Ableton Exports to wav -> sounds like shi**

Performance & Techniques Music Production
1

Ableton Exports to wav → sounds like shi**

Hey guys,

I’m fairly new to music production, and don’t know that much about ableton jet.

Nevertheless I’ve been working on a Mash-Up in Ableton 8, and really liked the result while working on it and listening through the master out.

now i exported it into a 48k 24 bit wav file, and it sounds horrible (I chose the option: Master for rendering). Way too much bass…:rage:

any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

2

i have also found that rendering to wave in ableton does slightly change the “sound” of the file, but not to the extent of sounding bad.

At point in every track i make i will render just to see how it sounds as a wave, this also means i can change the mastering to suit.

Also what speakers are you running as they make a difference.

3

Make sure you have normalize off, and are you listening to it on the same speakers after you bounce it or are you taking it to your car or something?

I’ve never noticed or had any of these issues you speak of, it sounds exactly the same from what I hear on the master to after I bounce it down to a stereo track

4

Turn normalize off, don’t clip the master and turn of dithering if you are planning on processing it externally.

5

Don’t export music at 48k, its not worth it. Either stay with 44.1k or double it to 88.2k. I think the 48k is more of a dvd standard with blu-ray at 96k.

  • what everyone else said…
6

Well thanks for your advice so far.

a couple of things came together in my case

  1. Had the Mediaplayer’s equalizer running wild, had a reset done → wayyy better
  2. Did the production on my headphones, my stereo simply sounds different
  3. Master was clipping from time to time, fixed that, too.

Still the vocal seem to just be blurry… strange think this is!

will go on experimenting wth various settings…

7

Clean it up with EQ and proper mixing, the vocal needs some room to move freely in the mix :slight_smile:

8

Get a sober vocalist!

9

Heard those were extinct

10

meh, struggling to find the acapella… have them eq’s already all over the place.

gave the vocal freqs a punch (although it sounded crap in ableton) the export’s better now.

thank you guys for your help!

11

A little bit more detail on some of the tips that have already been offered.

  • I usually keep the volume level so that the meters in Ableton are only 50-60% of the max.
  • The final output should never clip. Always give yourself extra room to work in. You can make it loud in the mastering stage.
  • If you’ve done the above you do not need to use normalization on the output.
  • Output to a 24bit wav for mastering. DO NOT add dithering. Dithering is only necessary for the final mp3 or 16bit wav, and should be the last thing you apply to a fully mastered track. It will change how your song sounds slightly.
  • Master your track. It’s better to have someone else do it, but you are at a big advantage if you know how to master yourself. You learn a lot that you can use to make your initial mix even better.