MP3 - Bad sound

[Oberbayer]

Hi,
I use the Akai APC Mini in combination with Ableton.
No Music-production, just to start sounds in a theater, life
Works wonderful.

But when I have a MP3 sound, which I play with any another software,it's perfect.
When I drag and drop it into Ableton, than the sound is contorted/biased/ (don't know the correct word), but at least not so good as the original.
Perhaps someone has a tip/clue what I could do to avoid this.

And sorry about my bad English, I'm form Bavaria/Germany.

Rgds
Philipp

[jestermgee]

deactivate Warp for the file

[Oberbayer]

thanks for answer, jestermee, this I tried already, but no better result.

[TLW]

There are many possible reasons.

Ideas.

Check Live’s master bus is not going into the red. Ideally tracks should not either.
Check the audio interface’s channels or master are not going into the red.
Other playback software may be adding eq or compression that Live is not.
Other sounds Live is playing at the same time as the mp3 might mean mp3 or the other sounds need eqing to make room for them and get clarity.

[chrk]

I'm form Bavaria/Germany.

So German's your second language, English the third? [Sorry, I had to, greetings from Cologne]

Now some serious questions:
What system are you on (Mac vs. PC)?
What is your audio device and - if on PC - which driver model are you using (Voreinstellungen > Audio > Treiber Typ)?
What's the other software you're using for playback?
Are you using the APC Mini to fire clips from arrangement view or are those sounds loaded in a Simpler/Sampler inside a drum rack?

[Oberbayer]

Ja genau,
1) Boarisch
2) Deutsch
3) Englisch


What system are you on (Mac vs. PC)?
PC

What is your audio device and - if on PC - which driver model are you using (Voreinstellungen > Audio > Treiber Typ)?
MME/DirectX

What's the other software you're using for playback?
VLC Media Player

Are you using the APC Mini to fire clips from arrangement view or are those sounds loaded in a Simpler/Sampler inside a drum rack?
I just take any sound/file/song from any folder and just drag/pull it into Ableton
I think this is "arrangement view", but I'm not sure.
I don't use a Sampler

Viele Grüße nach Köln
Philipp

[Oberbayer]

Hi TLW,
thanks for your suggestions,
Checked all, the faders are all green, put it now to a professional sound-machine, compared: but the sound played with VLC comparedwith Ableton is completly different...
Mmmmh, cannot find a solution
Rgds
Philipp

[[jur]]

Are you really sure that warping is turned off on your clip?
Also make sure there isn't any device in your track and master track, that there's no signal going into the return channels.

Also it seems that on some Windows system a "enhanced sound" is activated by default somewhere in Windows' preferences, make sure this is switched off.

[chrk]

Are you using the APC Mini to fire clips from arrangement view or are those sounds loaded in a Simpler/Sampler inside a drum rack?
I just take any sound/file/song from any folder and just drag/pull it into Ableton
I think this is "arrangement view", but I'm not sure.

Sorry, I misstyped here, I inteded to write "session view" - the one with the tablelike clip slots.
I guess, that's what you're using (and would make sense with APC pads). If you had used a sampler, playback would have been significantly different because of its envelopes and filters.

Also it seems that on some Windows system a "enhanced sound" is activated by default somewhere in Windows' preferences, make sure this is switched off.

Since he's using the MME/DirectX driver model (and the internal soundcard I assume) these settings would apply to Live's playback as well as VLC's.

[chrk]

Back with more questions, and - though using any internal soundcard (still assuming you do) is far from ideal, even if your application is not music production or performance - I'd like to get back to the sounds you're firing there.

Are those sound effects or musical cues? Where are the mp3s from? - On a sidenote using mp3s inside Live is not a terribly good idea. Whenever possible get the original wavs or aifs these were made from.

the sound is contorted/biased/ (don't know the correct word), but at least not so good as the original.

You need to try and describe this more precisely (maybe even in German if you fear your point gets lost, I'll try an English translation for the others). Are they distorted like in 'overdriven', do they have a more warbly quality to them, do they come out pumping like heavily compressed, or choppy like you have audio dropouts?

put it now to a professional sound-machine, compared: but the sound played with VLC comparedwith Ableton is completly different...

VLC has a button with faders, that opens a multitab dialogue with audio 'enhancements', any of those would need to be deactivated for a comparison.

In the end, you don't sound like a sound person at all. Remote diagnosis of playback issues is fruitless, unless it's something obvious - and everyone who chimed in, asked for things that seem obvious to them. Haven't you got anyone in your area who's more experienced with audio issues? You may have to pay them half a day rate to set you up, but it should be worth it.

[Jdtairport39]

Hello Everyone, I'm sort of having the same issue. I am running Ableton live 10 suite on a MacBook pro with 32 gigabytes of ram and I have plenty of storage but I am having a problem with audio dropouts when I'm exporting .mp3s or .Wav files. I have been playing with my buffer size and the song plays fine in the software, but when I export it into an mp3 or wav I get a lot of audio dropouts and crackle sounds. I need help dose anyone know what to do?

[jestermgee]

One option might be to try and force live to render at "realtime".

To do this you would need to setup a "dummy track" which has an external instrument on it set to send MIDI out an external midi port and receive audio on an audio input. This should make Live believe you have external hardware and will cause it to render at realtime but of course this is slow.

Some instruments don't do well when being forced to render at certain speeds.