Audio renders are coming out very low, when rendering to .WAV or .mp3?

Phillip-Dav wrote on 7/5/2022, 2:02 PM

I am using most recent version Acid pro 10, I put together a mix or project yester day, all meters seemed fine nothing in the red on individual tracks nor the master audio meter. Distortion happens if I try to adjust all audio levels even if not peaking in the red.

The project crashed when I first attempted to render as MP3 at 256 bit, highest quality slow speed, the project does use 5.1 panning, falloffs/fade in/out, a reverb effect on one of the entire tracks not just envelope on a section, I picked the stereo joined option, since that seemed to correspond with 5.1 output, it mentioned in description of having front right, front back, etc..(as to why I chose that option)

My PC specs are: Desktop,Windows 10/ intel 10700f 3.1ghz, 16gb ddr4, acid is installed on a 500gb m.2 and samples/loops etc.. comes from 2.5 ssd. In real time everything seems to sound and play fine. But renders no matter the format are low. From the only thing I can find from old posts are things about adjusting gain, or using compression or even removing effects, such as the ones I mentioned, but those were for old versions and 10 was not out. Are all the same things still current in the most recent version I purchased? I thought I under mixing and mastering, so just wanted to be clear before having to get another program to try and after thought raise the volume/ gain of a mix. Any help would be appreciated it. Update when I load the project now, I get a error message from ACID saying the plugins do not support this media type then when I click the "Details" button, it shows "Plugin does not support required connection"

Comments

Phillip-Dav wrote on 7/5/2022, 3:23 PM

Just wanted to add I am still working out what could be the issue, as if it is human error I will be sure to delete this post or update it.

SP. wrote on 7/5/2022, 4:43 PM

@Phillip-Dav Do you mean your files are quiet or or have a low sample rate?

Have you compared your mix to a professional mix you like and tried to reproduce its loudness?

Phillip-Dav wrote on 7/5/2022, 7:27 PM

@SP. Thanks for the response, Just got off work, So have not been on it too long. But I did few more renders and am thinking I will come back to close this or update it, after I go over the mix again and "fine tune" to see how far I can push the frequency for each part/ track. Because I feel the 5.1 is complicating it. I wanted the user to be able to listen to it in the spatial headphones and on real 5.1 setup is the only reason I was using that. I see stereo side join option in the render settings is not what I thought it was so using dual gives me the correct stereo render at least. But the loudness I compared to professional in studio songs and recordings I have not achieved just yet, but have achieved louder then what I was getting before I posted. The projects for me and I am just coming back to it from few years now, so was thinking I just missing setting or something and not a bug because the real time was so good, but could not find a current post about something like this.

 

sheppo wrote on 7/6/2022, 5:19 AM

Hi @Phillip-Dav - 5.1 projects need to be rendered to separate files for each channel which are then composited in to a 5.1 video stream. From the online help.

"Rendering a surround project creates six mono files (AIFF, WAV) or a single 5.1-channel file (AC-3, WMA, and WMV) that your authoring application can use to create DVD-Video or 5.1-channel music projects."

It is not possible to create a 5.1 channel MP3 file, with Acid, for example. What will happen in this instance is the 5.1 audio will be downmixed to stereo, and quiet stereo when downmixing is a common problem across many platforms.

  • You might be able to lessen this affect by adjusting the panning power options. On a track / bus pan control, right click and select a different power option. Film, or Constant power. You can find detailed explanations of each panning power mode in the online help by searching for "Audio Panning Modes"
  • You could reload the rendered audio back in to a new stereo project and adjust the volume - but then, if you're doing this why bother with a 5.1 project in the first place?

So, unless you're specifically looking to author 5.1 video I would stick to using stereo projects. At least whilst you find your feet with the application.

edit: The other thing is you might find you are not thinking about panning in the 5.1 space correctly. Think about when you see a movie in surround. Most sounds are fairly central.. especially important things like dialog. You might be causing the audio to be quieter than expected when downmixing by panning things to extremes. I don't have a 5.1 setup, but certainly any extreme panning (e.g. fully front/back AND fully right/left) in a 5.1 project playing back on a stereo system causes the volume to lower.

Phillip-Dav wrote on 8/6/2022, 6:20 PM

Thank you now if I can get ACID pro 10 to stop randomly crashing and I lose or have to redo my project if I can, because the audio clips used end up being corrupted when you try and load the "autosaved,bkup" file that is created from the crash, then out of the multitude of files I have and most will have. It seems I have to do screenshot while I am working just to try and locate the files/sample/midi whatever I was using in the middle of my creation process. this is beyond maddening, I have other programs and shouldn't have to buy acid 11 just to have a stable program. This is not the first time this has happened, I just bought this earlier this year a lil before 11.