Bounced MP3 of Project Sounds Completely Different than the mix through Fast Track Pro

Hi, I'm semi-new to Logic Pro X ---

 

I use a Fast Track Pro Midi, plug headphones through it to listen to the mix I'm creating.

 

I'm bouncing these new Projects to MP3 and the quality of sound is completely different than what I am hearing INSIDE the project itself before it is bounced.

 

I'm wondering if there is a method to bounce truer to the MIDI sound composition, or if I can listen to the MAC's 'version' of it (which will become the bounced track) while still using the MIDI (maybe even listening through the MAC's headphone jack instead of the MIDI itself).

 

It's really annoying to get a completely different sounding song than the one you were just listening to through the MIDI. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks--

bounce truer to the MIDI sound composition, or if I can listen to the MAC's 'version'

What would you define as "the MIDI" ?

Make sure 'Normalise' is set to off in the bounce dialogue box?

Fast Track Pro M-Audio via USB is the Midi...

 

I tried taking NORMALIZE off but still sounds very different than original mix.

How are you monitoring the mp3 you've just bounced?

Through the PC headphones and speakers...I understand there is going to be a discrepancy but when I was using Logic Express on the other Mac I have it was a lot less pronounced

Through the PC headphones and speakers...I understand there is going to be a discrepancy but when I was using Logic Express on the other Mac I have it was a lot less pronounced

There could be many other things at play at the same time. In order to troubleshoot this issue in a scientific manner you need to eliminate variables. That's the best way to then find out where the issue comes from.

 

Try to bring the mp3 back into a brand new session in Logic Pro — not a single plug-in in the Mixer, and monitor it through the same audio interface. See if it still sounds different.

Hang on, so you hear a difference between your headphones plugged into an audio interface and the speakers of a laptop computer ? Yes, these sound different, fundamentally so, that's pretty much why audio interfaces exist.

are the mp3 settings at the highest quality? ie 320kbps stereo, quality 'highest'... vbr, best encoding checked (i'd also check 'filter frequencies below 10hz'

 

if you bounce to wav, how does that sound?

David - the NORMALIZED MP3 of the project sounds a lot closer to that of the actual project while listening through the MIDI. The UNNORMALIZED MP3 sounds like it does through the PC headphone/speakers when playing it through the MIDI.

 

FISHER - thanks, switching to 320 actually did make a difference, WAV did not however, strangely. Am looking up Filtering below 10HZ and not finding anything. You do that manually through the master or is there a setting for it in preferences somewhere?

 

FUZZ - WHAT?

David - the NORMALIZED MP3 of the project sounds a lot closer to that of the actual project while listening through the MIDI. The UNNORMALIZED MP3 sounds like it does through the PC headphone/speakers when playing it through the MIDI.

Ok but did you try to do what I suggested?

Basically use the exact same method to listen to the bounced mp3. If you were mixing in logic with a certain interface and a certain headphone then bounce it to an MP3 and then as David says open a new empty Logic project bring in that MP3 file and listen to it through the exact same interface with the exact same headphones.

 

If there’s a drastic difference, please describe what do you hear?

Yeah I did do it - just did describe it. I bounced a number of MP3's of the project --- one normalized and one not.

 

I put both the normalized and non-normalized MP3's into separate, empty Logic Projects, used the same interface and headphones to listen.

 

The normalized version sounds like the Original (the one I want) through the interface, the non-normalized version does not, it sounds like the MAC version (the one I got after initially bouncing it, it having been modified heavily).

Well they should sound identical.

How about describing the difference in audio terms? Like the bounced version is too bass heavy or missing instruments etc?

I still can’t grasp what is the difference between your project and the mp3?

The normalized version sounds like the Original (the one I want) through the interface, the non-normalized version does not, it sounds like the MAC version (the one I got after initially bouncing it, it having been modified heavily).

Are you 100% sure it's not the other way around? It's expected for a normalized mix to not sound the same since you're changing its gain. However if you turn Normalize off then you basically take the zeroes and ones that Logic is sending to your audio interface during playback and put them in an audio file. When you play back that audio file you're now sending those same zeroes and ones to your audio interface. So it's the same data being sent to your audio interface. If it sounds different, something is likely wrong in the way you're doing your test.

 

In order to take away more variables in your test, I suggest you do further testing bouncing 24 bit PCM files (WAV or AIFF), not mp3, and to test only with Normalize set to Off, always. You should get an identical result when playing through the same playback chain.