The drum tracks portion of my mix is only 25% in either left or right ear and 100% in the other ear when I listen to the mixdown on any other device. iphone, ipad, lenovo desktop at work, etc. Seems to be only the drum tracks. even if I mix down the drum tracks as solo, the mix is still hazy in only one ear. Sounds even and very good in Studio One. And if I open the mixdown where it is saved on my computer at home, and play the mixdown wav on the same computer that has Studio One, it sounds good like the DAW playing. but if I take it on flash drive and play it on any other device the quality of just the drums in one ear is bad. Why does it sound good in the DAW and from the mixdown WAV only on the computer hosting Studio One?
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Solved Drums only sound 100% on my computer containing Studio One
- Thread starter DBorchelt
- Start date
SwitchBack
Active member
Little to go on, but did you check the speaker setups? And what do you use to play the WAV on your Studio One computer? Try a mixdown with left and right swapped. What does that do? And when you then also swap you speaker connections?
Thanks SwitchBack, I don't believe it is my monitor setup. Left and right are equal on my monitors and in the headphones when playing in Studio one. And when I play the mixed down wav on the same computer with windows media player it's fine. It's when I take the wav file to another device, the left and right drums are not equal in quality any more.
The drum tracks were originally midi tracks using pitches exploded to tracks. Then all I did was add Studio One room reverb and EQ to the snare and high hats and bass drum. the vocals have the same reverb and some chorus on them and the vocals are fine on other devices.
Also my interface is a Volt 1 by Universal Audio and I have a Asus Xonar SE 5.1 soundcard.
Thanks Trucky! I don't know if a video or screenshot will help. It's only really discernable by using headphones or panning in the car. Everything is great and panned perfect in Studio One and when playing the mixdown wav file on the same computer it was mixed on. But when I take the mixdown wav file to another device, that's when the left and right drums are different strengths. What's weird though is, I added a drum take at the end of the song and those tracks seem ok on other devices. Also, the drum tracks are stereo and in every track stem both left and right look to have all the same size peaks and valleys.
Both drum sections were originally midi tracks using pitches exploded to tracks. Then all I did was add Studio One room reverb and EQ to the snare and high hats and bass drum in both sections. The vocals have the same reverb and some chorus on them and the vocals are fine on other devices.
Since this is only related to drums can you create an example song with just drums and share it to a Dropbox or similar site so we can test it on our systems? Also, please update your signature (see link and example in mine) with your system specs as it helps when responding to issues.
lokeyfly
Well-known member
Without knowing how you set your monitoring, bad cable, connection, or what you might be trying to compensate to, the simple solve here is if your master left and right outs, are effectively even, and you've proofed this out, then you should have no difference in your mix elsewhere. That said, Im not saying it will translate (level and EQ, comparatively, the right way). It likely won't. But the overall left and right will exhibit similar dB output levels.
Asking why here, while well intentioned, is not going to help. Check metering and look at SPL, in your listening space. And elsewhere.
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Just adding one more troubleshooting possibility. Typically, the shortest path is the most reliable method. Try this.
If you feel its invariably your drum tracks, set a simple down the middle pan of them both with the same levels left and right. Send that to your flash drive to play elsewhere.
If it now sounds bad, there may be some impedance issue as to how you're computer sounds, possibly from your audio interface that just isnt the same on other systems. Likely resulting in distortion or bad left/right levels. Typically from the attack (initial strike of the drums). So fast attacks and such might break up, versus what you're hearing from your computer. You'll need to try different ways to monitor, be it some other headphones, different monitors, alternate outs, or connectors. This really isnt a Studio One issue, but a me need to fix, my issue. ; )
Hope this helps.
Asking why here, while well intentioned, is not going to help. Check metering and look at SPL, in your listening space. And elsewhere.
***************
Just adding one more troubleshooting possibility. Typically, the shortest path is the most reliable method. Try this.
If you feel its invariably your drum tracks, set a simple down the middle pan of them both with the same levels left and right. Send that to your flash drive to play elsewhere.
If it now sounds bad, there may be some impedance issue as to how you're computer sounds, possibly from your audio interface that just isnt the same on other systems. Likely resulting in distortion or bad left/right levels. Typically from the attack (initial strike of the drums). So fast attacks and such might break up, versus what you're hearing from your computer. You'll need to try different ways to monitor, be it some other headphones, different monitors, alternate outs, or connectors. This really isnt a Studio One issue, but a me need to fix, my issue. ; )
Hope this helps.
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Thanks Gerran! You were on the correct path. I talked to an old school studio engineer and he told me I had a phasing issue. He knew right away. I made my snare mono, duplicated it and hard panned it right and left. And made the bass track mono and centered it. The bass frequencies were colliding with the snare and nullifying drum frequencies in on ear.
lokeyfly
Well-known member
I would suspect it was never really "fine" even from your computer, outright. You just never heard the duplication layer. This can result in a +3dB increase in volume, or phasing if out of time to one another. It also likely created some difference when rendering the mixdiwn, leaving you open to hear some anomoly, only more so.
The good practice lesson here is anytime one is hearing a difference from their mixdown. Be it played elsewhere, or from the same source, like a PC audio card, or back through an audio interface, then check the original song for track and event integrity. Or similar tracks masking over other tracks frequency. That can and does happen anyway, so the outcome here is a little gray.
Ok, then. Glad you or someone found the issue. Doesn't sound like all the info was in this post to be outright resolved.