Every time I export an audiomixdown in cubase it sounds crap

[Equilibrium]

Whenever I do this and I try it comes out sounding like total rubbish, a lower sounding pile of poo. I'm exporting as wav file and doing it at a high quality also. Any ideas? This one is annoying. It's Cubase SX btw.

Thanks

[bduffy]

Are you saying the final mixdown sounds different from what you hear inside SX? If so, you might want to post your specs.

[stefancrs]

It's probably that it plays back at a lower volume in the other apps he listens to it in.

Equilibrium, try this:
Re-import your exported mixdown into a clean track (no fx, neutral sliders etc) in cubase. Does it still sound worse than before export?

[davor]

Are you saying the final mixdown sounds different from what you hear inside SX? .

Of course it sounds different, DAWs are generally not that good at summing up.

[stefancrs]

Are you saying the final mixdown sounds different from what you hear inside SX? .

Of course it sounds different, DAWs are generally not that good at summing up.

Yes they are. There's no difference in the exported mixdown compared to what you hear when playing it back real-time in the daw, except if some plugins behave differently when doing offline processing (which is very unlikely).
There's no magic to summing. The difference you can measure between hosts different audio engines end up where the 32bit floating point precision ends, around -150dB SNR, on the master bus. Inaudible.

[Equilibrium]

I'm putting the audio mixdown back into an audio track with no effects or anything. It's not that the sound is slightly changed, it's barely recognisable.

I'm using a 1.1Ghz, 512Ram, with an M audio audiophile. There's no reason it shouldn't work as I've had it working on the system before, after a reinstall it's being annoying.

(Will respond to any responses as soon as I can, hopefully today, thank you for the help it is very much appreciated)

Thanks

[davor]

Are you saying the final mixdown sounds different from what you hear inside SX? .

Of course it sounds different, DAWs are generally not that good at summing up.

Yes they are.

You should seriously consider checking your ears. I bet you're not a mastering engineer. And while you're checking your ears check also:

http://www.johnvestman.com/DAWSUM.htm
and
http://www.johnvestman.com/digital_myth.htm

[popsych]

The difference may occur due to dithering/no dithering involved. explain how you do what and i can explain further

[M'Snah]

davor what are your credentials? professional DSP engineer? or mastering engineer? or producer? I know stefan's, and I know mine, but you seem to be far more knowledgeable...

[davor]

..... but you seem to be far more knowledgeable...

My ears are obviously more knowlegable than yours. But if you can't hear the difference between the summing up of different daws that's not my problem but yours. Do you know what john Vestman's credentials are? Check his web site.
http://www.johnvestman.com
http://www.johnvestman.com/DAWSUM.htm

I'm quotin John Vestman; "I suggest that artists can bring in their computer so that we avoid the degradation of "rendering" a 2 track mix internally in a hard disc system. The hard disc systems cause some quality loss due to the software's mix engine that blends all those tracks down into two."

I suggest that you check his credentials. I too have experienced the above, but his credentials are better, so he may strike you as more "credible".

[flex42]

OH NO, NOT AGAIN...

[bduffy]

OK, but I don't think Equilibrium is saying his mixes are "less immediate" or "a hair less snappy" - sounds like he's got a serious problem there.

It would help, I think, if Equilibrium could say what it actually sounds like? Quiet? Garbled? Dull? He's being stangely vague. Otherwise we could get in a huge(r) flaming session about this.

I do agree with Stefancrs about summing, though.

[M'Snah]

...

[M'Snah]

I'm putting the audio mixdown back into an audio track with no effects or anything. It's not that the sound is slightly changed, it's barely recognisable.

That almost sounds like a bug or a damaged DLL or something like that.

[cptgone]

only things I can think of are:
- different volume settings / overdrive
- active master effects - turn them off before you listen to the recording (if the recording was made with the fx on)
- bad settings in the Mixdown dialogue (e.g., you're mixing down to 8 bit wav)