Alternatives to Soundcloud?

    Hi everyone,


    I’m attempting to record more and post my stuff on-line; nothing serious (I’m an aging Dad with a day job who simply writes and records for the sheer joy of it). Putting it ‘out there’ focuses the mind on the creative process if you give yourself an aim / deadline with posting it. Or it works for me anyway. Consequently my music is strictly a free of charge thing that I post links to here and on my Facebook page. That’s it :)


    I’ve been using Soundcloud for a few years and the sound quality has never been as good as I’d like it to be. Whilst I’m not a top notch producer, it does seem a shame that I spend hours pouring over a mix to then have it compressed to kingdom come.


    Just wondering is there are free or minimally expensive services out there that will allow me to distribute what I do freely and in better quality? I’ve seen Bandcamp and am considering joining that as it appears to do what I want (distribute my music for free with no hassle in decent quality) but is this the best choice for my needs or is there a better alternative?


    Thanks


    Gary

    Hi Paul,


    Thanks for the reply but I’m definitely not doing that; I’m using Ozone these days which helpfully asks if you’re producing a track for CD or a streaming service. If you answer ‘streaming’ it turns things down.


    I’m not getting any specific problem, just an (understandable) degredafion of sound that you’d expect when compressing a wave file to a pretty low bitrate MP3. Probably not noticeable by the average listener but, if there is a viable alternative, it’s worth exploring I think.

    I'm curious as to whether it simply lowers the peak level of the material or in fact reduces the gain reduction in compression and / or limiting.


    I mean, I know that for radio one is best served by drastically reducing GR 'cause the stations employ multi band limiters that crush the Hell out of everything they play.


    To my ears, low-bitrate MP3 has a similar effect on programme material, but it's obviously nowhere near as drastic.


    EDIT:
    One can exaggerate and therefore confirm my claim by simply bit-reducing a song. The fewer bits you employ, the more-even (and loud) the various parts become. They sound like crap too, but that's not the point; this only shows that the further you reduce the number of bits below 24, the lousier it'll sound.

    Hi everyone,


    First off, this:-


    https://www.magneticmag.com/20…und-quality-uploads-half/ which is saying that Soundcloud was running at 128k but is now down to 64....


    I always upload to it using a .wav file..... I know they've always streamed but streaming does not necessarily mean mp3 and, if it is, it's not always going to be the bitrate you want. So rather than me encoding to mp3 and then having these guys encode to whatever lossy format they want, I've always sent them the uncompressed file as at least it's only getting the poor treatment once :)


    Paul - regarding Izotope, if I hover over the button in it for streaming on the master assistant, it claims -14lufs. Peak-wise, it's still up there near the limit unless I'm using it wrong!! I've not had it that long and, being a complete idiot with mastering, I just leave it to the program. It always makes it sound better so I don't argue! At some point I will throw some time at learning what it's doing but, for now, I'm hitting the autopilot!! The only other reference I can find right now is the info here:-


    https://www.izotope.com/en/blo…assistant-in-ozone-8.html

    Quote from paults

    I usually upload MP3 files to Soundcloud instead of WAV files, so the sound will not be changed so much.


    I haven't used soundcloud but I think that if you already have converted and compressed the audio to mp3 and then upload it,
    soundcloud will convert it again to their format, affecting the sound further.
    My guess is it is best to upload a lossless file (wav or flac) and then let soundcloud convert it once.


    I wish they supported high quality audio for times when more critical listening comparisons is needed.


    I think I read that soundcloud recently changed the file format to Opus (at 64) instead of Mp3 (at 128).
    Opus is according to many the best format for high quality at very low bitrates.
    It also has very low latency for streaming audio
    At very high bitrates they are all very good (opus, mp3, ogg...)


    Lossy comparisons:
    http://opus-codec.org/comparison/
    http://listening-test.coresv.net/results.htm

    I cant hear any difference with my mobile device 8o
    Most people listening with cheap speakers or headphones music on soundcloud.
    Have in mind that you check your mix also with different gear.
    Maybe this helps also

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    Thank you for the suggestions everyone -much appreciated.


    I’ll investigate Bandcamp and Soundclick further. My Soundcloud page is just Gary_W but I think it would be better going forward to have have a band name that represents what I (we) currently do / will be doing..... some tracks are just me, many involve my eldest daughter on vocals, my youngest daughter occasionally does backing and she’s coming along nicely so will probably lead on some soon. Plus my wife is trying to learn drums / cajon so, at some point, she’ll probably feature on recordings too. So I now need to find a suitable name that works...... I have one but will probably get told off for it so I’m currently walking the tightrope between bravery and stupidity. Wish me luck :)

    Quote from Gary_W

    Thank you for the suggestions everyone -much appreciated.


    I’ll investigate Bandcamp and Soundclick further. My Soundcloud page is just Gary_W but I think it would be better going forward to have have a band name that represents what I (we) currently do / will be doing..... some tracks are just me, many involve my eldest daughter on vocals, my youngest daughter occasionally does backing and she’s coming along nicely so will probably lead on some soon. Plus my wife is trying to learn drums / cajon so, at some point, she’ll probably feature on recordings too. So I now need to find a suitable name that works...... I have one but will probably get told off for it so I’m currently walking the tightrope between bravery and stupidity. Wish me luck :)

    How about 'The W's' then? ;)

    Hi everyone,


    Thanks once more for the suggestions everyone.


    I have ended up going with Bandcamp and, so far, there is a lot to like. The sound quality is better and I like the interface / the ability to make it look a bit more like a website. I’ve set all my music as ‘free’ (I’m just doing this for fun and am not under the illusion I can give up work :) ). So far, I’ve just put my latest four songs on as part of my ‘write and record a song per month of 2018’ goal.


    Name wise, I went with Double You. So kind of down the road Ingolf mentioned but not quite :)


    https://doubleyou1.bandcamp.com/releases

    Good proposition and perfect thread gary! I'm in the exactly same situation as you, so I need some challenge to record lots of ideas and covers I have in mind but that never see the light due to time constraints. Great help also to me for the sites the others suggested.


    All my best wishes for your goals!

    Best wishes for yours too Maurizo - looking forward to hearing the results :)


    I have found it quite liberating actually to do this challenge and hope I manage to meet the deadlines. There is a saying about art never being finished, only abandoned, and that is very true. This approach is a good way to ensure I focus, stop messing around and just get on with it! Mind you, the March song nearly ran over!! I finished / posted the February submission by 14th Feb so that tells you how badly I struggled with March as it took 6 weeks. Obviously this is in little bursts :)


    It is difficult. Today was a 14 hour day and I am fortunate enough to have family around me. On a day like today, disappearing for a couple of hours to write / record is not the right thing for me or for the ladies of the house! But on kinder days, this is a truly wonderful hobby that I enjoy a great deal. The Kemper means I can indulge that hobby late at night through headphones and have confidence that it’ll sound good when I come to put the song together later. For me, that makes this thing worth its weight in gold.