Burned CD's sound fuzzy...

[elijahsongs]

Howdy all!

When I'm listening in ProTools the songs sound great...
When I bounce to Disk and then open in T-Racks the songs sound great...
When I tweak a few knobs and get things sounding better in T-Racks the songs sound great...
When I complile a CD in Nero and burn a CD the songs always sound fuzzy, a bit distorted...

What's going on here?

I've done a bit of testing, including the following things:

1. Used different CDs - tried cheapos, Taiyo Uden and Apogee - same distortion on all
2. Tried NOT adjusting anything in T-Racks, just opening and saving file so it could be read by Nero - distorted still
3. Used higher and lower burn rates (4xs, 8xs, etc) - same fuzziness with all
4. Bounced to disk with less level (not as hot) - same fuzziness.
5. Tried dithering and not dithering in ProTools - same distortion
6. Tried dithering and not dithering in T-Racks - same distortion (special note - actually T-Racks converted the file to 16bit after processing even if I had dithering off... is this normal? Does this mean that I can't create a mastered (processed) 24bit audio file from T-Racks? Maybe I have a T-Racks problem...

And finally, this test was the most telling to me:

Recorded a song "old school" (that means you've got to press "record" to start recording and "stop" to stop recording [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] )to a stand-alone Phillips Audio CD recorder using the SPDIF input and the songs sounded great! No distortion!

What's going on here? Anyone?

Does a CD burner add it's own sound? Does a burning program? I thought Nero was the bomb... Could my burner be bad?

My original thought was that it's got to be the dithering/converting process... but doesn't my stand-alone audio CD recorder have to dither too if I'm playing 24bit audio and using a SPDIF? I would think that a fancy, expensive program like T-Racks would dither better than a home-stero CD recorder.

Help Me!!! I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions on this... I'm totally new to the whole mixing/mastering/burning side, I've only been recording so far.

Thanks!

[nightshade crisis]

it sounds like nero has a bug in it. i believe this has also happened to other users. try going to the nero website and get a patch...

evan

[Captain_Pants]

Nearo must be amplifying(sp?) the sound to clip. There must be an option in nearo to turn down the amplification level once burned to CD, or perhaps something to do with CD copy compression.

I use Nero 5 without an probs....
=-Ben

[gabriel_p]

Well I can asure you the problem ain't PT and it ain't T-racks. One Q though, after your burn your cd, do you play it with the same monitors and amp you mixed with?, or maybe you take your cd to the car? Are you using NS-10MS's?

[elijahsongs]

Hey guys, thanks so much for replying!

Gabriel,

"after your burn your cd, do you play it with the same monitors and amp you mixed with?"

Yes, I've played both the Nero-burned cds and the stand-alone CD recorder cds on the same monitors.

"or maybe you take your cd to the car?"

Yes, on that too, but I take both cds, one burned and one recorded, and I get the same results: the burned one is distorted and the recorded one is clean.

"Are you using NS-10MS's?"

No, but they are Yamaha monitors... MSP5s.

[elijahsongs]

I checked the Nero website and I have the current upgrade installed.

Also, I've looked through the preferences and options and I don't see anywhere where I could adjust the levels.

If anyone knows how to do this or if this could be my problem please let me know.

Regarding T-Racks, does T-Racks automatically convert to 16bit even if dithering is off? Anyone know? Could this be part of my problem?

Thanks again...

[gabriel_p]

T-racks will convert to 16 bit if you set it to even if you are not using dither.

Ok. well, if your're not using ns-10ms then is not overwhelming bass that distorts your recording because of lack of it while monitoring. And if you're using the same monitors to hear the cd and your levels are not peaking, the I'm clueless [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

I don't use NERO.

[where02190]

We've been using Nero for over a year and not experiencing any problems. What do the final wav files sound like in windows mediaplayer or another wav player directly from yur audio drive? Perhaps there is something in the final bounce and dither process that you are not hearing becaus eyou are not checking the original files but the burned copy.

Hope this is helpful.

[elijahsongs]

Good idea...

I opened a song that was mastered in T-Racks in the Nero Wave Editor program (after mastering, before burning) and listened and there was no fuzzy distortion... so that means that the pre-burned files are ok, so it's got to be the burning process that's doing it. Right?

[matocaster1202]

I doubt that it is either PT or nero. I would bet it's the drive itself. Try to rip a cd that you know is good, then burn the audio and see what you get. I had a friend that had a similar problem, and it was the drive....

Good luck,

Mat