Why does Soundcloud do this to my files!!

[crakbot]

I assume it's something in my productions. But Soundcloud will clip or cut certain sounds. I don't hear it in my WAV files and I've converted it to a lot of different MP3 formats on my end, and can't duplicate it.

I'm not spamming my stuff (it's not spam worthy..lol) But here is an example. You can hear it within the first 20 seconds, no need to hear the whole track. But the vocal "bah" part suddenly gets quiet at :15 seconds, then at other various times it goes up and down. The original file does not have that.

https://soundcloud.com/james-elle/in...-elle-original

I've noticed this on other tracks I upload as well. Are some levels too high or something?

It seems like it's only the ones I try to master. This track I didn't really master yet, just a little limiter and it sounds fine.

https://soundcloud.com/james-elle/ta...-elle-original

[Jester]

don't forget your tracks get reencoded to 128 kbps mp3 for the player.

[Tarekith]

You're making it too loud and the mp3 conversion is accenting the pumping that was there in your master before you uploaded it.

[crakbot]

Thanks. Do you mean the overall loudness or just that one sound? That was just a quick edit, so I didn't even really do a mixdown or anything so the levels are all over the place.

I think Soundcloud does other stuff to the file than just MP3 conversion, because I can't get an MP3 version to do what happens on Soundcloud. They add some kind of limiter/compression or something. I'm not complaining, just an observation.

[Jester]

ya, for sure they so some shifty stuff in the background. i have noticed the wavform of my beautifully mastered mixes look a lot different on the player.

[Tarekith]

There's so many different ways to calculate and display audio waveforms, I wouldn't worry too much about it looking different on one service or another. My mastering software has a dozen ways to display the same waveform, and they all look drastically different even though it's the exact bit for bit identical source file.

If you're levels are all over the place or clipping before you upload to Soundcloud, most likely the fast and efficient MP3 encoding they do of everything is not going to do you any favors. Likewise with really bass heavy songs, for some reason I have a lot of clients who have issues with that, even though the tracks work perfectly everywhere else.

I still haven't narrowed down exactly what causes the distortion and artifacts, some songs I would expect it on sound fine, and other I would think would have no issues clip and pump like crazy.

[Erik Mitchell]

I always limit my tracks at -0.3 decibels

Any higher than that and you risk clipping from the wav to mp3 conversion process

[Jester]

^ Boom!

[crakbot]

Yeah, mine was set at the .3 the first time. I always do that as well. I'm using the Ozone 5 limiter. .3 limit set and pulling it down around 5 on the limiter, so not that much at all.

Also, I just uploaded a new one where I did the "pink noise" mixdown thing. So basically everything was turned down pretty low. Then just did a little limiting, and it sounds the same, just not as loud.

So I'm not sure what the fix is, I don't think it's a loudness thing.

[Tarekith]

it can happen even with some songs as low as -1dBFS, definitely not a volume only issue.