Soundcloud sound?

[fra77x]

I upload some tracks to soundcloud and i notice a big difference. The sound has terrible highs.

Is it a common problem?

[dante]

Not a problem here. Same quality as local playback. What are you uploading ? I upload 24 bit x 48khz.wav.. Or even 96khz... Although I assume their streams are MP3 compressed.

You said Freddy sounded ok - does it still sound ok ?

[fra77x]

i upload 32bit 96khz. It sounds degraded comparing with wavelab. Especially the highs. Not anything drastic but it misses a whole layer of fidelity.
I read its normal. Never mind.

[garyb]

most people listen to the internet through computer speakers...

[dante]

i upload 32bit 96khz. It sounds degraded comparing with wavelab. Especially the highs. Not anything drastic but it misses a whole layer of fidelity.
I read its normal. Never mind.

Probably due how it streams - I doubt it would be streaming at high bit/sample rate. Uploading it high is only good for allowing downloads (as opposed streaming). I'm guessing....

[petal]

You are correct in your observations. Streamed audio from soundcloud does not match the upload quality.

I believe it works like this:

1. You upload a track in the best quality you can.
2. Soundcloud makes a fast but poorly compressed version of the track in order to make it available online instantly.
3. Later Soundcloud makes a new version of the uploaded track available. This version is of better quality, but still not as good as the uploaded track.

It is not possible to stream the track in the uploaded quality, but you can make the uploaded high quality track available as download.

[fra77x]

Interesting. Does it make sense to make a specific mp3 mastering and will soundcloud use that file?
Or it uses always it's own stream format?

[petal]

What I have noticed is that even though you upload a decently compressed mp3-file, soundcloud will still take that file and run it through it's compression mechanism, thereby creating a "double"-compressed audio result. In other words, you don't want that.

If it is possible to upload a format that soundcloud will use, without running it through it's compression mechanism, I don't know. look in FAQ or ask their helpdesk.

I think the best thing to do, is to upload wave-quality tracks (minimum 44K/48K/96K, 16/24 bit) and pray to the mighty compression gods of the soundcloud.

[fra77x]

I think its better that way. The low quality protects in a way the properties of the audio. Because it is a public stream. It has a sense.

[petal]

I don't think there's any way around it:

http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/por ... cles/94796 :

Just uploaded and my track is distorted
Sometimes our transcoding system can create audio artifacts, as we transcode all tracks to 128 kbps mp3 for streaming playback. Uploading a lossless or high-quality lossy file will usually reduce these to a minimum, but unfortunately there's not much we can do for the handful of individual tracks that are still affected.

If you choose to make your track downloadable though, the version users can download will be an exact copy of the version you uploaded, without any transcoding.

[jhulk]

i always upload raw wave files with no compression and always make sure they are below 0db i usually normalize to -5db for my samplers headroom so that if many kkeys are played they dont go above 0db causing digital distortion

but then again i never mp3 them and i do doodles not tracks so only one instrument voice playing

[fra77x]

That's what i'll do also

[ChrisWerner]

modr.jpg (44.53 KiB) Viewed 2206 times

[dawman]

Perfect.
My son has an iPhone and an old cassette we shove into my Car stereo and I admit, the best sound quality I am used to is Live as I don't even have a stereo anymore.
I too have fallen to the lower fidelity off time quality.'

But the music I listen too alot is the recent resurance of quality keyboard parts in recent Hip Hop stuff like Kendrick Lamar, etc. And since they LoFi, Filter and produce the music with lots of dynamics it sounds pretty good.

Makes me want to break out my old Blue Skys again, and use them for the HDTV/Musical?gaming needs.

Glad to see you as usual CW.

[Nestor]

But, why thinking about Soundcloud as a unique alternative for our needs? I have more than 250GBs in Dropbox, the streaming is pretty good, downloads are fast and people do not complain, then I can upload anything I want in terms of quality, even in wav format being sure nobody is going to compress my work into a chunk of low quality sounds, files will sound exactly as I have uploaded them to the server. Use Dropbox instate, even if there are no players and the so, in terms of quality, it is a good solution.

[hubird]

I use Dropbox also, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use it for 'massive' streaming.

[dante]

But, why thinking about Soundcloud as a unique alternative for our needs? .

Because you get to package with graphics, text and keywords, you get the play stats, quick embedding HTML (as well as straight links) and an audience that can provide feedback on the song timeline.

Its a complete songwriters / musicians / web producers / promoters package.

[Nestor]

But, why thinking about Soundcloud as a unique alternative for our needs? .

Because you get to package with graphics, text and keywords, you get the play stats, quick embedding HTML (as well as straight links) and an audience that can provide feedback on the song timeline.

Its a complete songwriters / musicians / web producers / promoters package.

Well, yes, but you can still use it as a multimedia platform to promote yourself, and then upload your songs in high quality to something like Dropbox, etc., so people can download them, don't know...

[dante]

I think you may have missed some earlier posts in this thread. With soundcloud, I can upload 96 kHz 32 bit waves and flick the 'allow download' switch which is a 'per song' option.

Anyone downloading will then get the full uncompressed file, however anyone just listening to the steam hears the 'transcoded' version (mp3?).

It's the compressed steam that fra heard distortion - but the full version can still be uploaded / stored / downloaded.

It's great coz the author / creator doesn't have to worry about rendering a compressed version from the original high qual master any more.

[Nestor]

I think you may have missed some earlier posts in this thread. With soundcloud, I can upload 96 kHz 32 bit waves and flick the 'allow download' switch which is a 'per song' option.

Anyone downloading will then get the full uncompressed file, however anyone just listening to the steam hears the 'transcoded' version (mp3?).

It's the compressed steam that fra heard distortion - but the full version can still be uploaded / stored / downloaded.

It's great coz the author / creator doesn't have to worry about rendering a compressed version from the original high qual master any more.

Yes, I missed some earlier posts, I have only read the last ones, sorry.

Well, it sounds better than I knew when this platform started; it seems to have progressed a lot. I will have to check it out myself.