Just uploaded my first track to soundcloud as a 24 bit .wav and i can definately hear some parts of the mix emphazied that shouldn’t be. I think they dither down automatically to 128K mp3?
If so, I’m not very impressed with whatever software they are using for the conversion.
Maybe I’m just being overcritical, it’s only noticeable on one particular element in the mix - anyone else have an opinion?
that’s interesting, I don’t know the answer but I’d not put to much hope in their dithering , try to upload 16bit file and see what happens 
or maybe it takes a bit of time, like is the case with youtube sometimes ?
I wonder if you send a 24 bit wav file to someones soundcloud inbox are they able to hear the original file or do they have the 128k mp3 version?
I’ll gonna try a conversion to 128k mp3 now and upload it to soundcloud to compare.
yeah ive always noticed little pops and clicks that were never in the mix, also anything with white noise in the sound seems to be much harsher
[quote]jon_fisher (31/05/2010)[hr]yeah ive always noticed little pops and clicks that were never in the mix [/quote]
Thats exactly it! My bass sounds like its coming off an old vinyl in some places!
I converted to 128k mp3 with Adobe Audition and its fine when I play it back on my system. Uploaded to soundcloud and the pops and clicks appear, nothing major but definately there. They must run everything through a crappy converters or else their streaming system itself is causing the noise.
Glad someone else has noticed, I don’t wanna send my track off to labels and have them thinking that I’ve sampled something off vinyl and haven’t been able to ‘clean it up’ cos thats what it sounds like!
Actually, I’ve went back and checked the track in ableton, solo’ed some of the parts and there were a few artefacts in there.
Listening again to my 24 bit master you can just about hear it, but its mainly masked by the bass.
Maybe soundclouds converters just pick up on these little pops in the conversion process?
Either way, I take back what I said about soundclouds convertors for now, they have actually helped me to go back and fix those artefacts in my mix!
strange, ive never noticed any problems
ye i noticed it on my last track too. lots of pips, squeals and short white noise. thought my messed up my high hats but listened to it again and the pips were in a different place from the previous play! lol
[quote]jon_fisher (31/05/2010)[hr]yeah ive always noticed little pops and clicks that were never in the mix, also anything with white noise in the sound seems to be much harsher[/quote]
Ditto!
It’s weird isn’t it for a site which is based and focused around music producers needing to promote their work.
Perhaps something you’d have thought they’d have sorted out by a long long time ago.
i guess my ears are shot
I never noticed it until it was pointed out just there but yeah its there alright,
and out of curiosity i downloaded my own track off there and compared it to the same track on cd by flicking the crossfader over and back on my mixer (obviously i appreciate a good bit of quality will be lost due to uploading and downloading) but it actually sounds like somehow the levels of certain parts have been messed with, some have got quieter and some have got louder almost like its been run through an eq plug-in or something.
Well I’m baffled. My track sounds dodgy as f*!k on there, low end crackling and rumbling in places like its on an old vinyl. I’ve went back and meticulously checked every sample in my mix and cleaned up any that I thought might have been causing this.
I’ve now had two mastering guys confirm that the mix is fine and the master sounds good on every other system I’ve tried. I even uploaded another 128kps to try and ‘bypass’ their convertors but no real difference.
The exact same file uploaded to myspace sounds grand.
I can only conclude that they run everything through a crappy convertor or their playback software doesn’t like certain frequencies or a combination of both.
Still, other peoples tracks seem to sound OK on it. Bit confused and disappointed tbh.
[quote]bubble sweetman (02/06/2010)[hr]obviously i appreciate a good bit of quality will be lost due to uploading and downloading[/quote]
Upload or downloading a track has no effect on the quality - it’s just a stream of binary data after all. As long as all the bits are there and the file is complete a downloaded .wav, mp3 or whatever should be identical to that uploaded and vise versa.
I’m gonna open another account - send my master to it and see what it sounds like when I download it.