Please help me with this issue

[Works94]

I'm trying to use ableton to create a mix, I know how to do it and can crack on with that no bother, the issue I'm having is that I'm getting distortion sounds on the audio tracks and I cannot work out why, it's driving me insane.

Sometimes it's like a vinyl scratching a kick, other times it's like audio tearing or crackling. Please can someone help me as to why it's doing this?

Here's a small clip of a track just to give you an example of the problem I'm enountering

https://soundcloud.com/works1/audio-issues/s-WQ23N

[WildOak]

Are you clipping on any of the tracks, or the master fader?

[ark]

Are you clipping on any of the tracks, or the master fader?

It's difficult to clip individual tracks: I'm pretty sure that Live does its internal processing in a way that offers 60 dB (yes, 60) of headroom for each individual track.

The master is something else entirely: I'm pretty sure that you should *never* have your master output level go above 0 because that will cause hard clipping.

[Works94]

Hi, no I'm not clipping any of the tracks, they're all running in the green.

[Da hand]

Try increasing the Output Buffer Size in the Audio Preferences to something big (like 1024 or 2048 samples) and see if the issue persists. If the issue is gone then you know your audio buffer was too small for the project in question.

[Works94]

Try increasing the Output Buffer Size in the Audio Preferences to something big (like 1024 or 2048 samples) and see if the issue persists. If the issue is gone then you know your audio buffer was too small for the project in question.

Hi Da hand, I've tried this and the problem continues to persist :/

[yur2die4]

1. Make sure HiQ is turned off
2. What warp mode are you using?
3. Do you have any fx processing?

extra: does it happen when the channel is solo'ed?
Does it happen if you commit the clip to ram?
What is the source of the audio clips you are using?

[Works94]

1. Make sure HiQ is turned off
2. What warp mode are you using?
3. Do you have any fx processing?

extra: does it happen when the channel is solo'ed?
Does it happen if you commit the clip to ram?
What is the source of the audio clips you are using?

1. The issue persists with HiQ off
2. The warp mode is set to beats, I've tried it in Complex Pro aswell and the problem persists.
3. There's no FX set at all.
4. It happens even with just one track loaded in to ableton, however it doesn't happen when I produce tracks which I find odd.
5. It does happen if I set the track to use RAM
6. The source of the audio clips is my HDD drive, if you mean where they are from it's either free downloads via Soundcloud or Beatport/Traxsource

[H20nly]

Are you clipping on any of the tracks, or the master fader?

It's difficult to clip individual tracks: I'm pretty sure that Live does its internal processing in a way that offers 60 dB (yes, 60) of headroom for each individual track.

The master is something else entirely: I'm pretty sure that you should *never* have your master output level go above 0 because that will cause hard clipping.

this is correct. every track can go into the red in Live; so long as the master track stays green (below 0dbfs) your set will sound and render just fine.

[102455]

If you're warping full tracks then you should not be using 'beats' warp mode. As the name implies, that's for drums/percussion.

Complex or Complex Pro is for warping full tracks. From the clip you linked to, it does sound to me like a warp mode issue.

You say it still happens on Complex Pro - how much are you warping these tracks by? Do you need to warp them at all? In other words, modern EDM style music shouldn't have tempo issues.

If you play the track(s) without warping, is the sound OK?

[Works94]

If you're warping full tracks then you should not be using 'beats' warp mode. As the name implies, that's for drums/percussion.

Complex or Complex Pro is for warping full tracks. From the clip you linked to, it does sound to me like a warp mode issue.

You say it still happens on Complex Pro - how much are you warping these tracks by? Do you need to warp them at all? In other words, modern EDM style music shouldn't have tempo issues.

If you play the track(s) without warping, is the sound OK?

You are correct in saying playing the tracks without any warping leaves the sound as it should be, so clearly I must be doing something wrong. I usually do my mixes at 126-128bpm and use a whole selection of tracks anywhere between 120-129 obviously depending on the BPM, I never increase anything by daft amounts, just the same as if I was mixing live.

Going off that I must be doing something wrong, perhaps you know the root of my problem and how I can solve the issue?!

[102455]

What's the bit rate of the tracks? The lower the encoding quality, the more likely you'll get side effects from the warping as there's less data to work with.

[yur2die4]

Holy shit. I was only listening on my phone speaker before and honestly couldn't hear the problem very well.

Okay, yeah, definitely a warping issue. There are a lot of ways to choose warp modes.

I know that even in some professional releases of dj mixes etc, I've heard the dreaded bass warble.

One thing when using Beats mode is that I almost never ever use 'transients'. Then I determine what type of material it is. If there is a swing in 8th note intervals, I can forget about setting it to 16th. But if the piece has tons of glitchiness and has a rock-solid non-swing rhythm, 16 or 32 might work great.

If it's really rough I might use quarter note intervals, but if I do that, I have to be careful not to change the bpm by too much. 1/8 should suit most purposes.

Then you have to kinda decide the behavior within the 1/8 intervals. On the bright side, being at such an obvious interval, any weird sounding artifacts might almost come across as natural. But there are extra tools for smoothing things out (fade out and whether or not it repeats or reverses to compensate of there is a blank area)

Beats mode plays back segments of the audio at intervals of the best you choose. If you go faster than the original tempo, each successive segment 'interrupts' the previous one. So you hear something not so smooth. If you have a lower tempo, it makes more spaces between. I guess it is a lot like those snazzy wristbands for watches.

My next favorite for dj mixes is complex pro. It's when I've given up on Beats. It is pretty reliable in general but can have unexpected levels, and sort of hurt the clarity.

If you are okay with music kinda drifting out of key, vinyl/repitch mode is great. The trick with that is to use as few warp markers as you can get away with. If a track requires more than 1 or 2 markers, it might start sounding really awkward as it jumps to whatever pitch to compensate as per the instructions of the warp marker.

Also, hopefully you are warping your own tracks. Sometimes letting the computer do it can have surprising results. Like, too many markers, or a marker slightly off-beat. If you do let the computer do it, get in there and check its work. Make sure it did a good job lining things up beginning to end. Maybe fix anything that might be offset.

[inkjt510]

if you're doing an edm mix like that, and especially if you're not mixing in key, id recommend re-pitch for avoiding artifacts such as we heard in your track in OP

[Works94]

All of the tracks are full 320kbps MP3s.

So in simple terms could anyone give me a pretty easy to follow guide on what I need to do to most effectively fix the problem? I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel now!