Message 25/38
Date: 24-Oct-02 @ 03:06 AM -
RE: brittle mixes
btw, i'm guessing this isn't it based on what you described, but you couldn't be hitting distortion somewhere (on one of the few songs i've actually finished, i did a mix that sounded OK but the mix wasn't that great and it was too low volume; the next mix i did came out sound brittle, and it was because a couple of channels i had turned up, and they were starting to clip).
note that EQ and resonant filters are often guilty of this; if you take a wave file that's nearly full scale, and give it a +4db EQ boost somewhere, you could potentially push it into distortion.
there are some crappy A/D converters (and curiously enough a lot of old digidesign ones are said to be in this category
but i doubt yours is bad enough to do what you suggested.
also (maybe doesn't apply to you, but can on analogs), often a mixer will have several gain stages, but the 'clipping' light only measures one of them... so in some mixers you can overdrive the trim, then pull the levels down on the fader enough, and you can hear the clipping but the light won't come on. same for EQ boost. those kinds of distortions almost always sound brittle to my ears.