getting rid of graininess in audio

[SeVeRheaDD]

Whats up all...just signed up and hoping to get some answers to some production struggles I am encountering!

A friend and I have been working on a new project for fun and have realized that the music sounds very grainy...almost like a veil is covering the music...and there is a subtlety of background noise and/or distortion. The strange thing is when I'm in my recording session it sounds fine. But once it's uploaded to the net (which I know that will cause some graininess from the compression), or even transferring it to my ipod...and especially to a CD...it is just unbearable...

I record using Adobe Audition 3, and get the guitar distortion using the Pod 2.0. My soundcard is Sound Blaster Audigy... I also record in 48KHZ...wasn't sure if maybe the downsampling was causing issues or not. Any ideas of what might be causing it and/or solutions??

Here's a sample of the quality...

www.myspace.com/theneologist

My initial assumption was just that my soundcard is junk....but are there any other causes for audio graininess??

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[reg3n]

yup, get a nice recording interface, like the toneport thing by line6 or the one by NI, that'll stop the senseless recording if yer plugging the guitar directly to the soundcard inside yer pc... one millon other things can cause graininess but, that's the main problem here i guess

 

[SeVeRheaDD]

Ahh, I didn't realize the audio interface had that much impact...very good to know!! Thanks for the reply reg3n

 

[John_C]

At what point along the line does this graininess appear?

It's impossible to know what's wrong until we know this

 

[SeVeRheaDD]

Well from as far as i can tell it sounds fine while i'm working in the adobe session....granted it's not professional quality....but there's not that layer of filth covering the music. Once i upload the songs....to myspace for example...it sounds terrible. When I listen to the song on my ipod...it sounds terrible. When i burn it to a cd and listen in my cover it's absolutely unbearable....

 

[John_C]

render the project to a WAV and then listen back to that, does that sound grainy?

 

[tearsofthedragon]

I used to have this exact same set-up, soundblaster card with a POD 2.0, and the result was always grainy muffled guitars.

Firstly, the sounds on the 2.0 are not that great, when I compare then to the sounds on the POD XT there is a world of difference.

Secondly I don't use my soundblaster card anymore for anything except editing midi, soundblaster audiology re-samples everything to 16 bit (sample rate and bit depth).

You just need a proper audio interface really - as has already been suggested.

 

[tearsofthedragon]

It could also be the mix-down settings you're using in your software that are causing it to be worse.

 

[colonel kurtz]

render the project to a WAV and then listen back to that, does that sound grainy?

in addition to this, i would check out the waveform of the rendered file and see if there's any hardcore clipping going on

 

[SeVeRheaDD]

Yeah I expected my setup wasn't helping things....so i'll have to look into getting a decent audio interface.

The rendored waveform sounds fine, no hit of graininess...granted as mentioned its not the best of quality, but there's not the veil of noise covering it. So it must be at some point at which the wav is converted or downsampled...I'd imagine..

Thanks for everyones posts....much appreciated

 

[John_C]

If the rendered WAV has nothing wrong with it, then the interface is not to blame for this problem

However getting a decent interface is always a good thing

 

[Lucas BC]

I'm pretty sure the problem come from the fact that you record in 48kHz ! Because Cds are in 44.1 kHz, and this kind of converting really fucks up you sound from what i've heard !



I don't see what other problem it could be ^^

Good luck !

 

[John_C]

I'm pretty sure the problem come from the fact that you record in 48kHz ! Because Cds are in 44.1 kHz, and this kind of converting really fucks up you sound from what i've heard !



I don't see what other problem it could be ^^

Good luck !

Urmmmm no
many people record at 48khz and then convert to 44.1khz for CDs

What sample rate and BIT depth is the WAV you rendered?

EDIT: yes it is almost certainly a conversion issue but it's completely normal to be recording at a higher sample rate than 44.1khz

 

[mick thompson]

in adobe 3 open up the multiband comp and slowly pull down the mid to high and it should smooth out for you, thats what i do

 

[-Noodles-]

Urmmmm no
many people record at 48khz and then convert to 44.1khz for CDs

+1.

If you posted up an example of the raw WAV / AIFF file, and then the same file with the grain - we could diagnose this problem a lot quicker.
It does seem to be an internal software problem though - Are you bouncing to an 8-bit / 16kHz file (or something along that quality)?