^all of which sounded great with no pops and click when they were a file on my desktop bounced outside of my daw.
when i took those 4 files (with -1db headroom......) and put them in soundcloud. pops and clicks were continually added at the exact same interval.
any ideas on what to do??? i really cant believe this is happening and I've searched all over the internet unable to find a solution apart from everything I've learned up to this point..
here is the sample that is doing it. the pops and clicks are present all throughout the mix but you can especially hear it when there is not as many instruments playing simultaneously in the mix. (like in the beginning part and piano breakdown parts)
thats sooooooo damn strange.... so it doesn't have any pops or clicks anymore... maybe it was my internet connection?? or takes more time to piece everything together?
we'll i don't even remember what format that was now that i found the solution... but am i safe to assume that all the formats will give me fairly positive feedback?
if i had to guess... i would say bouncing it out of the daw as 44.1khz 24 bit .wave would be the best relationship with a soundcloud upload...
i guess now that i have this thread going.. does anyone know the absolute best bounce out format for soundcloud...
Maybe your browser had cached the first file you downloaded and was simply playing the same file back each time. As I understand it, Soundcloud just transcodes everything to 128kb/s mp3 so that's probably the best format to use as you have more control over the encoding (unless they've changed recently).
James Perrett wrote:Maybe your browser had cached the first file you downloaded and was simply playing the same file back each time. As I understand it, Soundcloud just transcodes everything to 128kb/s mp3 so that's probably the best format to use as you have more control over the encoding (unless they've changed recently).
do you mean i should bounce it out at 128kbps mp3 from my daw?
when i choose mp3 i have two options
kbps for mono and kbps for stereo.
any ideas how i should do the whole process from daw to soundcloud?
Had a quick listen and noticed a click near the start but nothing else. The sound quality seems good.
I've also done a bit more reading up on Soundcloud's encoding and it looks like they transcode everything - even 128kb/s mp3's so ignore my previous advice. The general consensus seems to be to upload a decent quality .wav file which isn't over compressed or distorted as mp3 doesn't handle this particularly well.
I agree with James - uploading a decent quality WAV file will give Soundcloud's transcoder the best chance of ending up with a reasonable end result.
However, one useful general rule of thumb when any audio is going to be transcoded to MP3 is to make sure its peaks never stray above -3dBFS - MP3 really does require a little more headroom than the -0.5dBFS or -1dBFS more generally used for burning a CD.
You may also find some useful content in this Q&A I wrote for SOS January 2012 entitled 'Can you help me with MP3 file conversion?':
Sadly though, most decisions on the MP3 bitrate outcome are out of your hands, as Soundcloud decides for you
It may help you listen out for particular anomalies though, such as harsh cymbals, fretless or acoustic bass slides, extreme whammy bar bends and so on.
Some links there to the technical aspects of Soundcloud processing. Interesting
stuff.
SoundCloud transcodes uploaded audio to 128 kbps MP3 to prepare the audio to stream from the site. If an audio file on SoundCloud is made available for download, the downloaded version will be in the original format.
Uploading an MP3 is redundant since SoundCloud will transcode it anyway, which could in turn introduce more artifacts to audio that’s already compressed. Therefore, the best practice is to upload an uncompressed, 24-bit .WAV file and allow SoundCloud to process it.
Here are some recommended settings when mastering audio for SoundCloud:
Use a True Peak limiter, such as Ozone 6, to ensure that the margin is set to –0.3 dBFS. This is an acceptable threshold to mitigate most of the clipping that occurs during the encoding process. However, depending on the source material, you may find a margin of –0.5, –0.7, –1.0, or –1.5 dBFS sounds better, with less distortion. In these cases, you simply have to perform trial and error, perhaps by uploading several versions and deleting all but the best sounding one.
SoundCloud does not have a feature like Apple’s SoundCheck, so an audio master destined for SoundCloud has more freedom to raise the overall RMS level for competitive loudness. Consider this a practical and aesthetic choice. Make sure to use volume matching, such as the ‘automatically match effective gain’ feature in Ozone, to evaluate loudness increases objectively.
Using a stereo imaging tool, narrow the high end between 5–20%. 128 kbps MP3 is the lowest commonly acceptable audio quality. As such, a lot of information is lost during encoding and an extremely wide mix is more susceptible to noticeable artifacts. Ironically, some pre-emptive narrowing can help avoid perceived loss of energy and width.
Posts:5262Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 12:00 amLocation: Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA
Home of the The SLUM Tapes (Shoulda Left Un-Mixed), mangled using Cubase Pro 14; W10 64 bit on Intel i5-4570 3.2GHz,16GB RAM;Steinberg UR28M interface; Juno DS88; UAD2 Solo/Native; Revoice Pro
Re: soundcloud is adding pops and clicks on my uploads
I don't want high quality recordings of my work anywhere on the 'net - even my own website doesn't have them. It has quality 5 ogg and VBR mp3. It's a bit of insurance, and if anyone wants a high quality copy and can give me a really good reason, I'll send them one.
SCs terms and conditions are better than most, but still aren't watertight - they could easily change if the site gets taken over, so I don't really trust them with the crown jewels.
I actually use their poor quality to my advantage. On my page there I tell people that they can get better quality recordings from my own website. However, I do check them for gross errors after uploading, and generally set them at -2 or -3dB.
