Problem with recording electric guitar (distortion problems)

[Bencuri]

I want to upload a video tutorial on how to play a tune on the electric guitar. My problem is: when I play the recorded wav file, on certain devices (my mobile phone and one of my laptops) the sound is distorting. I noticed that on the same problematic devices, when I play the tutorials of others from Youtube, the distortion also occurs, so it has to be a problem of the properties of the speaker of these devices (the original audio tracks released by bands doesn't distort though). I wonder if I could improve the sound so less distortion would occur?

Find a sample from my recording attached to this post.

Here are some details about how I recorded this:
- For this sample I recorded the guitar with delays and EQ added before the input. However, the distortions also occur when I record in a way that the guitar is plugged right into the input, maybe a little lesser though. (I set the EQ in a way to emphasize high frequencies, maybe that raises the possibility of distortions?)
- The recorded signal never had clipping. Actually what you can see in the sample is the signal I recorded, the only editing I did was doubling the channels, because originally it was mono.

So the playback is okay on my desktop speakers, on my iPad and HP 625 laptop, but it is distorting on my mobile phone and my HP Probook. If you have any ideas how I could make the signal a bit more consumable for the last two devices, I would appreciate.

[netmask56]

The amount of bass is overloading the totally inadequate speakers in small mobile phones. Bass requires a large speaker area. So not sure if it is a practical solution but one way is to do 2 mixes, one for better systems and a special one for small mobile phone speakers where you would roll off the bass. One more thing to check, if you have a good pair of headphones, preferably over ear types listen critically using them plugged into your mobile phone. If they sound OK then that does isolate the problem to overloading the tiny speakers. If it is still distorting then there is something in the electronic chain in the particular mobile.

[aedipuss]

bass? i don't hear any bass and the waveform shows nothing under about 500htz. the wav played on computer speakers doesn't sound distorted, maybe over processed or the wrong settings on the tone/pickups used.

[raffriff42]

[Attachment 40867 - Click to enlarge]
Agree. Filtering everything below 100 or 150 Hz should do the trick.

[JVRaines]

Turn off any audio processing (EQ, normalization) that may be occurring on your phone and ProBook. Make sure you have the latest audio drivers installed.
What does the distortion sound like?

[netmask56]

Yeah aedipuss is correct no low frequency content that would account for it. Generally this is the reason for why many recordings sound crappy on miniscule speakers.. Just ran it through Adobe Audition and then on my Tannoy 15" ers . Check for any EQ and normalization or any other filters. Later I will transfer it to my iPhone and see how it goes....

[Bencuri]

Turn off any audio processing (EQ, normalization) that may be occurring on your phone and ProBook. Make sure you have the latest audio drivers installed.
What does the distortion sound like?

The distortion sounds like the effect that a Fuzz Pedal does. That type of distortion, and it is there all the time, on every note, so it is kind of constant. Why it confuses me, is because no matter if I turn the volume down on the phone, the distortion is there. You can hear the sound very silently, yet is is already distorting. On the Probook, it is different. There it sounds like that noise when the sound is too sharp and lound and overdrives the speaker. A kind of sharp resonance, and also a kind of vibration here and there, mostly on the highest notes. But this distortion is not there all the time on the Probook, only on particular notes, and if I turn the volume down to a particular level, it stops.

And these things also occur, when I use my handycam to record the guitar sound coming from the amp, taking care about correct mic level settings, that is totally odd.

[Bencuri]

Yeah aedipuss is correct no low frequency content that would account for it. Generally this is the reason for why many recordings sound crappy on miniscule speakers.. Just ran it through Adobe Audition and then on my Tannoy 15" ers . Check for any EQ and normalization or any other filters. Later I will transfer it to my iPhone and see how it goes....

EQ and normalization are set to off both on my phone and on my laptop. That cannot be responsible for the problem