Ableton Forum

I am having a seriously frustrating problem over here. I am very satisfied with the mix I've made on Live, and it sounds great on my headphones, my studio monitors, and my friend's studio monitors. However, when I render the track, the quality worsens. There appears to be an 'airy' quality about the mix, which muddies up the clean version I am hearing through Live. On top of that, my highs are pushed back, and my lows are hard to hear; almost muffled.

I've been messing around with bit-rate and dithering, which has helped some (best quality seems to be at 16 bit, Triangular dither), but it still doesnt sound as clean as what I'm hearing though Live. Any Suggestion? Help Please!

What program are you listening to the render in?

iTunes.
Just to clarify, it's not a volume issue in case anyone might think that. I'm aware that there is a volume adjustment setting for tracks on iTunes, but this is a kind of distortion.
Sidenote: this is my first post on Ableton, and I just wanted to say that I read a Guide to Mastering (pre-Mastering) this morning that was written by you, Tarekith. Coincidence. Very cool to have you respond. thanks!

There's two settings in iTunes you need to check are off, sound check and sound enhancer.

Yeah, i had sound enhancer on. Wow, its crazy how much it can effect the original mix. Sucks that iTunes automatically has it on that setting, because so many people use iTunes, and are probably hearing a worsened quality of music.

I'm curious though. I have music in my iTunes from other non-professional musicians who make stuff on Ableton.
Why is it that there stuff sounds alright on my iTunes before I uncheck those sound preference settings? It sounds better after un checking those preferences, but still, even before, they dont seem to have the same issues I ran into. Is that perhaps because they have beter mastering/mixing?

rcronico wrote:Is that perhaps because they have beter mastering/mixing?

Bingo.

rcronico wrote:I'm curious though. I have music in my iTunes from other non-professional musicians who make stuff on Ableton.
Why is it that there stuff sounds alright on my iTunes before I uncheck those sound preference settings? It sounds better after un checking those preferences, but still, even before, they dont seem to have the same issues I ran into. Is that perhaps because they have beter mastering/mixing?

What you need is to find an online masterer who can polish up your tracks for you. I just wish I knew where I could find someone like that...

Steve Ballmer wrote:

rcronico wrote:I'm curious though. I have music in my iTunes from other non-professional musicians who make stuff on Ableton.
Why is it that there stuff sounds alright on my iTunes before I uncheck those sound preference settings? It sounds better after un checking those preferences, but still, even before, they dont seem to have the same issues I ran into. Is that perhaps because they have beter mastering/mixing?

What you need is to find an online masterer who can polish up your tracks for you. I just wish I knew where I could find someone like that...

That guy you're looking for might be the one who wrote the post right above yours.

bicarbone wrote:That guy you're looking for might be the one who wrote the post right above yours.

Tarekith is the engineer you're looking for....