Hello, I use Dorico for writing music since (probably) 2023. Now I have Dorico 6.
My problem: The quality of the exported music (mp3 or wav) is alright when heard with good headphones, but not good when heard from a speaker: quite muffled and muddy, not clear and clean enough.
I guess, it is related with the mixing process. What shall I do so that I can obtain the best possible sound, optimized for an average good-quality speaker?
Regards, Tunç
Welcome to the forum @Tunc_Ali_Kutukcuoglu .
The sound rendering is always the same with every export. The difference is only the encoding that might get applied at the very end of the the processing route.
If you export to Wave file, no extra encoding is done and everything gets straight written out to the file on disk.
Additionally Dorico offers 2 codecs, MP3 and FLAC, where FLAC is a lossless codec but therefore cannot reduce the data too much, at least not as much as MP3 can.
First thing you could try is switching on the high quality mode on for the MP3 codec and if that does not satisfy you either, then you could try the FLAC codec.
In any case, best sound quality you will only get with WAV export since that is pure and uncompressed digital audio.
Can you supply an example mp3 or wav file? If the same file sounds good in your headphones, but not your speakers, then perhaps it’s the speakers…?
How does the sound of these files compare with playback within Dorico? As Ulf says, that should be the same.
Or possibly the room acoustics creating all kinds of cancellations.
Jesper
To be precise, it is only the same when you do export to WAV or FLAC. MP3 is a lossy codec and can’t sound same as the uncompressed stream.
I tried to attach the sound file but it didn’t work; I received a weird error message from the forum: “You can’t add links …”
But you can hear the sound files on youtube. Just search for this exact phrase “borabas senfonik ayrılık” on youtube, and you will see two pieces of music. One orchester with piano, one orchester without piano (piano accompaniment).
“borabas” is my account name, “senfonik” means symphonic and “ayrılık” means “separation in romantic love” in turkish. This is my own piano arrangement and orchestration for a famous azerbaijani folk song.
Try to hear it from a speaker and you will realize that the sound is muffled and muddy. Low volume is not the problem here. I can increase the exported volume but the muffled and muddy sound quality remains.
Tunç
What sound library are you using? Are you using any Reverb or other effects? I’d agree that the mix isn’t very good.
Are you saying that the same YouTube video sounds better on your headphones than on speakers?
You may not be able to upload files here until you’ve made a few posts. (This is to stop spam accounts.)
But really, we would need to see the document, and see how you have set up the playback.
As far as I remember, I didn’t change the default settings. On the play window the reverb value is -6.02 I don’t know how to check the sound libraries. I see a 2 Halion Sonic and a 3 Groove Agent SE if these are about sound libraries.
I can send the dorico file by email to a dorico address if you want.
Yes, also the youtube video sounds alright with headphones, muddy and muffled on a speaker, just like the exported mp3 or wav.
That seems very strange. Headphones are of course a bit more immediate; but there shouldn’t be a vast difference unless the speakers are defective.
What are your speakers, and is there any hardware inbetween them and the computer?
You may find that you can upload files now, having made a number of posts. (Reading a few other threads may also help.)
I repeat.
Jesper
Which brand and model of headphones would be my next question as they definitely don’t all sound the same. And “good” can mean different things - good in what context? What gives me pleasure isn’t necessarily best when I want a mix that translates well from one setup to another. Flat response isn’t as fun.
I still can’t attach or link files. I tried several times. Tunç