Return Solo Piano

[lucy]

Hi there,

My piece Barnyard Dance for the upbeat Solo Piano listing was returned. The screener gave me some great comments which I agree with to make it better and I'm looking forward to reworking it. The screener also commented that there was distortion especially on the higher notes. I've had another listen and can't hear it myself. Can anyone let me know if they hear it? I did put a limiter on the mix. Could this cause distortion?

http://www.taxi.com/elor


Thanks

cheers
El

[Len911]

I don't hear distortion per se, but what I'm hearing starting @ :46 is what I've noticed myself with midi pianos, and if your daw has a midi compressor, I know cubase has one, that is something I've used. It's not the limiter you are using, it's actually in the midi velocity.

[andygabrys]

NIce piece!

on this end, I do hear distortion @ 0:52, 1:02, 1:09. 1:34, 1:39, 1:45, 1:50
it shows up as a crackle sound on the far Left and far Right, and it sounds more like digital distortion from having some level too hot.

Turning down the velocity or limiting the velocity on the actual midi track might help, but most Piano VI's trigger lower velocity samples if you use lower velocity midi notes, and so if you turned it down much here you wouldn't get that loud bright piano sound.

I would look at the level of the Piano VI channel fader, and any intermediate summing channels, and then the master. a good rule of thumb is to make every preceding fader lower than the one that follows it. This allows for the cleanest gain staging and most headroom.

as for your question about a limiter:

yes a limiter will cause distortion if it is pushed hard (like lowering the threshold), cause that is how most limiters work, they clip off the tops of the waveforms to enable the average volume to pushed higher. more clip = more distortion.

but I don't hear that kind of distortion on this track. I hear the crackly sudden digital kind of distortion which could come from having the output level of the limiter set at 0.0 db. Most limiters require you to set the output level at -0.2dB (Waves for example) or even less (-0.5 dB works with the PSP Xenon if I am converting to mp3) which then results in no sounds actually meeting or exceeding the digital distortion limit of 0.0dB.

You also should examine your full quality WAV or AIF file compared to your mp3, and the mp3 that is posted on your TAXI profile.

If there is no crackles at the track times I mentioned above on the WAV or AIF, but you notice them on your mp3, then pulling down the output level of the limiter a bit can help clean up the mp3, as the conversion process can create some distortion if the file level is hot enough. Thanks to MOJOBONE for tuning my ear to looking for that when converting to mp3.

If your WAV / AIF and your mp3 don't have those crackles, but TAXI's does, then something could have happened in the upload / conversion process as I believe the file sizes are compressed again when putting on your TAXI page. In that case, try to reupload it.

Hope that helps you. sorry bout the wordiness of it.

[lucy]

Thanks Len and Andy. Really appreciate your comments.

I think I can hear a bit of hotness in the higher notes. And my limiter was set to 0db with +2db gain. In hindsight I'm not sure why I had a limiter on a solo piano piece:-) I'm sure I thought at the time it was the right thing to do. Will keep it -2db for future reference.

Thanks again for taking the time to listen and give great feedback.

cheers
El