NEED MIX HELP I HOPE ???

[mrkevin50]

Hello fellow Taxi members, having a bit of trouble I hope with my mix and Hopefully not my Old 824 Mackies. I Have double checked and nothings clipping in my DAW, can't here it in my headphones but when I play this through my monitors on this one Cue it sounds like it's clipping, anyone with some nice monitors what to give me there thoughts I would greatly appreciate it . the Cues are only 60 to 90 seconds long. This is the Cues That sounds clipped https://soundcloud.com/k-r-lee/climbing-high-1/s-317iY Here is one with even deeper Bass and no clipping sounds at all don't know what to think . https://soundcloud.com/k-r-lee/echos-of-fear-1 Thanks so much Kevin and Have a great Day!!!!

[funsongs]

Hello Kevin - from The Peanut Gallery
Listened to the first cue on earbuds, low & medium volume via Soundcloud via PC; then low & medium volume through JBL 305 monitors & MAC mini.
The sub-bass came to my ears as 'unnecessarily over-cooked'. Seems that part could be quieter without losing the richness you seem to be after.
Hope that helps. Or, that others with experience with this stuff weigh in with helpful words.
Cool track, though. Worth getting it to sit right.

[Len911]

Kevin, because they are active monitors, I would probably try to see if it's just 1 monitor. Turn off 1 monitor and listen to see if it is both monitors or just 1. If it's just 1 monitor, plug that channel into the other monitor to see if it doesn't distort. Basically you are testing to see if one monitor has the distortion problem or if it is likely not the monitors since it is unlikely that both monitors are having problems with the same identical frequency at the same identical time. I hope that makes sense.

Balanced XLR, TRS, and unbalanced RCA inputs ... Try different cables or types of inputs.

Acoustic Space Control, LF roll-off, HF shelf controls ... Try different positions, could be dirty potentiometers.

Twin FR Series amps: 150W LF, 100W HF ... Maybe only 1 amp is affected.

Hopefully, it's just a dirty LF roll-off slider or a bad cable and not an amp or a blown speaker. If it doesn't show in the daw, and you don't hear it on the headphones, and I don't hear it, it's probably somewhere between your output from the computer soundcard to the monitors. To check the soundcard, I suppose you could burn a cd, and play it back from a cd player. Or try a different output type...

[Len911]

otoh, it could be that the Mackies have a lower bass response and maybe try the LF rolloff switch. But doing the previous troubleshooting should give a better indication that you don't have a problem with a monitor.

[waveheavy]

Yes, like funsongs said. I measured the peak RMS of the first cue and it peaked around -3 dBRMS, the bass being right heavy also. That's RMS, which is a measure of loudness. Some of the bass heaviest rap or EDM songs don't even go that loud on the bottom. I would suggest a low cut roll off starting around 28 to 30 Hz, and then apply a more narrow Q boost of the bass meat areas, like 60-70 Hz and 89-100 Hz, and tweak from there.

[lesmac]

You've got good advice already.
My two cents: There seemed to be more bass in the first clip. Longer notes too which probably allows the bass to propagate. There could be something in your studio rattling, there was a lot of energy there? Hope it's not the speaker.
The second clip you said went lower but maybe the notes are of shorter duration.
Your material sounds very cinematic.

[mrkevin50]

WOW Thank you everyone for your help I now have a good list of things to check and do, putting the XLR's back on to the Mackie just had 1/4" plugged in not sure why that was ,and readjusting the LF rolloff it was set way to lo. How does one go about measuring the RMS ???? Will let you all know how it turns out. Taxi members are the Best !!!!!!Thanks again to all of you Cheers Kevin

[Len911]

Your daw should have a way of checking RMS, if not I'm sure there are plenty of free plugins
https://youtu.be/nm3qOb5x8xA
Audacity is a free audio editor for Windows, Mac, Linux
http://www.audacityteam.org/

XLR and TRS connectors are both balanced, there's really no difference in signal quality.

[mrkevin50]

Thanks Len really appreciate all your help. Cheers Kevin