Weird Peaks In My Master

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Hello,

I am still a newb at mastering my tracks, and I am getting these weird straggling hits in my wav when I bring it into Audacity to preview and bring up the gain if I need to.

What I need help with is making sure my tracks are nice and tidy and no offending wave hits.

So my route for this track went as followed using Ableton 9.6, mastered it to be right about, or just under 0dB and export to wav (was doing AIFF, but decided otherwise.) then I brought it into Audacity for a final once over before I call it good and test the track on some random equipment/speakers configs.

Here are some pics, and hope that helps. I should also note that I am not peaking out or going above 0 at anytime despite the graphic representation.

Thanks for any advice!
Screen Shot 2016-06-12 at 1.25.35 PM.png
Screen Shot 2016-06-12 at 1.25.48 PM.png
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This is what clippers and limiters are for. Especially graphical limiter will tell you when the track is about to clip.

Of course if the situation occurs often, you should track back this sound and make it quiter, or different altogether.
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Darn those pesky dynamics!! lol ;)

Go back to the individual tracks and figure out what sound it is (I'm guessing a kick or snare) and then use a soft clipper to try to limit the peaks on that individual track without affecting the sound too much.
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I'm not a pro at this stuff by any means, but assuming that represents actual individual peaks (its fairly zoomed out), it looks as if the quieter sections in your track are letting whatever compression you've got going fully relax (i.e. release back to no or minimal compression) before full scale signal comes suddenly comes slamming through it. You're seeing the attack time 'from nothing' on a compressor somewhere in the chain.

If there's an audible volume spike there, look at the gain structure of your track. For instance, it might be better to mute the kick channel instead of deleting a kick drum hit. This way any channel compression won't have stopped working before you you bring the signal back. If there are not audible spikes there, perhaps dealing with it in two phases will be good enough. One ultra fast brickwall limiter/clipper to catch just those few errant peaks (catching peaks rather than shaping dynamics is what they're for, after all), another more representative of your usual compression.

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Thanks Guys,

It is a freq'd snare hit in the track that I am constructing for the techno genre. I will def try a clipper/limiter on it to keep it in line (derp, can't believe the obvious answer was right there).

I will post a final of the track when I'm ready for review.

Thanks again for the comments/advice !

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You could just use the pencil tool in your wav editor to redraw the peaks, or slap a limiter on the master ...

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Stop looking at the screen and start using your ears, does it sound bad?

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thecontrolcentre wrote:You could just use the pencil tool in your wav editor to redraw the peaks, or slap a limiter on the master ...
Not a good practice to use a Limiter on the master for eliminating those peaks. If they arise and the limiter start working it will effect the whole track. May it sounds just fine, but it also could sound ugly. It´s just better to avoid such peaks. Meaning that you have to go to the individual channel an do the work there.

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Could be a slight DC offset. Try a highpass on that particular instrument channel to cut extreme lows (below 20 or even 30hz) and see if that helps. Ofcourse it could just be a naturally asymmetrical waveform.. it's only a concern if it bothers you with peak limiting. Google: "asymmetrical waveforms"

Also the zoomed out waveform exagerates that spike. Zoom in and you might see the waveform looks fine. Ultimately trust your ears more than your eyes :)

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It could be a pubic hair on your monitor. :tu:
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