Hatstand

could you not have two separate tracks and two instances of abbey road drums? a bit of a pain I am guessing but it may be a solution.

No one mentioned pitch correction yet?

On the tracks I use the Pro channel compressor for very light compression and gain matching using the input and output on the compressor followed by pro channel eq purely for high pass.

After that I have two paths I may go down dependent on whether there are any other pro channel modules I want to use such as saturation, console emulation or tape emulation modules. In this case I will put the pro channel fx chain module in after the eq and add other vst's in there. If not I will add vst's in the fx bin (post pro channel).

If I don't need to gate the signal, then the first one will often be pitch correction such as Autotune (unless I am processing it in Melodyne as a region effect). After this it could be doublers, wideners,  high end (air) enhancementmore compression/limiting such as Waves R-Vox, more eq (usually a multiband dynamic eq such as Ozone 9) and light saturation. Current favourites for widening is the free polyverse wider and adding air the free slate fresh air

For delays and reverbs I normally create busses and use sends (you can also use aux tracks rather than busses but I find this a bit hit and miss).

The vst's are in the buss fx bin. I usually have a short plate reverb buss and long reverb buss and a delay buss(which also has output fed to the reverbs via sends)  My current favourite for the plate is Exponential audio R4 and for the long reverb either Waves IR1 convolution reverb or Valhalla supermassive (the included pro channel reverbs aren't too bad). For the delay my personal choice is the Waves H delay but I have used the sonitus delay to great effect (the sonitus delay is my favourite for doubling and getting the Haas effect). The busses also have have high pass eq to stop adding low frequencies back in. All these buss outputs get routed to the All Vox buss (I use separate fx busses and sends for instruments)

My vocals go to a Lead Vox buss which I usually have something like R-Vox on again and I also use the pro channel buss compressor.

If I have BV's they go to a BV buss. I also create an "All Vox" buss and route both the BV buss and the Lead Vox buss to this final vocal buss

The final vocal buss doesn't usually have anything on it as it is purely for volume mixing. This goes to a pre-master buss which will have the overall vsts on it. Currently this is usually pro channel CA-2A for compression and  pro channel tape saturation with Sonnox oxford inflator in the fx bin and a metering plugin.

The pre-master buss goes to the master buss which only has Sonarworks on it and occasionally Izotope Insight 2 for visuals.

It may sound like a lot of busses but it helps if you want to export dry stems or separate wet instrument and all vox  stems.

Fingers crossed that the replacement will work straight away. Let us know how it goes.

I watched or read (I cant remember) something the other week that mentioned that a lot of the great current engineers are in their 50's and try their best not to look old because of the perception that the older you get the more chance you can't hear the full spectrum easily and therefore can't mix and master which is obviously B*ll*x. Luckily experience and the ability to read a spectrum analyser helps. I for example use Sonarworks a) because the sound in my room is flatter (but not necessarily nicer) and b) because I am used to knowing what to expect.

I am aware my top end is lacking so compensate for that by listening to reference tracks where I also can't hear the top end (but can see it) and mix the tracks I have been given to achieve a similar sonic and visual match. I know it will sound different to someone without the same 4k notch that I have, but am also confident that it won't sound harsh to them. I also know that if it sounds slightly harsh to me it will be excruciating to people with pristine hearing.

I avoid car stereos as no car is the same. but do recommend listening via bass enhanced headphones or a bass amp to see if the bass end is overpowering and at the opposite end through laptop speakers a mono phone speaker or cheap earbuds to check that the vocals and top end are not too over-emphasised. Bear in mind they are expected to sound like cr*p so don't over compensate, but they shouldn't be unlistenable.

and yes I mix ITB.

|It is a cardboard box under the third arch of the local railway bridge

Hi Diana, as Noel and John have pointed out, turning off one of the hardware outputs isn't a solution but does provide more information.

As far as the direct\usb knob is concerned it is strange that the volume decreases between 80% direct and 100% direct when there is no software involved as this should only be affecting the mic input volume. There can always be the possibility of volume changes when the software is involved as this depends on the output volume of the software. Even without using Cakewalk if you listen to a youtube video with the Windows speaker output set to your audio interface output at 100% and the knob turned all the way to usb, you should hear the video sound and moving the knob towards direct will decrease the video sound down to zero at 100% direct but you would still hear the mic input.

As Noel says there could be an issue with your backing track. One way to check would be to have two copies of the stereo track on separate tracks, then pan one hard left and the other hard right, both sending their outputs to the master then click the phase button on one track and see if it makes it better or worse. The phase button is a circle with a line through it.

As Noel said it may help to attach a copy of the project file to a post. There are instructions in the manual of how to save and find a project file. As John mentioned there are loads of youtube tutorials available. There are links on the forum area for tutorials.

Hi Diana, so it looks like you have established that the direct works but if I understand you correctly you are saying that even if you have nothing plugged into an input, when you play back from Cakewalk the sounds still come through your headphones even if you have the knob turned fully to direct?

In regards to your stereo audio track sounding better in mono have a look at what is going through the hardware outputs on cakewalk. You can see this from the console view and selecting to show hardware output strips as per the screenshot below;

.;

You should see signal going through both channels of your hardware output(the red faders). If so then try pulling the fader down on the left then the right channel to check if both channels are getting through to your audio interface. If not (or the left and right both work but sound completely different) that could be your issue.

