FL Studio.. All settings high, still bad quality export?

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Sin_Beatz

New member
Hey FP!!

Ive been an FL user for nearly 5 years now. Over that time, i like to think my mixing game has enhanced and got to a good level. The only thing is, i can never get a good sounding .mp3 out of FL studio. I use a website to host my music called "Soundclick" and it only accepts .mp3 files (otherwise i'd always use .WAV).

I get my beat sounding nice, crisp and clear inside FL.. then when i export it as .mp3.. it doesnt sound the same.. looses alot of quality & umph/life, bass becomes a lil more muddy.. highs seem to boost and get almost muffled sounding, certain things become a little quiter or louder.. sometimes, the bass and percussion can also clash, causing a slight distortion (nothing over the top though).. The changes aint MAJOR, but i can defo notice slight changes and i dont know whats causing this, other producers on soundclick upload there music as .mp3s & i personally know alot of them use FL Studio aswell, and there stuff sounds fine (qualit wise) so why am i only experiencing this bad quality?

I know what your thinking .. "his settings aint right" .. but heres my settings and set up:

- 320 kbps Bitrate
- 512 point sinc Sampler interpolation
- HQ for all plugins is highlighted..

I have an Acer PC .. 8gb ram, i5 with M audio Fast Track Pro.

Also, on my master i use Izotopes maximizer, but i never over do-it.. i also use slight compression on my master.. but only very slight to tighten & glue everything together abit more

So what else could be causing this? Can you think of anything? Any replies would really help, cuz i feel i've hit a brickwall.

Thanks
 
Hello Sin_Beatz, does this only happen with exported .mp3* files? Because if you're not sure, you can always download some sort of freeware editing software such as audacity and export your project as a .WAV file in Fruity Loops and import the WAV into audacity and export it as an MP3. :rolleyes:
 
You basically answered your own question .... it's because you're bouncing to .mp3 .. you'll always lose quality with an .mp3 ...
 
Hmmmmm, the qualities between both my final wav and mp3 exports sound REALLY similar and I don't hear much of a difference in the qualities. So maybe it might come down to your mastering process. I bounce my final tracks down at 24bit/192kbps.
 
Sorry I have been dying to answer your question on you last post but I just got lifted from a recent ban. I am so tired of these so call 'future producers' always giving cats the wrong info. Your instrumental does not lose quality it actually gains quality when you export it because you have it set to export at "512 point sinc" while when in flstudio your most likely listening to it at "linear (or) 64 point sinc". you must be watching to many johnny juliano videos or something lol. there is no reason you should be exporting that high.

Fix your settings inside flstudio:
Options > audio settings > mixer > Interpolation (linear)... and when you export also set the interpolation to 'linear'

---------- Post added at 05:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:47 AM ----------

Also make sure what ever your listening to your mp3 on does not have any EQ settings or enhancements enabled. For example windows media player has a default setting whic boost high and mid freq. a bit. so whatever your playing your mp3 back on just google to find out how to check your EQ or enhancements
 
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Sounds to me like you may have stuff clipping in FL and the sound is altered on export or there's an issue with your dithering? Try making sure nothing is clipping and set your dither to 16bit in Ozone, make sure it's off on FL's export. Export a 320kbps mp3 or 44.1khz 16 bit wav file. If it still sounds funny after adressing all those issues, I'm out of ideas.

If it sounds clean then you have to troubleshoot. Your media player may cause issues with 24bit files during playback. Soundclick may create issues while converting your files. It may be placebo(you think it sounds better than it does because you're looking at the interface in FL or think it sounds worse when looking at it in a less attractive interface afterwards).

I've heard people speak on these issues before, but never experienced them myself. I just mix with what's stock in FL, maybe outsourcing for effects causes issues? If all else fails...You may want to try cutting iZotope Ozone off(bypass it)to see if it's what's causing the issues. Try a rough mix with the FL Limiter, Multiband, Reverb, and 7 Band EQ(pretty much the same stuff in Ozone), see if that mix mirrors your playback more.
 
I forgot to add:
The Stereo Enhancer effect often caused problems with the audio quality when exporting in my experience. maybe, if you used them, you can get around them?
 
It actually depends on your mixing and mastering settings(the plugins,effects and volumes)For e.g if you are editing your music on 64-point sinc,then you should always render it on 64 point sinc,but sometimes rendering it to a slightly higher or lower setting may turn out to be better as well,but it just depends on how you master your track.I've been using FL studio for a long time now,and i understood that if u want to get the best results,u will always have to try render it through different settings and be patient to listen to it carefully everytime until u are convinced it is the right sound.There are no fixed solutions to this unfortunately..
 
Higher interpolation and sync point rendering is only beneficial if using transposed samples. If you set your rendering settings on anything higher than 6 point. You're going to suck all the life out of your beat or production. Any distortion, saturation, decimation or ambience in the music will be purged. Simple solution, render on the linear or 6 point setting.
 
everything everyone stated are good points. also, I can't remember off the top of my head if the option presents itself when bouncing in FL, but if normalize option is there I would make sure its unchecked.
 
Thank you, man...i have been having the same problem as the original poster and I've picked up on some mixing techniques to try and minimize the crappy sounding exports, which work to a degree, but still........
 
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