Traktor Pro outputting in lower quality than the original files?

help! I made a mix for my friends to show them a few liquid drum and bass tunes and I was listening back to it and I realised that the opening track didn't sound quite right. On comparison, I've come to realise that my copy of Traktor Pro outputs in slightly lower quality than that 320kbps bit rate tunes that i put in.

Could anyone help me with this? I can't help but notice it now, it's any song that I run through the program comes out sounding slightly distorted or poor quality

I quickly threw together a comparison so you can hear.

http://soundcloud.com/victree/audio-comparison-netsky-secret

 

Well Aside from the obvious volume difference there seems to be a collapsing of the stereo image but I'm not hearing a distortion issue per se. On the soundcloud is the first one through Traktor and the second the original?

 

Hmmmm, mine is doing it as well (collapsing the stereo image). Loading the same mp3 in Traktor 1.2.7 doesn't do this so it looks like its a Traktor 2 issue.

 

So I did a side by side test with both TSP1.27 & TSP2.03 open at the same time playing the same files and they played my files exactly the same through the outputs. That being said, I didn't record this material so maybe it's something with the recorder?

 

One thing to check is if the output is being compressed. I've had problems before where the audio quality just didn't sound right, and it had to do with the limiter on the output.

Toggle the "Enable Limiter" setting and see if it helps at all (and maybe adjust the gain as well):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/75360/Screen shot 2011-07-14 at 7.25.07 PM.png

 

I never use the limiter or the auto gain.

 

I have had some troubles with gain as well
I messed with the limiter and no difference
my issue seems to be with the mid range, it seems to get lower as i mix from deck to deck.
Also the effects seem muffled on some while too loud on others.

 

you're absolutely right, it is collapsing the stereo image that's the issue. as a result of this comment i realised that i had the "mono" box ticked in my output routing settings, thanks very much SirReal and everyone else who helped me with this issue!

 

Sweet, glad you discovered the issue. Happy Mixing.