KVR Audio

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:53 pm

V'ger wrote:
folderol wrote:Hmm. Still unhappy about what soundcloud does to music I'd forgotten just how bad 128 bit fixed rate was! if anyone is interested a clean variable bit rate version is here:
http://www.musically.me.uk/music/Into_T ... m_Koth.mp3
This was taken from exactly the same wav file. No more gargling horn or mushy choirs.
When you click to download the file from the SoundCloud player that we use on the site, you will get the original uploaded file, untouched.

I'm not sure, but I imagine most people will download and listen to them when voting? I certainly do.

But I find for my style of music at least that when I render from Reaper directly to 128kbs mp3 at max quality settings there are not too many artifacts, and believe SoundCloud will not re-encode if already at that bitrate. I think the worst is when something goes from compressed mp3 to mp3 again like happens if you upload at other rates.

Well I've had yet another attempt at uploading a clean copy. This time I used Lame to do the encoding from wav instead of going via audacity. While it's an improvement it's still not right. And soundcloud insists on recoding it, even though I know it is definitely 128k and and another track I uploaded under identical conditions didn't get recoded

It's all beyond me

gorgorgathgorgorgor · Post by **gorgorgathgorgorgor** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:57 pm

It is one of the great challenges facing the modern Mastering Engineer. What to do when you know your work will inevitably be converted to various crappy mp3 formats.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:24 pm

So it will recode even if it's already in 128kbs? But Gorgor has a point about learning to live with the 128k mp3 format (read SC player).

But if someone comes up with an idea how we could improve the situation with flac, ogg etc that would be good. In theory we could start dealing in full .wav as SoundCloud accepts it and storage at Archive.org allows it, but we'll still get 128k in the SC player and the other disadvantages are longer downloads, and poor naming and space issues in various media players (phones etc).

gorgorgathgorgorgor · Post by **gorgorgathgorgorgor** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:36 am

I have re-loaded my entry. I basically just remixed a bit and tweaked what was already there, so nothing to report as far as the # of instances etc. Hopefully it's an improvement!

laklop · Post by **laklop** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:20 am

Final Day! Sweating on getting my submission in on time! All sorts of problems sequencing on my old machine with crashes and "Real Time" failures. Will get there I hope. Enjoy everyone elses songs a lot!

AutoStatic · Post by **AutoStatic** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:47 am

Yup, final day. Yesterday I started mixing and I hope to be able to submit my entry on time too. No real issues here, except for the fact that I had to adjust the number of frames on my desktop PC otherwise it choked on about 10 ZASFX DSSI plug-ins, two separate Yoshimi instances and some audio plug-ins (compression and gate).
I'm not very happy with the initial idea but there's no way back now so I'll have to make the best of it

Best,

Jeremy

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:53 pm

Yea always hectic last day. Shame with the tech issues Laklop, that can really sap the inspiration.

I was basically finished yesterday so just mixing/mastering today. Trying to raise the volume but still keep the dynamics etc but it seems impossible.

And as the whole thing was done on headphones also trying to figure out what must be done for it to sound better on speakers. This is the time I regret not reading all those tech articles.. Can't we just agree everyone listens on headphones?

gorgorgathgorgorgor · Post by **gorgorgathgorgorgor** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:02 pm

I'm with ya man, I had so much fun building these chaotic complex steam-engine sounds, low end swarming all over the place, no time to do a proper mix, working late at night so I can't turn up the speaks, oh and never mind trying to remember not to turn the knob too fast... crap. froze again! It's been a lot of fun, and I know I'll come back to it for building crazy sounds, but what a bear! I'm calling it the Rube Goldberg Synth from now on.

AutoStatic · Post by **AutoStatic** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:16 pm

Monitors... Headphones.... I mixed some on my monitors, to get the stereo-image right, but most of it will be done on my headphones. Our 11 month old little boy is sleeping right below me... He did like the track so far

Best,

Jeremy, enjoying an Indian Pale Ale while mixing and struggling with weird latency issues (couldn't get my arpeggiator in sync with the rest).

PS. is it allowed to use some sidechain compression? I'm using a kick from ZynAddSubFX to duck another part.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:17 pm

gorgorgathgorgorgor wrote:...oh and never mind trying to remember not to turn the knob too fast... crap. froze again!

umm just curious...? which knob? what circumstances? and which VST version?

laklop · Post by **laklop** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:42 pm

I'm listening to the tracks now on a decent stereo and there's great dynamic range coming through.

I wasn't sure about the level of mastering we were allowed to do as new to this. Not used any other pluggins or anything.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:45 pm

AutoStatic wrote:Our 11 month old little boy is sleeping right below me... He did like the track so far

He yea he seems quietly confident in daddy's work..

Nice clean setup you got there btw, what are those mixers there?

Sidechaining is of course allowed. Speaking of that, I was actually thinking to use it on bass as opposed to kick this time as that didn't seem to come out well, but didn't as doubling it seemed enough. (hm, might actually try it now quickly).

AutoStatic · Post by **AutoStatic** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:20 pm

V'ger wrote:He yea he seems quietly confident in daddy's work.. Nice clean setup you got there btw, what are those mixers there?

Yeah, he's got a reeeeaaalll short attention span, just like his dad. And thanks, those mixers are a Behringer BCR2000 on the left and a BCF2000 on my improvised working desk.

Best,

Jeremy

Yeager · Post by **Yeager** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:27 pm

Uploaded mine, it's called :

"Too Little Too Late".

I used :

1 x ZynAddSubFX (11 tracks)*

Track FX :

1 x ReaComp
1 x ReaXcomp
1 x W1 Limiter
1 x ADT
1 X Classic EQ
1 x Overtone GEQ

Some trackEQ, No automation No bouncing.

Master Fx :

1 x Rescue
1 x NyquistEQ (3 band)
1 x ReaXcomp
1 x TLs Maximizer.

This is a great synth with unlimited sound capabilities.
* mostly tweaked presets (wanted to tweak more but it did't like me twiddeling the knobs and went all silent a few times so I did what I could with what I had 'cause I was scared to loose anything).

Definitely a synth worth exploring more when I'm not on a deadline.

Enjoy.

laklop · Post by **laklop** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:41 pm

Exciting times. Got mine uploaded too. (I'm Laurence Alexander)

I used 9 different Zyn channels.

Organised and sequenced through Rosegarden/Jack

Tweaked patches to get my own sounds on each channel.

Some live automation/knob twiddling

Rendered out each channel's track separately and then dropped into Ableton. Didn't use any FX from ableton, only used it to organise the tracks and render to WAV, then Audacity to MP3.

Did not use any thing other than Zyn to make the noises. No EQ etc.

Very excited and quite pleased with my work after an intense couple of weeks!!! Can't wait hear entries and start voting! Really hope I have done everything right to be included in competition as first time and dreading i've missed something.

One-Synth-Challenge 26: ZynAddSubFX - Submissions and gossip