Quote:
Originally Posted by Narayan
Billoon-I'm not using any live recordings it's all constructs and mostly midi, but the 64 bit wav setting with 384 pt showed a great improvement, so thanks!
Richie-I think the reason the MP3 compression hits the chorus so much is because it's almost all different elements to the verse, bridge etc. The chorus bassline in particular sounds stripped out when rendered to mp3. Speaking as someone who doesn't know the science well, it would be great to have some dynamic capability for varying the way a compressor applies itself (ie so that it hit freq that weren't important to the sound for instance).
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There really should not be any audible sound difference between say, a 24 bit and 64 bit floating point audio file, and there is no point in rendering to 64 bit floating point unless you have a specific need to do so.
By 'live', Billoon is talking about a feature of Reaper that allows for recording the live output of Reaper to a file. When it is turned on, any sound that goes through Reaper will be output (recorded) to the file until it is turned off. Think of it as a secondary stereo recorder running in the background that never goes off until you specifically turn it off.
If rendering to mp3 is really messing with the rendered sound, up the bitrate. At a constant bitrate of 320 kbps, anyone would be hard pressed to hear the difference between mp3 and wav. Mp3 is inferior to wav, but the difference is subtle, and it can only be heard on some material, not all. It is not something that will jump out at you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Narayan
Thanks folks. Yeah the volume reductions did seem to yield an improvement in overall quality. I am not sure whether resampling applies to the rendering process with the midi track compression to MP3. It is a variable I don't know about but I thought I would include it for a full picture.
How do you know whether resampling is needed and used in such a render? How does it impact on the product?
Regards
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Unless you were going over 0 dbfs (in the red), what you render should be what you hear in Reaper. Don't go over 0. When you do that, your sound is being clipped, essentially reducing the bit depth. You mentioned previously that your percussion sounded like it is going through a bitcrusher. If you're outputting heavily over 0, it will sound like that.
Resamplinng applies when you render to a different sample rate other than what your project uses. For example, if your project is recorded at 48k, and you render to 44.1k, resampling takes place. You should read a bit about the basics of digital audio to understand this stuff better. Just do a search, check wikipedia, youtube, etc. I'm sure that with a little patience and time, you can find enough info to understand how the basics of digital audio works. Also, there are books available that explain this stuff.
As for how resampling affects the render, that is all up to your ears. And btw, don't be fooled by all of the numbers and settings. Higher numbers does not necessarily equate to higher sound quality. A lot of this stuff is subjective, and you should use your ears above all else, along with a basic understanding of how digital audio works. And be objective about it. Can you really hear the difference, or are you allowing your judgement to be skewed by some number or setting? Do some blind tests. If you are ever hearing major differences in sound quality, it is safe to assume that it probably has nothing to do with the file format, the bit depth, or the sample rate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Narayan
Also, Why is there such a direct relationship between volume level and output quality?
The more I reduce the volume the greater the output quality I am finding. But the high sound quality renders don't stand terribly well next to mainstream material in terms of amplification (ie not as loud).
Thoughts and guidance if you please?
Cheers
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On rendered sound levels, that is an issue of skills in recording, mixing, and mastering the recording. Without going into too much detail, getting a healthy sound level on the render is about removing junk from the mix such as boomy low end, or transient highs, taming dynamics, etc., i.e., mixing for clarity and fitting a lot of sound into a little space. The problem there is not a problem of the software. It has to do with how well you record tracks, how well you mix, and how dynamic the final track needs to be.