Distortion/fuzzyness

[zeitgeist23]

Hi.

Anyone know how to get rid of distorion? When the bass drum hits or the bass line it is a bit distorted and the only way I can stop it is to turn the volume down. Is there a way to get rid of the distortion on drums and other instruments without turning the volume down?

Thanks.

[musikbear]

i believe this sidechaining
http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/U04Umj1puVI/default.jpg
could be something you could use.
Also posible is the use of a limiter. (FX:fast-look-ahead-limiter)
The sidechaining is the prefered solution for this typical bass v. kick distorsion, but its not a given thing.
the limiter seams to works best around -0.5

Br.

[shaunopotamus]

Hey,

I want to rez this topic. I am encountering the same trouble, however only with particular instruments (i.e. triple oscillator).

Does anybody have any personal experience with this and know of any solutions?

Is it a plug-in quality issue or a something all users should know how to work around?

(i.e. Should I simply download better VST's? I am not sure of how the quality of the built-in VST's rank vs other freebies.)

Thanks much for any thoughts on the subject.

Shaun

[musikbear]

however only with particular instruments (i.e. triple oscillator)
:
Is it a plug-in quality issue or a something all users should know how to work around?

neee, it is possible to make perfect instruments with 3oc.
I would guess that you have a too loud volume setting. If you see a red curve in the visualizer, then you have clipping, and that is most often from loudness setting or you have too much resonance on the filter?
Again, one of the limiters should remove this clipping -Have you tried adding a limiter?
The best are the fast-look-ahead and the hard-limiter. The other limiters makes artifacts, (but those are kind of interesting)

br.

[orpheon7]

This is I think what people usually refer to as mastering. Go on the master channel in the FX mixer, and add a Spectrum Analyser. Then play both your drums and your bass.
If anywhere on the spectrum the wave goes over the 0 line, you'll get overloading (which will sound like distortion).
To solve it you have two possibilities, either arrange for the bass and kick to not hit as hard at the same time, or eq them.
The first possibility is easiest, just throw a limiter like musikbear said, that will make sure the volume will never exceed max. But you sometimes lack power in bass or drums that you limit.

The second possibility means you put the kick on some FX channel, the bass on another, and in each add some "Equalizer" effect. I usually use the TAP one.
With the equalizer you can boost or diminish certain frequencies. Try to isolate the kick and the bass into frequencies that won't cut each other, so something like
30-60 Subbass, no kick
60-80 Kick
80-200 The real bass
or whatever you want. It's not easy to do this and have it sound good (especially with the eqs LMMS provides), but it really helps your songs.