Kronos Piano 44100Hz - SoundCloud's distortions issue

mihmix · Post by **mihmix** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 1:13 pm

Kronos piano sounds great in bit rate 48000Hz. But when I download my piano recordings on soundcloud or youtube, it sounds with awful distortion because of bit rate convention. Is there a way to avoid this? Can I convert Kronos recordings from 48000 to 44100 myself without getting this distortion? Is there some option in Kronos that setup piano to perform on low quality 44100 bit rate?
Or maybe in the worst case are there some effects that can smooth distortion of bit rate downgrading?

carmol · Post by **carmol** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:52 pm

r u sure that distorsion its due
to bit rate conversion ? sounds odd to me.

mihmix · Post by **mihmix** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:20 pm

Well may be not... May be I'm doing something wrong?
There is my piano sample:
http://soundcloud.com/mihmix/the-autumn
Do you hear the distortion? Exactly the same distortion I get when converting the my original wav-file from 44.8 to 44.1 bit rate.

1jordyzzz · Post by **1jordyzzz** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:56 pm

great song!!! great playing!!! great!!!
the distortion might be caused by clipping.. kronos sgx-1 piano is very difficult to work with... it's a pure, uncompressed and unlooped piano samples, so we can expect full dynamics... however if we increase the gain, sometimes it will result in clipping...

dogster · Post by **dogster** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 4:39 pm

Awesome playing dude

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 4:51 pm

You're confusing two things. 44.1k and 48k are not bitrates, they're samplerates - the amount of times per second the converter measures or outputs a value. There is no logical reason for samplerate conversion to cause distortion. More common problems are samples not playing back at the right speed or pitch. The bitrate is usually 16 or 24 bit and it defines the precision with which that value is measured. A higher bitrate results in more dynamic range. Reducing the bitrate, if not done properly, sometimes causes distortion.

But you haven't really told us how you're recording the file and how you're converting and playing back.

mihmix · Post by **mihmix** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:11 pm

Sorry for confusing these things. Yes, I meant samplerate ofcourse

Actually I did not make any convertion of the wav-file here:
http://soundcloud.com/mihmix/the-autumn
The only thing I've made is normalizarion in SoundForge. You may shure that if you download the source wav-file. It must be available on the link now (download button). It sounds clear whithout any distortions and clippings.

Guys, thank you for your kind words about my composition. It's very pleasent for me! But I wolud be more happy sharing my recordings if they sound online as good as the original version.

levioter · Post by **levioter** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:25 pm

First of all really great job !
As my forum colleagues I can congrat you for your playing !
If you want help may be you can describe your process and what you really want to achieve ?

Cheers

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:54 pm

Soundcloud's compression sucks. That's what's bothering you.

mihmix · Post by **mihmix** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:10 pm

Yea... seems that you are right! I've found the topic in soundcloud FAQ:
http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/por ... -distorted

So are there any ways to solve this soundcloud's compression problem?
My idea was to compress wav-file manialy to avoid the soundcloud's compression... But not really shure this will help...

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:15 pm

If you normalize in Soundforge, you should also be able to export as a 16bit 44.1k wav. That should help.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:19 pm

mihmix wrote:Kronos piano sounds great in bit rate 48000Hz. But when I download my piano recordings on soundcloud or youtube, it sounds with awful distortion because of bit rate convention. Is there a way to avoid this? Can I convert Kronos recordings from 48000 to 44100 myself without getting this distortion? Is there some option in Kronos that setup piano to perform on low quality 44100 bit rate?
Or maybe in the worst case are there some effects that can smooth distortion of bit rate downgrading?

I only hear very tiny distortion when you push the dynamics after 2 minutes.

I suspect you have the recording level a little hot. Or you can cut the mid to high FX a tad.

mihmix · Post by **mihmix** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:39 pm

SanderXpander wrote:If you normalize in Soundforge, you should also be able to export as a 16bit 44.1k wav. That should help.

I've already tried to export wav as 16bit 44.1k and I've got exactly the same distortions as distortions due to soundcloud's compression

AdDeRoo · Post by **AdDeRoo** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:43 pm

mihmix wrote:There is my piano sample:
http://soundcloud.com/mihmix/the-autumn

Beautiful!! Who is the author of this piece? I'd love to try playing it as well.

carmol · Post by **carmol** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:49 pm

there's nothing to do !
the problem is that it's converting from
high quality uncompressed audio to
128 Kbps Mp3, medium-low quality
LOSSY compressed audio;
lossy means that something get lost,
and that is the distortion you hear.
In solo piano playing, the distorsion is
udible, with more instruments distorsion
become less evident.
All you can do is upload audio
in best quality possibile, avoid other
conversions. At least soundcloud preserve
original file for download.

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Kronos Piano 44100Hz - SoundCloud's distortions issue

Kronos Piano 44100Hz - SoundCloud's distortions issue

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Re: Kronos Piano 44100 bit rate