How to avoid "clicking"

Yeah I finally arranged my project to my liking in ableton. Listening to it over and over in playback and Im noticing too many clicking sounds. What should i check for to avoid this clicking sound in my final mix before i start to master it.

You need to provide a little more details…



What kind of tracks are clicking? Audio? Midi?


One thing - Might be on the button, or not… :rolleyes:

But make sure you trim all the samples that you use. Sometimes there can be little clicks & pops that arent really evident unless you listen on H’phones or with the volume up really loud.

Annoying, especially if its on something thats been bounced to a larger section within the track.

[quote]derelict01 (05/03/2011)[hr]Yeah I finally arranged my project to my liking in ableton. Listening to it over and over in playback and Im noticing too many clicking sounds. What should i check for to avoid this clicking sound in my final mix before i start to master it.[/quote]



Hey dude, it could be a number of things. Ill give you the most common reasons and you can go from there to do your run through.


  1. fades. on all audio, make sure the fade on the in and out is slightly fading in, but only ever so slightly. Do this with all your audio tracks, however the ones that are in the foreground are the ones that will be more evident.


  2. compression. when you compress, your attack time can create clicks or pops. you can do a couple things. click F1 or F2 on the circuit type of the compressor and see if that helps and if it sounds good. If not, then play with the attack and release times till the clicking and popping goes away.


  3. lastly, you could be clipping the master. If you want a quick fix, you could put a limiter on your master. Once again, its a temporary fix. The best thing you will need to do (which is good practice) is to do a mixdown. Remember that you can never have enough headroom. If you want it louder, turn your speakers up, not your levels up in your DAW. So I would bring down all the volumes of all your tracks and go through one by one bringing the levels up 1 at a time. In EDM, the kick is usually king, so bring that up first. That will be your guide and nothing should be louder.



    Have a listen to your favorite tracks and see where all the sounds fit in those and try to mimic them.



    Hope this helps.

Thanks. Sounds much better. I want to avoid changing too much in terms of arrangement. Sometimes its hard to just walk away from something that you like, you might up ruining it. Less is more but definitely making the Kick the king.

Glad I could be of some help. Good luck at finishing your track! :smiley: