New Here,can Anyone Help Me With This Bizzarre Dilemma?

[metalman1221]

New guy here but not new to home recording so I am hoping someone here can shed some light on my new problem?

Ok,so I am not new to the world of digital pc recording.I just bought a new PC last month. It uses an integrated sound card something called SigmaTel High Definition Audio.Everything sounds great. So I run Acousticas Mixcraft 3 and 4 by the way. I assembled some drum loops in wav form into a 4 minute song.It sounds great during playback,I also recorded my guitar parts using my POD X3 into the PC. All was great until I mixed down and rendered the final into an MP3. On playback,the sound is tinny,distorted with an flange kind of tone.Sounds nothing like the original.It also sounds almost doubled and the drums sound...well...not real anymore.Thats the best I can explain it.

I thought it may be Mixcraft...nope...does it using Reaper and Fruity Loops. I contacted Mixcraft and they are trying to help.I uninstalled my sound device and reinstalled it...same thing.....I cant for the life of me find any website for Sigma Tel to try to update the drivers.....Can it be maybe I should get a non-integrated soundcard? Everything sounds awesome on my PC from gaming to music so I dont know....Again everything in recording sounds perfect UNTIL after I render the finsihed song to either a wav,ogg or mp3. I cant beging to tell you how frustrating this is.My last PC used an integrated Soundmax card and I never had one problem doing this.

My new PC is a Systemax 3ghz quad core , 8mb ram running XP.The PC is awesome but its just after the render that it sounds like crap.Does anyone have any ideas?

Here is a post of the good render with drums only(this was done at Acoustica thru their PC and they had no problems)

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6345514

Here is the render with guitars thru my PC....bad.....keep in mind it sounded regular before,this was after rendering.It makes no sense at all!!!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=6345535

If its a soundcard probelm....then why does everything play normal and it only messes up the sound AFTER its rendered to a song file?

Edited March 10, 2008 by metalman1221

[Bitstream]

If everyone else can hear the 'bad' version also, then you can eliminate the SigmaTel as the problem; unless the conversion process is done on the fly inside this chip. But that is highly unlikely.

So it's pointing to a problem in the formats you have selected as discussed. Unfortunately I have never used Mixcraft... And I can't listen to the examples on this PC

Try getting all the formats the same for each of your tracks prior to importing it into Mixcraft. Its possible mixcraft is not too keen on the format generated via your POD X3.

[Steve]

Those links are giving me an error page. Can you try linking up again? Have you checked to see that you are not mixing through an onboardproccess? i.e. I have a Creative Audigy c ard and I can mix down with different effects added, or I can play games with different effects added. If you have inadvertantly selected a process for the soundcard to play whilst listening, you might be adding it to anything you record!

[john]

hey metalman

when you add a link, use the "add link" icon (little green icon with a green "+" sign above the post edit box. Plain text urls above certain lengths have "..." inserted in place of some of the text. Using the add link button will work ok.

Cheers

John

[metalman1221]

Thanks to all above but I have everything set up right and its all in 16 bit too. My last PC (1 MONTH AGO) used Mixcraft as well and I never had one problem ever.I dont understand.

[Nightwolf]

bee sure to let us know what you figure out to be the problem

I h8t it when problems "Go away". I agree that it has to be in the conversion settings

[Steve]

OK. I think I have heard this before.When you record the drums to one track, they sound OK? I think when you record the guitar track, you are also reording the drum track as well! So you have two tracks playing the drums putting it ever so slightly out of sync! Check this by playing the guitar track on its own. If you hear the drums playing, you need to adjust your recording settings.

[john]

Hey

Hit the nail on the head Steve. If you listen carefully you can actually hear the double hits on the single power snare strokes.

The (probably of those power drum hits) are also tripping a compressor/limiter threshold at points causing dips in volume.

Cheers

John

[metalman1221]

No,its not any of the above at all.I feel it has something to do with the codecs because its something after its rendered to either a wav,mp3 or ogg file.

Acoustica's Mixcraft is working with me to try to help out. Everything was great with my last PC as I used Mixcraft constantly.

[metalman1221]

Problem solved, all fixed and back to normal recording thank God! It was one of the codecs after all.I disabled each one,one at a time and rendered each time until I pinpointed it. So I am good and running 100 % fixed now so thanks for all your inputs and help!