Topic by Jake Johnson

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Topic: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

In the stand-alone, I rendered the nocturne 27 to a wave file and was so surprised by the result that I had to check to be sure I'd used the correct preset. I used the high quality setting. Really changed the sound for the worse though--seemed to collapse the stereo field (the bass got pushed much more to the center and more focused there) and reduce the bit depth so that there was a narrower dynamic range. The sound seemed pushed to the front more too, as though all of the sounds were coming from very close up, without any depth in the field. Am I doing something wrong?

I'm using the same 4100 setting for both the Device and the Internal sample rate. The problem may well be that the sound in PianoTeq is just much, much better than a wave file can reproduce.

Last edited by Jake Johnson (21-12-2009 20:49)

Reply by sawtooth

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

Strangely, I just made a midi recording on my fp-7 and it sure sounded louder when I then loaded it up into pianoteq and listened to it on the computer alone.

I was wearing headphones as I recorded too.  Pretty strange.  I'd have to record on the piano and inside pianoteq's midi recorder at the same time and see if anything is different at all.

I've not compared the export version yet.

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

Maybe that's most of what I was hearing--the volume is just much louder. When I reduce the volume of the wave file, it sounds much better. But the listener won't know to do that...

Reply by skip

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

Jake Johnson wrote:

The problem may well be that the sound in PianoTeq is just much, much better than a wave file can reproduce.

When you are playing Pianoteq, you are in essence listening to a wave file that is being generated on the fly, by Pianoteq. It's just that instead of the audio data being written to a file, it is being "played" to your audio interface.  (I suppose if you were using 24-bits when playing live, and rendering to 16-bits, you may notice a difference - I don't think I'd be able to tell in most situations though)

Regarding the problem at hand, my guess is that it's just due to psychoacoustical effects.

Regarding volume level, yes - the sound can be very different if it is played at a different volume level. As I said in an earlier post somewhere here, if you play a piano note over and over, and slowly reduce the volume, you will probably perceive the timbre become brighter as the volume is decreased.

Greg.

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

Well, my problem is that I keep the volume the same, listening to the midi file play in Pteq and then rendering it to wave and opening it in Audacity. But when I press Play in Audacity, it's much louder. Maybe it's Audacity?

Anyone else have a problem there with sudden volume increases or other things? (I use the default settings--no compression, etc.)

Reply by sawtooth

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

What OS are you on Jake?

If you're in linux then is Audacity going directly with alsa, jack, pulseaudio?

Maybe it's getting different volume levels from somewhere...

Other than that I have no clue I guess.

Reply by Jake Johnson

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Re: Does rendering a recording to wave collapse the stereo field and more?

Windows Vista 64. I guess Audacity just has a higher default volume...?