music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

[mightymic]

i i do mostly southern gospel lp restoration, after processing a file using mostly the impulse filter and them the high pass for turntable hum. the sound files sound great on my headphones and or puter speakers. but when i burn them onto the Cd they sound "fuzzy" any ideas?

[Craig Maier]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

Usually, when the Impulse filter is involved, fuzziness is associated with the tracking control being set too low. However, in your case, since it sounds fine with the headphones and computer speakers, I am not sure. Perhaps your headphones and computer speakers are of low quality and the fuzziness is there, but you only notice it after you burn the CD and play in on a much higher quality system? That might explain the situation.

[quartet87]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

As you, Mightymic, the bulk of my restoration work are southern gospel lps and I know what you're hearing. Indeed the distortion you are getting is directly caused by the INF tracking set too low. Almost always I end up raising the tracking 10 to 20 clicks in order to find an acceptable medium between click removal and distortion in addition to usually doing two passes, depending the noise level. If the lp has only a light amount of clicks, I usually use the first two passes of HQ mode, adjusting tracking up some each time. For moderate click rate I start from the lp de-click start point preset and raise tracking some and do passes many times. Additionally, I'll run low pass between 13 and 14kHz at 12dB cut. Especially on the older lps where the bulk of the high end are vocals, low pass knocks out a lot of the de-click artifacts and residual noise without harming the vocals. I run low pass after CNF. If I were you, I'd purchase a more reliable set of monitors and connect them a outboard amp. You might consider the near field speakers available at Tracer Tech. Hope my long windedness helps.

-Danny Gilbert

[mightymic]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

thanks,
my speakers are harman kardan 285's they are a mid price puter speakers, not little tin boxes. i got the up grade to DC 5 and i've noticed that it is a lot more effictive at a lower size setting than on millennium. practice makes perfect. also alot of my records i got when i was 10 to 16 years old and my record player had an ice pick for a phono needle need i say more. LOL

[ 11-04-2002, 11:33 PM: Message edited by: mightymic ]

[quartet87]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you, working on vinyl with that kind of wear. Talk about a challenge! If I understand you correctly, you hear noise on your filtered files burnt onto cd when played on an audio player as opposed to listening to the file directly from your hard drive. If this is the case then my thinking is your pc speaker and headphone system is not reproducing what's on the file, but your audio cd player is. Obviously the noise is actually on the file...you don't hear it until the file is played on a different audio system via cd. Are you using a PCI sound card in your pc or the factory in-chip audio? If it's the chip audio, that could very well be the culprit. Obviously the problem is not the speakers and headphones.

[Dan McDonald]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

What's the problem with chip-set audio? I have it on this new computer and it seems cleaner than my old pci-based sound card. I was wary of getting it, but so far I have no complaints.

Dan

[quartet87]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

Chip audio is the next thing I can think of to consider in light of using decent quality speakers on top of the fact Mightymic's not hearing the noise from his headphones either. I'm just relying on experience with my 2 pc's. The chip audio in my 4 year old Compaq stinks...so much so that it manufactures hiss when you record and playback a blank file. The audio in my one year old HP is much better...no hiss production...but after some use of that and an A/B test I noticed some higher end rolloff and went ahead and moved my Yamaha card from the Compaq to the HP, not to mention regaining digital in and out. Chip audio is the next area to look at is all I was saying.

-Danny

[Dan McDonald]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

OK, thanks. I was thinking of replacing with a pci soundcard, but really didn't have any reason to yet. I'll keep watch on it.

Dan

[mightymic]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

Danny,
well when i got this new screamer i put a santa cruz turttle beach sound card i'm realy wondering if its my burner. i am working on some files doing them the way that you advised so hopefully i'll get one burned soon. is there any way we could hook up on like msn messenger and trade a file or two and see what you think any input and all help would be great!

[quartet87]

Re: music and vocals sound "fuzzy"

Mic, I sent you a PM in this board. Look at it and we'll see if we can get hooked up.

-Danny