Corrupt Files

[blackwasp]

Perhaps someone computer literate can help me out...

Many of my Beatles tunes play incorrectly on both Windows Media Player and iTunes. Often times, the lead vocals are barely audible. I have problems like this with a few songs by other artists, but not on the same level. It's annoying (to say the least) since I bought and ripped all these albums legally. Anyone know what could be causing it, or how to fix it? Should I just try to rerip the music?

 

[foo-oswald]

Perhaps someone computer literate can help me out...

Many of my Beatles tunes play incorrectly on both Windows Media Player and iTunes. Often times, the lead vocals are barely audible. I have problems like this with a few songs by other artists, but not on the same level. It's annoying (to say the least) since I bought and ripped all these albums legally. Anyone know what could be causing it, or how to fix it? Should I just try to rerip the music?

I've experienced something similar before. Most players- iTunes, WinAmp, Musicmatch; etc.- have some sort of compresser or expander you can utilize. Seems they all call it something different, like "volume leveling" or something. I would try activating that and see if it helps.

If that doesn't work, calmly place you PC on a flat concrete surface. Then, grab a hammer, and...use your imagination...

 

[blackwasp]

I've experienced something similar before. Most players- iTunes, WinAmp, Musicmatch; etc.- have some sort of compresser or expander you can utilize. Seems they all call it something different, like "volume leveling" or something. I would try activating that and see if it helps.

Yeah, I'm trying to adjust the volume of all songs to the same level, but it's normally just one vocal track on each song...the rest of it is at normal volume.

If that doesn't work, calmly place you PC on a flat concrete surface. Then, grab a hammer, and...use your imagination...

This might be the solution.

 

[MoreInSorrow]

wasp,
if that doesn't work (don't resort to the hammer just yet), let me know. I have a good friend who does alot of work with computers that might know.

 

[blackwasp]

Yeah, no dice. In all honesty, it's not that big of a deal. It's been like this for probably at least 6 months, and it's only about 20 songs. I was just wondering if there was an easy fix.

 

[cjedick]

Check to see that both your speakers are working.

 

[Qyöt27]

Perhaps someone computer literate can help me out...

Many of my Beatles tunes play incorrectly on both Windows Media Player and iTunes. Often times, the lead vocals are barely audible. I have problems like this with a few songs by other artists, but not on the same level. It's annoying (to say the least) since I bought and ripped all these albums legally. Anyone know what could be causing it, or how to fix it? Should I just try to rerip the music?

How are you ripping them? What format? With what ripper? That might have a lot to do with it. Do you have Nero Burning ROM (believe me, this is relevant)?

 

[IntegrationOfChurchAndSta]

Get CDex. Don't do other stuff while ripping if you have a small CPU.

 

[blackwasp]

How are you ripping them? What format? With what ripper? That might have a lot to do with it. Do you have Nero Burning ROM (believe me, this is relevant)?

I use the AAC on iTunes, if that's what you're referring to. I believe everything is default, and I don't have Nero...should I?

 

[Qyöt27]

I use the AAC on iTunes, if that's what you're referring to. I believe everything is default, and I don't have Nero...should I?

Ok. Well, there's nothing wrong with using AAC as the format (I use it myself nearly exclusively), but I strongly advise against ripping directly to AAC from CD (or any other lossy format, like MP3, for example). Use dBPowerAMP Music Converter or Easy CD-DA Extractor to rip the file to an uncompressed Wave, and then use iTunes or Quicktime to encode to AAC. The problem may very well be with how iTunes is handling the signal, and coupled with the direct encoding to AAC, it might introduce additional issues.

And in whatever program, do not tell it to normalize the audio or correct the volume levels, as these are usually not enabled by default (and I would assume, for good reason). Nero comes with a nice little utility called, quite simply, Nero Wave Editor. This allows you to open the Wave and manually adjust the volume so you can make sure it doesn't do anything funny. That's why I asked about Nero. Of course, other programs (like Audacity) can probably do the same thing without the limitation that Nero has because I don't believe you can use the Wave Editor after the free trial period on the main software has passed. This would obviously be done in the step after ripping the file but before encoding it to AAC.


In short:
1) Rip the track to a Wave file using dBPowerAMP or Easy CD-DA.
2) Open the Wave file in Nero Wave Editor or Audacity to check if it needs normalization or volume adjustment and do this manually. Save.
3) Open the Wave file in iTunes or Quicktime and convert to AAC.

 

[Lecarde]

Mess around with your equalizer.

 

[musicPhan#41]

i think it's a channel balance problem. the beatles didn't mix alot of their stuff very well (i hope that's not like blasphemy). Alot of times, the vocals will come soley out of 1 channel, and the guitar or whatever out of another.



and when i say that the beatles didn't mix their stuff well, i mean "for the sake of problems like this, the beatles didn't mix their stuff well"

but i respect and admire the beatles, and their approach