Cant get a phat sound out of PTLE

[J Blazin]

Maybe I shouldnt be asking this question here but I need help ASAP. After recording songs without using many if any effects and monitoring w/headphones and JBL monitors it sounds OK to me so I burn to disc and when I play it in another system like my car it sounds flat and/or hollow and not full. What am I missing? should I being normalizing the song before I burn?

[nukmusic]

What's up dude,

Do a search for "Stereo Mix" or something on that nature. There were many topics on your subject. Good Luck!

Docta'J
www.nukmusic.com [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[where02190]

What were your sources, mic/preamp choices, micing techniques, room acoustics...all these affect the sound quality going into the recorder.
We need more specifics to be able to help you in detail.

[guitates]

Welcome to the world of Digital Audio...

The CD you burn will NEVER sound like the 24 bit studio...

If you get the WAVES NPP or the Gold, you can study most of the helpful hints about converting 24 bit to 16 bit...

Also, go to digitaldomain.com for much good info.

[J Blazin]

Originally posted by where02190:
What were your sources, mic/preamp choices, micing techniques, room acoustics...all these affect the sound quality going into the recorder.
We need more specifics to be able to help you in detail.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Thanx for you help!

Firstly, I do Hip Hop so my kick drums have to punch, snares pop, and low end boom with a fullness otherwise a track will sound weak.

I dont do any acoustic recording, I usually import loops from reason and midi audio in from keyboard or drum machine(hope I dont offend you). Vocals are straight (ok)...so I dont think that is a problem with the sound quality going in, I'm not clipping or anything when I either export or record midi. When I monitor everything before I burn to disk it sounds crisp/good (I can hear all the sounds well but low end) to me(DJ ear).

However I dont have any low end to monitor (no engineer ear) cuz my speaker are JBL monitors.

When I pop a burned CD into my car or a friends stereo the vocals are OK but the kick drum is weak/flat/hollow no punch... you cant feel it...basically doesnt sound professional.

Whats missing? Is there a CD mastering software that can help?

[sugarfuzz]

Mastering software will not solve the problem!

It may help, but this is going to be a trial and error process.

First of all you are recording to digital, and not analog tape (i know there are tons of disputes in that, but anyay)

1. You are going to have to make sure you are getting optimum levels while recording, so that you use as much dynamic range as possible, without clipping.
2. You are going to have to learn how your JBL monitors translate to ther systems. (car stereo, walkman, boombox, home stereo, friends car, moms car, dads car etc. etc.) You do not want to over EQ!!!!! You do not want to over compress!!!!!!
Unless it is a special effect you are going for.

EQ, One valuable tip I can give, is to use your EQ to take away what you have too much of not to boost.
Meaning- If the kick drum sounds muddy, do not put tons of boost between 3k and 10k. Try cutting between 400hz - 600 hz.
Same goes for every other track you record.
I will admit I do boost sometimes, but VERY LITTLE.
Remeber, studio monitors are designed to give you a flat reference mix, so any thing you near too much of, take bass for instance, may sound great in your monitors, but when played on another source, like the car may be over bearing.
Try to mix as flat as possible.

If you are needing excessive amounts of EQ
check the source.

Compression, Is the most misunderstood function available.
For the most part just think of a compressor as a leveling amplifier.
It is mainly used to keep the loudest part, and the lowest part of your signal some what close to the same volume. If over used can take away ALL DYNAMICS of a signal.

Read as much ass you can on these subjects, there is tons of material out there, and good luck!

If you know all of this allready, then forgive me for the very long post. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[J Blazin]

I appreciate the help, with the different responses I guess the bottom line is I need to research and figure it out myself just like anything else in life.

[WheelSpoke]

I appreciate the help, with the different responses I guess the bottom line is I need to research and figure it out myself just like anything else in life.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well yes and no... I think this a great topic. there are many who argue that there is a big difference between tape and digital. I think this type of thread helps us all. I am definately not a pro... yet ;-) within the digi001 environment. I'm getting better though. I have found that doubling up the tracks seems to help make things bigger. You can then create your stereo environment. You can do things like put a slight delay one of the tracks or impliment other techniques.

any other ideas?

g.luck,
Donovan

[quack]

J Blaze,
Here is a trick to specifically fatten up the kick drum. 1) Create a mono aux track. 2) Instantiate signal generator followed by expander/gate on that aux. 3) bus the track with the kick drum on it to bus 1. 4) Assign the sidechain input on the expander/gate to bus 1. 5) Select the External Key button on expander gate. Decrease the LPF to roughly 200 hz. 6) You should be able to fine tune the threshold and LPF settings such that the kick drum opens the gate. 7) Now dial in a nice sub sound (something in the 40 hz range) on the signal generator. 8) Adjust the attack, hold, and release settings on the gate until you have a nice punch for the subs 9) Feel your car shake with the kick drum.

[love666]

as alluded to in a previous post, check your dither. dither can cause things to sound "hollow". I think when pt 6.0 comes out (soon?) that POW-R dither will be included. which is great. but in the meantime download the Waves demo and check that dither. in other words, if you're diggin' it at 24 bits and then you have serious problems with it at 16 bits . . . dither is a likely candidate.