CDK

Hey Al, just asking for other people's advice here. I'd prefer not to normalize but just trying out different things. As one example I have a drum track that is peaking around -18db and at the start of the mix process it's far too quiet. Turning the fader up doesn't make a big enough improvement so would you adjust the gain knob? Or use a plugin to increase volume? Or go back to the original MIDI track and increase the volume?

Thanks Tom. As one example I have a drum track that is peaking around -18db and at the start of the mix process it's far too quiet. Turning the fader up doesn't make a big enough improvement so would you adjust the gain knob? Or use a plugin to increase volume? Or go back to the original MIDI track and increase the volume?

Thanks for your message, great advice. In my current project after adding eq & reverb I'm still getting the occasional master volume spike of maybe 1.1db. What's the best thing do to here, assuming anything above 0db will clip? Can I simply turn the master down a little? Or am I really sounding like a rookie now?

Apologies, that was not my intention. I'll delete the other messages. However any advice on my question would be great, thanks

I'm also looking for some mixing advice/tutorials (specifically Cakewalk if possible) on mixing/normalizing/compression if you have any suggestions? Just not sure what kind of levels I should be aiming for to get my track similar in level to a radio/commercial track without clipping. E.g. do you suggest normalizing tracks then adjusting gain (or the fader)?

I'm also looking for some mixing advice/tutorials (specifically Cakewalk if possible) on mixing/normalizing/compression if you have any suggestions? Just not sure what kind of levels I should be aiming for to get my track similar in level to a radio/commercial track without clipping. E.g. do you suggest normalizing tracks then adjusting gain (or the fader)?

I'm also looking for some mixing advice/tutorials (specifically Cakewalk if possible) on mixing/normalizing/compression if you have any suggestions? Just not sure what kind of levels I should be aiming for to get my track similar in level to a radio/commercial track without clipping. E.g. do you suggest normalizing tracks then adjusting gain (or the fader)?

Thanks Lord Tim, works perfectly. Not sure if you were replying to me but it's what I was after! I'm also looking for some mixing advice/tutorials (specifically Cakewalk if possible) on normalizing/compression if you have any suggestions? Just not sure what kind of levels I should be aiming for to get my track similar in level to a radio/commercial track without clipping. E.g. do you suggest normalizing tracks then adjusting gain (or the fader)?

Hey guys, jumping on the end of this one - how do I create an aux track or reverb bus through which I can route all my audio tracks?

Hey Tom, I was freezing then exporting because a) I was trying to solve the issue with the bad audio results from exporting, b) I've been using Cakewalk/Sonar for many years now and have never really used the freeze option; historically I have just exported whatever audio I needed without any problems. Thanks for your advice.

Hi, I have a completed MIDI track and I'm ready to export my audio and move on to mixing etc but all my exported tracks are crackly, distorted in places, jumping all around in level etc. I've tried exporting tracks one at a time and it makes no difference. The only way I can get a clean export of my tracks is to freeze each synth but that that way the exported tracks don't start from the beginning of the song and everything ends up out of sync. I don't understand what's causing the problem. Any suggestions, please? Thanks.

If we're talking virtual instruments for a moment - so when you get to the mixing stage (after you've done all your gain staging), do you export your audio into a new project and begin adding eq/fx etc from there? Would you normalize your tracks first?

Actually one last question for today/tonight. Can anyone suggest a good tutorial on using compressors/limiters (in BandLab) to get my finished track up to a volume level similar to commercially produced tracks, please?

Thanks for all your replies, everyone. I'm a very experienced MIDI programmer but not as experienced in audio processing. I appreciate all your help

Yep done that. I can't seem to get MIDI input on my controller keyboards where I want it.

Hey, yes echo is on. Clearly I've missed something somewhere else. I'll figure it out!

Hi all, MIDI routing question, specifically Kontakt. I have a few different instances of Kontakt in one project but if I set MIDI input to say, Kontakt MIDI Ch. 1 or Kontakt MIDI Ch. 2 I get no MIDI signal. Why is that? What have I done wrong? Similarly, if I wanted, say a Trombone and a Tuba in the same instance of Kontakt, to play on MIDI channels 1 & 2, I can't get any MIDI signal happening. I actually have at least 3 different Kontakt VST options come up in BandLab when I go to insert a soft synth so I'm not sure if maybe I'm selecting the wrong one for what I want to do?

Yep I've tried all the above - except for cleaning the USB connection pins, I'll try that too! So annoying.

So just to clarify, for a VST instrument for example, you set the associated audio track/s gain so it's peaking around -18dB? Or do you lower the fader the on the synth audio track? Amongst the the things I've read/watched this week one suggestion has been to set the audio track/s level at -10dB either in the composing (MIDI track) stage or at the mixing stage (in a new project after exporting all MIDI tracks to audio); then I'll have plenty of room to play with when mixing/mastering the final product. Does that make sense to you?

Yes it works fine with other apps (Transcribe, Chrome, iTunes, system sounds etc). When it disappears from BandLab it still shows up in Sibelius, just without the ASIO driver mode.

Yes it works fine with other apps (Transcribe, Chrome, iTunes, system sounds etc). When it disappears from BandLab it still shows up in Sibelius, just without the ASIO driver mode.

I've updated Windows to the latest, v1903. I've run CCleaner a couple of times and removed some duplicate files from my system drive. Can't think of anything else though?

Yep, done all that but the problem remains. It’s worked fine for a couple of years but now this. I don’t get it.

I've removed the driver and reinstalled it. I've unplugged all my USB cables and re-plugged them (which solved the problem for a few hours), I've updated Windows and I've restarted 6,000 times and just now the same error message just popped up out of nowhere. This is driving me crazy and interrupting my workflow. I've contacted BandLab and Roland support but I'm not expecting to hear from them for a few days. Any other ideas?

Do you mean each multi has its own audio output for each MIDI channel/instrument?