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Old 09-15-2017, 03:35 AM
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Default Internet play back differences

I had uploaded a tune to Soundcloud recently, "Lost Hollow Lament" and noticed that at around the 31 second mark the chord played was boomy, yet in the original mp3 it isn't (exported from Audacity as 320 kbps). It's a touch louder, yes, but not as pronounced as the soundcloud play back. Anyone have an idea as to why?

Here's the soundcloud for reference:

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Old 09-15-2017, 04:51 AM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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After fiddling around with them for a while I've gotten the impression that SoundCloud squashes the poop out of your clips when you put them up. I've always carefully encorded my stuff so that it wasn't too large and SoundCloud always found a way to re-encode it so that I couldn't stand to listen. I don't have anything up there right now.

Bob
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Old 09-15-2017, 06:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I had uploaded a tune to Soundcloud recently, "Lost Hollow Lament" and noticed that at around the 31 second mark the chord played was boomy, yet in the original mp3 it isn't (exported from Audacity as 320 kbps). It's a touch louder, yes, but not as pronounced as the soundcloud play back. Anyone have an idea as to why?

Here's the soundcloud for reference:

Two things to remember.
When streaming SoundCloud compresses all files to 128 bit MP3 regardless of weather you upload an MP3 or and uncompressed WAV file.
If you record in WAV and then have Audacity compress it then upload to SoundCloud and they compress it again that is doubling the compression and double the chances for compression algorithm anomaly So it could be happening in the Audacity compression or the SoundCloud Compression or a combination of the two ..
Which is why I actually upload WAV's to SoundCloud there is only one round of compression happening .

Also to make sure you are comparing apples to apples :
And that you are in fact monitoring the the difference in the same format and on same listening system.
If you record in WAV format (which you should be doing) in Audacity, then that is the format you are actually listening to while monitoring in Audacity. Unless you are having Audacity compress it to 320 MP3, exporting it to your desktop, and then either listening to it on a MP3 format playback application, or importing back into Audacity as a completely new session set up as 320 MP3
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Old 09-15-2017, 07:18 AM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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Yup, what they said ^^^^.

Upload WAVs to Soundcloud. But, if you have added compression to your tracks (or master), and its 'too much' (i.e "pumping"), the SC compression to their format will exacerbate the problem.
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Old 09-15-2017, 08:11 AM
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Have your own domain and web space. Have people listen to your original wav files if you wish. I use https://www.hostexcellence.com/hosting-plans

I also use youtube. Not as good audio result but better than soundcloud.
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Old 09-15-2017, 09:16 AM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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I've played around with uploading various things to Soundcloud, WAV's, big mp3's, small mp3's, various levels, various degrees of compression. For me and my music, it seems like mastering a loud but not crushed 128k mp3 makes it the most likely that what goes up is what comes back down. Not ideal, but not terrible. And we get what we pay for, y'know?
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Old 09-15-2017, 10:15 AM
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Thanks everyone. I'll test the wav file export tonight. Great info.
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Old 09-15-2017, 08:16 PM
DupleMeter DupleMeter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Two things to remember.
When streaming SoundCloud compresses all files to 128 bit MP3 regardless of weather you upload an MP3 or and uncompressed WAV file.
If you record in WAV and then have Audacity compress it then upload to SoundCloud and they compress it again that is doubling the compression and double the chances for compression algorithm anomaly So it could be happening in the Audacity compression or the SoundCloud Compression or a combination of the two ..
Which is why I actually upload WAV's to SoundCloud there is only one round of compression happening .

Also to make sure you are comparing apples to apples :
And that you are in fact monitoring the the difference in the same format and on same listening system.
If you record in WAV format (which you should be doing) in Audacity, then that is the format you are actually listening to while monitoring in Audacity. Unless you are having Audacity compress it to 320 MP3, exporting it to your desktop, and then either listening to it on a MP3 format playback application, or importing back into Audacity as a completely new session set up as 320 MP3
In my tests I have also found that SoundCloud sounds best of you upload 24-bit WAV files.

I have also discovered that the files should measure at an average loudness of 0 on a K20/ITU-R reference & have absolutely no overs and at least a dB or so of headroom.

If you're not already using it, K-Meter is a great tool for getting mixes to sit in that sweet spot.

Mac: https://github.com/Rolias/KMeter-OSX
Windows & Linux: http://www.mzuther.de/en/software/kmeter/
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  #9  
Old 09-16-2017, 09:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Two things to remember.
When streaming SoundCloud compresses all files to 128 bit MP3 regardless of weather you upload an MP3 or and uncompressed WAV file.
If you record in WAV and then have Audacity compress it then upload to SoundCloud and they compress it again that is doubling the compression and double the chances for compression algorithm anomaly So it could be happening in the Audacity compression or the SoundCloud Compression or a combination of the two ..
Which is why I actually upload WAV's to SoundCloud there is only one round of compression happening .

Also to make sure you are comparing apples to apples :
And that you are in fact monitoring the the difference in the same format and on same listening system.
If you record in WAV format (which you should be doing) in Audacity, then that is the format you are actually listening to while monitoring in Audacity. Unless you are having Audacity compress it to 320 MP3, exporting it to your desktop, and then either listening to it on a MP3 format playback application, or importing back into Audacity as a completely new session set up as 320 MP3
I exported the project again as a wav file and uploaded it to Soundcloud. The boominess has diminished a bit, thanks!
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  #10  
Old 09-16-2017, 11:40 AM
Andy Howell Andy Howell is offline
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Always upload uncompressed files to SoundCloud for the reasons given above!
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