Mixing for an mp3

[DesireeBowen]

I have a version of one of my songs that I really like, but I used stereo on some of the tracks, and now the only way I can get an mp3 is if I split it. I did it, uploaded it to my myspace account and it sounded terribly distorted. Is there any easy fix to this?

[rld]

I don't quite understand your problem.
You can make mp3's from projects that contain stereo tracks.
Can you give more details?

[fullbirdmusic]

I have a version of one of my songs that I really like, but I used stereo on some of the tracks, and now the only way I can get an mp3 is if I split it. I did it, uploaded it to my myspace account and it sounded terribly distorted. Is there any easy fix to this?

You're using Logic, right? The mp3 encoded allows you to bounce interleaved.
Please describe what you're using to get the mp3.

[DesireeBowen]

You know, I think it is myspace. I listened to the mp3 file and it sounded fine, but when I upload to myspace, it gets distorted. Still not sure how to solve the problem.

I click bounce, click mp3, it asks if I want to split the stereo, I click yes, and it makes an mp3 file and an aif file. Normalize is off and I use all the other presets.

[eeoo]

I'm not a Logic user but is there an option for stereo interleaved as well as split? If so use stereo interleaved.

eo

[rld]

Well, I don't use Logic (sounds like my wife) but I would suggest,
Mixing your song to a stereo master (wav for me) and then when it sounds like you want, encode it to an mp3, and I'd do 192kbps minimum.

[DesireeBowen]

When I click the mp3 option to bounce, the option to interleave goes away. It is only there when I click pcm.

I bounced it again used 192 kbps (I was using 160 kbps and under mono it is under 80) and it still sounds awful. It only sounds bad when I upload to myspace. It sounds great when I listen to it in itunes. The file size is only 3.9 MB, the highest file size allowed to upload on myspace 50 MB.

I've never had a problem with myspace and my files before... but I think this is the only track where I have used stereo, so that was what I thought was causing the trouble.. it could be something else entirely.

[mojobone]

They tell you there's a maximum bit rate, but it's really only a maximum file size; you can use higher MP3 resolutions if your song is relatively short. It gets reconverted on their end anyway, like with most music-hosting sites, but you can maintain higher quality by using higher bitrate source files.

Myspace recently rolled out a new version; there have been lots of disruptions. I haven't experienced this particular problem, but it doesn't surprise me. Maybe jes' wait and try again later.

[fullbirdmusic]

Yep, then it must be their converters.

I always - always - export mp3 at 256k. It sounds so much better (still not as good as wav or aif) than 160 or even 192. If you export any audio file and don't explicitly need the stereo field split, you'll want to always choose interleaved.

[DesireeBowen]

I just noticed that they support aif files- so I just tried to upload, but the aif file size is at 131 MB, so it won't let me do it (100 MB max). Would you suggest that I try to get the aif file size down (and what is the best way to do that?) or should I try for the mp3 at the higher kbps?