recording stuff doesn't work, my guitar playing is static-noisy as fuck and I can't use amps to play as they are too loud, I can't sing, I don't like acoustic and my keyboard I have to have so quietly all I can hear is the thud of the keys. All just pointless

Go to Start (Windows icon lower left of the screen) scroll down to Windows System - click on it and select Control Panel then select Sound. If it's your first visit select view (top right) by small icons so you see everything.

Fretwired

Stuckfast said:

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.

^^

Good advice.

rico

thecolourbox said:

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?

Yeah - this has caught me out in the past.

thecolourbox

Fretwired said:

thecolourbox said:

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?

It's all futile though in honesty. My recording stuff doesn't work, my guitar playing is static-noisy as fuck and I can't use amps to play as they are too loud, I can't sing, I don't like acoustic and my keyboard I have to have so quietly all I can hear is the thud of the keys. All just pointless

Go to Start (Windows icon lower left of the screen) scroll down to Windows System - click on it and select Control Panel then select Sound. If it's your first visit select view (top right) by small icons so you see everything.

WiresDreamDisasters

Can you upload a snippet of audio so we can hear it?

thecolourbox

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Can you upload a snippet of audio so we can hear it?

That won't be a lot of use without hearing it normally though would it? Or am I missing something

thecolourbox

rico said:

thecolourbox said:

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?

Yeah - this has caught me out in the past.

But how does one add effects to the overall mix then if not using the overall mix section? Am I supposed to literally export it without them then create another project and add the same effects as an insert on that mixdown

Fretwired

thecolourbox said:

Fretwired said:

thecolourbox said:

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?

It's all futile though in honesty. My recording stuff doesn't work, my guitar playing is static-noisy as fuck and I can't use amps to play as they are too loud, I can't sing, I don't like acoustic and my keyboard I have to have so quietly all I can hear is the thud of the keys. All just pointless

Go to Start (Windows icon lower left of the screen) scroll down to Windows System - click on it and select Control Panel then select Sound. If it's your first visit select view (top right) by small icons so you see everything.

I think we have your problem - Realtek will have it's own control panel with graphic EQ and all sorts of garbage. I know as it came as standard on the PC I'm typing this on. I have a cheap Steinberg audio interface and a pair of iLoud speakers so what I hear in Cubase is the same on playback as I disabled the Realtek interface. See if you can find it and see if there's any odd EQ settings or reverb.

thecolourbox

Fretwired said:

thecolourbox said:

Fretwired said:

thecolourbox said:

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?

It's all futile though in honesty. My recording stuff doesn't work, my guitar playing is static-noisy as fuck and I can't use amps to play as they are too loud, I can't sing, I don't like acoustic and my keyboard I have to have so quietly all I can hear is the thud of the keys. All just pointless

Go to Start (Windows icon lower left of the screen) scroll down to Windows System - click on it and select Control Panel then select Sound. If it's your first visit select view (top right) by small icons so you see everything.

I think we have your problem - Realtek will have it's own control panel with graphic EQ and all sorts of garbage. I know as it came as standard on the PC I'm typing this on. I have a cheap Steinberg audio interface and a pair of iLoud speakers so what I hear in Cubase is the same on playback as I disabled the Realtek interface. See if you can find it and see if there's any odd EQ settings or reverb.

Thanks, I'll have a look, but still it's going to sound crap as soon as I send it to my dad I suppose so might as well just leave it I think.

Cheers for the input

WiresDreamDisasters

thecolourbox said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Can you upload a snippet of audio so we can hear it?

That won't be a lot of use without hearing it normally though would it? Or am I missing something

I have magic ears. It might not be anything to do with EQ and effects in playback and what not. It might be a sample-rate issue.

Did you actually record at 48k sample-rate?

You should be bouncing down at the native sample-rate and bit-depth for the recorded file format.

thecolourbox

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thecolourbox said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Can you upload a snippet of audio so we can hear it?

That won't be a lot of use without hearing it normally though would it? Or am I missing something

I have magic ears. It might not be anything to do with EQ and effects in playback and what not. It might be a sample-rate issue.

Did you actually record at 48k sample-rate?

You should be bouncing down at the native sample-rate and bit-depth for the recorded file format.

I've no idea to be honest, dad sent me his recorded vocals and his backing track. I'm just going to send it back as it is, I don't really care enough to fix it

Cheers

Strangefan

I would like to add.. try different speakers play it inthe car, and on a stereo, using studio monitors for listening back to mix downs will not give you the full picture 

thecolourbox

Well well well. I may have solved it with some general help from around the internet as a whole (and thanks to strangefan for the millions of messages on the subject).

The TL:DR version is that my exported files would sound very different than how the track sounded in Cubase, with way more reverb and woolly sounding mix. Importing it back into Cubase, made it sound again how I intended it to, but playback on laptop, phone, TV or wherever sounded woolly and reverby

Using Real Time export seems to improve things. If you jump to 3 minutes in on each of the two tracks in the following and listen to that verse, you can hear the difference I was hearing which was driving me mad. They are Exports of exactly the same project, same mix same effects same everything.

https://soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1/sets/weird-reverb-problem-with-cubase-export

How strange it can be so different? (please tell me I'm not hearing things)