Just a thought but with your microphone and headphones plugged into the interface and the direct/usb knob turned fully to direct do you hear your microphone without running cakewalk?

Most interfaces should have audio output going from the input to direct without running any software. It may perhaps only be heard in one side as sometimes input 1 goes to left and input 2 goes to right and so on. If you can hear something then chances are your direct/usb mix is working correctly as direct just gives you the signal from the input of the interface and usb will give you anything coming from your software which will be just the output or a mix of the input (possibly slightly delayed) if the input echo switch is on + the output of any other tracks.

The input (mic) track probably should be set to mono, the imported audio track set to stereo

There is a way to record the metronome in CbB

Create an audio track and then go to the send section and send to a new aux track (there is probably a quicker way to create an aux track)

Set the metronome bus output to none and also set it to send to the new aux track.

Set the metronome to play on playback. set the aux track to record, and then start recording. You will then have a recording of the metronome on the aux track which you can output to a new bus and pan the bus to the opposite side to the mix

Hi Enzo have you looked at the tutorials section of the forum, there are some great links to videos in how to use Cakewalk and a whole series in italian if that happens to be your language of choice

The pro channel eq also shows the spectrum in real time when expanded out if this helps

41 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Just get the one. Or two out of three. Maybe get them all to be done with. 

But don't whatever you do, use them all on the same project, unless you are hooked into a supercomputer and even then you may want to freeze some tracks 😀

Having looked into my crystal ball (the standalone version not the VST), in 2021 I will be purchasing the following;

• Music Production Suite 5 (and then later 6)
• Komplete 14
• Sampletank 5
• Waves CLA Ring Ripper(the curry inspired, sphincter distortion emulator)
• Valhalla De-Verb
• Oeksound Grate (adds harmonics modelled on fingernails down a blackboard)
• The updated Air Music Production Suite (Hybrid 4, Xpand! 3, LoomIII, Strike 3.5 and Transfuser 1.02)

and finally Spitfire "Amateur Dramatic Society - band and choir editions" (available with articulations for "out of tune" and "out of time")

4 hours ago, ZincT said:

Hey, I'm from the Medway area originally and most of my family are still there. One of my sisters lives near Rochester Castle and we went to a Pretenders and Ultravox gig in the grounds of the castle a few years back. Happy Days   Good luck with your renovations!

I was originally from Adelaide in Oz but moved to UK many years ago. I live just off the High Street. As you can see my windows need replacing :D

2 minutes ago, telecode 101 said:

Merry Christmas all!

 

(Or Happy Holidays -- not sure what is the politically correct way to say it anymore. I am afraid to use Christmas or he or her or she or him anymore in case I get attacked. :-()

 

 

 

I used to get a card from Shure every year as I had an endorsement back in the day. They always went with "Season's Greetings". Seems to cover all the bases

Seasons Greetings from Rochester in Kent. Next year I will spend less on plugins and more on house renovations 😀

I just ran Native Access and got Amplitude 5

22 hours ago, cclarry said:

These are the most "Off the grid", underdiscussed, plugins out there...
not to mention that they are some of the best!

I originally found them for their DDP maker as I was sending DDP files to production houses for CD manufacturing after mastering.

Have a few of their free plugins plus system which is also good.

As an aside if you are giving the comp a crack, note that most of the files load into CbB as Mono files. This I discovered, when I couldn't work out why Izotope Relay+ Visual Mixer wasn't affecting the placement correctly.

Just now, mibby said:

And always by the Hofa CEO...

Herr Käse

2 topics in one day? I'm on a roll!

I have done this for a few years (never won owt), but it gives me something to do between Xmas and New Year when I can't move due to stuffing myself more than the turkey.

Usually a cheesy Xmas song, but this year it is a cheesy Xmas Rock song!

HOFA Xmas Mix Contest

Your latest Sound Collective software giveaway is an enormous library of sounds and patches for ZamplerSounds’ Zampler RX workstation

(also included). 

Normally retailing for €85 and weighing in at a whopping 11GB, Zampler RX Creative Bundle comprises eight sound banks from the Zampler catalogue, as well as the Zampler RX VST/AU plug-in instrument itself.

Login to get it (need to have one of their products (no doubt it will also turn up at Focusrite)

Available until February 2nd

Think I need another hard drive with all this free stuff coming up!

I too find it interesting when people try to sell emulations of "classic" compressors as a selling point. Being old enough to actually be around when compressors were in use, I remember the dbx 160 to be ok in the studio but flaky on tour, couldn't get on with Valley People comps, my favourite was the drawmers which don't get the same amount of love in the virtual world.

5 minutes ago, Fleer said:

But I did find something in my dad’s desk

My dad spent a lot of time in his shed. Used to say he was looking at some Guitar on Guitar action

Wasn't sure about the Bass, Drums, Samples and Melodies mag though, but I was innocent in those days

46 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Best physical mag in the biz. 

Digital is not quite the same, I remember as a lad, the illicit excitement of finding a discarded S.O.S. centrefold lying on the footpath

$1,500,000 is for the perpetual licence. You can also get a subscription of $10.00/month for 12,500 years