Ok. My band recorded some songs yesterday using a Presonus firepod and Cubase LE, the software that came with it. We export the songs as .aif files. We play them in iTunes. If we convert them to mp3s in iTunes, the songs become significantly quieter compared to other songs. Thus the logical solution was to export them from Cubase directly as mp3s, which I though would have a better conversion process. However, some of the mp3s are quiet, and some are not. It seems to choose this randomly. We also tried to burn the aif files to a CD using iTunes, and it made the tracks in slow motion when you play the CD!!! If you try to convert the aif files to mp3 at any time, the tracks are in slow motion. Does anyone have any ideas that could possibly help me with my problem!? This is so frustrating.

Thanks,
Andrew

Let me guess, are the recording in something like 24bit/96KHz? (or equivalent)

(and please, no cross posting, moderators are lazy but happen to delete doubles and move misplaces threads

Ok, sorry, I just didn't know which one was the right one to post under.

And yeah, the recordings are in 24bit/96KHz. Why is that causing the problem?

Thanks, and sorry again for cross posting.

It explains the slow down, when you play a 96 KHz files burned on an audio cd, you end up with a tune laying a bit more than twice slower (96/44.1= rate of playback slow down).

Bounce to 16/44.1 then make the MP3 You're handling bit depth and sampling frequencies that are causing a problem to the MP3 conversion. (we could say MP3 has not been made for something else than compress audio cds…)(uh oh)

The sampling frequency explains the sloooooowing, and I guess the 24 bits are for something in the level issues.

BTW, recording at 48 or 96 KHz if you are not working for broadcast has absolutely no reason to be. If you have audio CDs in mind, 44.1 and multiples (88.2) are way more sensible. The conversion between 48/96… and 44.1/88.2… is nothing save obvious.

24 bit is good for noise levels and headroom, but you'll have to move to 16 bit in the end for audio CDs.

It seems to me you have a problem with sample rate and bit rate. Try to convert all your aif bouced tracks to 24/44100, then you convert to mp3 in any of the programs.

Does Cubase handle the dithering duties that are supposed to happen at the bit rate conversion? Do other DAWs do it as well? I always bounced my 24 bit multitrack files to 2 track & then dithered to 16bit in a 2 track editor like Sound Forge (I also use a PC) - is this not necessary?

Thanks for the help guys, but how do I change the sample/bit rate on material I've already recorded?

change the settings of the export.