Mastering questions

[Trinity2112]

I purchased my Oasys a few months back and have spent that time trying to absorb all it has to offer. In the meantime, I've finally begun working on a song and have posted the first 3 minutes at ReverbNation, but it sounds horrible. So I'm desperate for some guidance from those who've posted their music online and hopefully can gain some understanding of what the proper procedure should be.

Here's the link to the song:
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5499349

Here is the procedure I used:
I recorded the sequence directly into my D3200 at 44.1 kHz with no effects or EQ. Sent the WAV. file to my computer and converted to an MP3 file using WinLAME software.

[Sina172]

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[Trinity2112]

The reason I went to the D3200 was so I could record the WAV file at 44.1 kHz because the Oasys samples at 48kHz and ReverbNation requires 44.1kHz.

[Sina172]

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[Mike Conway]

The OASYS can rate convert the wave for you. That's how it is able to burn standard 44.1khz CDs. What I suggest is to make the Wave File, as suggested by Sina. Then go to DISK mode and find your Wave. Check the UTILITY tab and you can find RATE CONVERT in the upper right dropdown menu.

If your .wav is 48khz, the OASYS will convert to 44.1 and vice versa.

Also, check some of your favorite combis and see what TOTAL FX that they use. Mastering Limiter is very popular. It can squeeze the dynamic range to be more file friendly. I noticed that the compression on your song was killing the dynamics. It sounded like it was clipping, at times. Good song, btw.

[cello]

All the stuff above sounds like something I'm going to have to explore, but as I use a D3200 thought I'd chime in.

Seemsto me like the D3200 is clipping - you have to watch like mad the levels in meter mode - anywhere even close to the clip is going to cause degradation.

Also I think you're going through many stages each of which degrades.

If I want an MP3 of a song, I bounce it down and have the D3200 produce an audio CD. Then, like sina above, the CD goes into iTunes on my PC which asks if I want to import it in a variety of different options/quality rates. Then I copy the MP3 to wherever it has to go.

I've used my D3200 for years and now have got it to the stage that I can take a CD to someone's home hifi and/or whatever and sounds absolutely faithful to the original... so the D3200 may be the 'old' way but for me, it's still a 'good' way!

[Sina172]

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[Trinity2112]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I really do appreciate it. I followed your instructions and uploaded the converted file which sounds MUCH better. I will definitely check out the mastering limiter as I continue with this song. The Oasys continues to impress the Hell out of me. Ahhh, the piano roll/meter bar upgrade would've been the icing on the cake. But I digress.

Here's the conversion:
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5503746

[Mike Conway]

Wow, you did that fast! Sounds much better!

[Sina172]

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[Kontrol49]

I just realized something else, reading through these posts (including mine), Connecting the OASYS to ANY external source, other than a pair of Monitors, will actually degrade it's sound quality. Connecting it to a Digital Recorder, such as the D3200, is even WORSE in this regard because the levels in the OASYS are SO HOT that you can easily clip when recording to these devices.

The levels of the Oasys depend on the Sound your using and the FX utilised,some sounds clip whilst others are less hot and it also depends on the volume of the Oscillators and filters used also inside those programs,hence why all sounds are not equal in volume.

Combis are the worst violators because of all the extra sounds and fx used,I would much rather keep the Oasys at max volume and use a fader and input trim via a Mixer rather than risk blowing some monitors for the sake of thinking it sounds better using less audio devices or simply just sticking a Limiter IFX over every patch to keep levels from distorting

I suspect that hooking the Oasys to a pair of monitors directly would only cause problems in reaching for the Volume slider on the Oasys or having to turn down the Amp volume(providing the monitors had a volume knob)
or in your case having to put a limiter across every sound all the time with various sounds,certainly doesn't sound like the best way to get the best audio Quality out of the Oasys or best SNR and hence why you've nearly blew some speakers

Utilising the Unity gain method when recording you shouldn't ever lose signal quality irrespective of how you connect the Oasys Via other Audio devices,if your degrading the signal then you've simply not got the gain structuring right in your signal chain,The Oasys is only as good as the weakest link in your audio path or recording methods.I could count the number of people on my hands I've worked with who say just whack some compression over the track to make it louder,only to complain theres also a lot of Noise or distortion within the track when had they set the gain correctly before recording there would be no need to each sound requires different gain dependant on how its made up and what your recording via at the end of the day the levels should still be uniform and thats down to gain structure at source not compensating with processing

If the gain/levels had been set correctly in the mixer section when recording into the D3200 From the Oasys there should have been no degradation of audio signal, saying that the Audio equipment is to fault is simply just a lack of knowledge in setting the levels correctly prior to recording,Never had any issues recording to a D16XD with oasys or any other device,all of my Devices are run through a Yammi 02 then out through ADAT into the D16XD,levels have always been perfect using unity gain through the signal path and have never had any signal degradation,when I've compared it to audio/Wavs/Samples exported directly from the Oasys

[X-Trade]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I really do appreciate it. I followed your instructions and uploaded the converted file which sounds MUCH better. I will definitely check out the mastering limiter as I continue with this song. The Oasys continues to impress the Hell out of me. Ahhh, the piano roll/meter bar upgrade would've been the icing on the cake. But I digress.

Here's the conversion:
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5503746

I'm glad you got it sorted out. Sounds like a really nice track!
Will you be uploading any more?

[richwest]

I disagree with a lot of the posts in this thread that suggest mastering on the Oasys is the best idea. Although the Oasys is great sounding I find it terrible for tweaking and mastering, mainly due to the clunky interface.

What I do personally is use its digital output at 96khz into an E-MU 0404 USB (which is a bit of a budget interface but has great features for the price) and straight from there into my DAW (I use Reaper) running on a PC. To my ears capturing output digitally from the Oasys like that doesn't degrade the quality.

Obviously what works for me won't work for everyone and people have very different workflows. However I personally find doing the bulk of the work in my DAW a lot faster and more natural than fiddling around in Oasys submenus.

Just thought I'd offer a different opinion from the other side of the fence anyway, glad you managed to sort out your track.

[Pieter Meij]

Hello!

This is an interesting topic!

I would like to prefer to connect my Tannoy Eclipse 8 active monitors directly to my Oasys but then as Sina also pointed out I have to keep the main volume slider very low to prevent overloading my monitors. Also in this case I noticed some humming in my monitors...I think it is a ground-loop. Any advice on how to avoid this would be very welcome.

Also, connecting the Oasys to a mixer first makes good sense but how do you compensate for all the different volume levels. I mean if I keep the main volume slider at maximum position, I select a busy/loud combination program and I adjust the input-level gain knobs of my mixer to this setting everything works fine of course for this particular combination program which outputs the hottest possible signal. But what do I have to do if I select another program which is much softer in it's output? Would this mean that you have to adjust the input of your mixer everytime you select another program/combination?

I am interested how other people are doing this!

Thanks and best regards,

Pieter

[Strider]

Like richwest, I use the optical digital outs on the Oasys into a firewire audio interface, and then mix and master in Reaper. The Oasys sounds great, but I don't use ONLY Oasys sounds. Slicing, dicing, and final master all are just so much more efficiently performed in a DAW.

And to Pieter: Yes, adjusting the volume levels for various programs is a fact of life for both hardware and software mixers. I'm not quite sure how it could be any other way.

BTW, I did some "Korg workstation only" composition/performance/mixes on the old Karma Workstation. That's what taught me that a DAW really is the way to go if you're the fussy type. And the old Karma had the ability to merge songs from the songlist (each song as song segment), which the Oasys lacks. Gack. Cut and paste hell.