Ableton Forum

Hi i just finished this song


http://www.supload.com/listen?s=BvI9MP

at 3:19 there is an annoying sound that hurts my ears. I do not hear it in ableton when i play the song.. but exporting it and converting to mp3 it shows up.. i did that twice, and it showed up in both. Any help would be great. I cant use the song if it has that and i like the song. please help

Is it something that sounds like a clipping click on the right channel? Does it happen on the WAV file generated by ableton?

PS: lovely tune

I downloaded the file and looked at the waveform in Live and yes, there's a peak on the right channel that clips at right about 3:19. Here's a screenshot to illustrate the issue:

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2041 ... ipping.png

So you would need to locate the source of the peak and tame it. How you go about it is obviously up to you.

My personal general advice would be to always monitor your peak levels in the expanded mixer to avoid surprises like that. But luckily you only have one clipping peak so that should be solved easily.

Cheers!

copong wrote:Is it something that sounds like a clipping click on the right channel? Does it happen on the WAV file generated by ableton?

PS: lovely tune

Thanks.

And I am unsure. I just got a new macbook pro today in the mail. So I'm in the process of installing everything etc. I will see if exporting it on this new comp does the same thing(as well as check the wave prior to converting it to mp3).


Regarding the latest post. How would you go about doing that? I dont know how to find it as its not evident in my ableton mix. Only when i export it. My only idea is to export it without single tracks and see if it dissapears, and redo that track or something. Another thought is to possibly remix the whole thing, and see if it does it again.

Thanks for the help and compliment

Why don't you just playback the area of which you know that it clips, expand the mixer to see the peak levels (they're located in the top left corner when you expand) and see if there's any particular track that's causing the trouble? The peak level meter will inform you about the highest peak since last playback start. If you want to do a quick job, tame the one peak that causes clipping with a limiter (if you use Live 8, the native Limiter with the default settings should do the job just fine). See how that works out for you. On the other hand, maybe it's one single sample/clip/small piece of an automation lane that's better corrected by hand. A single nasty peak doesn't necessarily require a completely new mix IMO.

Small Critters wrote:Why don't you just playback the area of which you know that it clips, expand the mixer to see the peak levels (they're located in the top left corner when you expand) and see if there's any particular track that's causing the trouble? The peak level meter will inform you about the highest peak since last playback start. If you want to do a quick job, tame the one peak that causes clipping with a limiter (if you use Live 8, the native Limiter with the default settings should do the job just fine). See how that works out for you. On the other hand, maybe it's one single sample/clip/small piece of an automation lane. A single nasty peak doesn't necessarily require a completely new mix IMO.

The problem is I dont hear it AT ALL inside ableton. So i dont know where its coming from. What you said didnt register fully to me. But thats because im unfamiliar with the process. Maybe I will get it after rereading.

thanks for helping btw

Just expand the mixer, play back the place at 3:19 and see if the peak level indicator on the master tells you that you peak above 0db - that's all you need to see to know things are wrong. You won't necessarily hear the clipping inside Live! To further prover or disprove the hypothesis, you can open your project, put the Live 8 Limiter (sadly, not available in versions prior to 8, but you can use a free VST limiter such as the mda one - http://mda.smartelectronix.com/ - as well) on the master, export and listen to 3:19. The click should be gone.

PS: Limiter on the master is a failsafe way and personally, I do not advocate limiters on master tracks as they can lead to major problems. To just straightforward tame a peak though, it's pretty much ideal.

And hey np mate - just feel free to ask if I'm not being clear on something.

Even better if you could identify what instrument could be adding that much level in that one spot and put a compressor on it

the sound is not existant in the wav, only the mp3.. which is weird to me.. Any idea why that may be? I just got a new macbook pro so I havent had the time to go on my old machine and tweak the song a bit.

So the conclusion is it is clipping due to reaching higher than 0 db? I will definitely work on that.

I think the mp3 compression is just highlighting an existing issue.

Open the WAV on audacity, select the entire waveform, then analyze > find clipping.

Maybe you use an Tremolo/Panning or Delay EFX. I any cases this will produce short peaks. Simply pull down your Drum-Track -0.6 or so... i think this will fix it. Often you cannot her short clips in ableton, because of the headroom.

If you have only clips with mP3 this seems codec related or encoder related - not an ableton issue.

cheers
T

wehkah wrote:Maybe you use an Tremolo/Panning or Delay EFX. I any cases this will produce short peaks. Simply pull down your Drum-Track -0.6 or so... i think this will fix it. Often you cannot her short clips in ableton, because of the headroom.

If you have only clips with mP3 this seems codec related or encoder related - not an ableton issue.

cheers
T

So it might be a software problem with conversion?

It happened again wayyyyy more here with this song:

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=ChBqMW



I will try audacity instead of switch for converting. and see if that fixes it.

edit: audacity did much better its gone now, except VERY slightly some at a certain point. I hope this doesnt become a trend..