Kalle Rantaaho

We're still in dark regarding the actual volume of your recordings. What kind of dB's do the meters show?

Does the guitar have the kind of sound you're after? Also, good recordings of acoustic guitar are often made with more than one mics - for example one for the foot of the neck and one for the body. Talking about the rewievs on the BM-800 , one needs to remember that "excellent budget mic" or great value for money" does not mean it's an excellent or great mic. My (and friends) experiences of the cheap chinese mics have also taught me (us), that their quality is not consistent. The one that you buy isn't necessarily as good as the one rewieved. (I don't know if the rewieved gadgets are randomly from the shelf, or sent to the rewiever by the manufacturer). I've also struggled a lot to get that full and juicy sound of acoustic guitar. Not there yet :o/

If the input signal can not be adjusted in the audio interface I'm puzzled. As the idea, obviously, would be having the tracks level slider set at 0 and then adjusting the input signal so that the tracks meter shows something like -12 - 18 dB , peaks maybe around -6. If I remember correctly, with Input Echo enabled the track meter shows the output level of the recording track. There is something I'm missing now, because I can't think of a situation when you can't record loud enough without getting distortion. Someone wiser than me most likely spots the solution.

I don't know what kind of audio it is on the track in the picture (if it's quiet jingle bells or loud power guitar), but it does look like a low level recording. As I mentioned in my post above, it is no use talking about the volume of the exported track, if we don't know the RMS level ( or any freely worded comment on the desibel-levels.) of the Master Bus at export and that of the exported track. What you hear is irrelevant if you're not aware of the actual level of the track. A volume slider can make a silent track play back loud, and vice versa, but it doesn't make it loud or silent. And we can not answer any of your questions properly, before we know the levels you use at export and the levels of the exported track. And, if I understood correctly, you mean your exported track is quiet compared to commercial tracks. So if you play your track and a commercial track after another say, in Windows Player, with the same volume setting, and your own track is too quiet, it is obvious the problem can't be corrected with any play back settings anywhere: The level of the quiet track simply is low, in that case. The problem can only be corrected in SONAR or any other audio editor using FX and editing the project correctly.

If all your tracks are routed to the Master Bus, and Master Bus is then used as the export source, the level of the exported project is exactly the same as the SONAR project (assuming the Master Bus level is set at 0) It is not your ears, but the dB-levels of the audio file that tell you the truth about the level of the project when played back in different systems. The volume settings of different software are seldom identical. You can not get the "commercial level" using only the volume sliders of the tracks. To produce a loud mix, like the commercial ones, includes many factors. Some of which are: - Volume automation of individual tracks. A loud peak or phrase prevents you from raising the volume without clipping/distortion. The peak hits the roof. So you must either lower the loud part or raise the quite part to achieve a higher average volume. You may need to do partial automation on many tracks. - Compression FX on individual tracks when needed. You get better results compressing a little at a time. So - a little compression on the track and some more in bus or Master Bus.any - EQ of tracks and projects. ( a common problem is sub-frequencies of for example bass guitar, synths or piano , that produce volume, ie. raise the level meters to red, but are in fact almost inaudible to ear or too low for your loudspeakers) Use a frequency analyzer to find out the frequency content of your tracks. Compare that to commercial recordings. - Limiting/compressing the project when exporting.

My bad, sorry. I only read one of the answering posts asking about the MIDI data. Checking the opening post I see you're talking about audio basslines.

MIDI has no sound, it is control data. The MIDI signal needs to be routed to a synthesizer (VST i or hardware) in order to hear anything. You say that after the recording you can play back the audio. If so, there must be a synth that is producing the sound. If it is the motherboards Wavetable synth, it 's not an ideal solution and should be changed . The help files give you advice on inserting a soft synth, if you're not familiar with the procedure. I'm on an antique version of SONAR so I don't dare to give detailed info, because something may be different in the modern ones.

I've saved a gazillion of DX, VST and VSTi presets, too, and this is the irst time I hear of such behaviour. Then again, I'm on ancient software.

And every track/bus should be routed to the master bus, which is used as the export source. Feedback problem? Never experienced such here. Internal or external? Your latter post indicates it could be in-the-box-feedback. IIRC it is possible (?). Do you have a microphone on (external mic or PC's integrated mic) picking the sound from the loudspeakers? Hard to answer without knowing more about your set up/connections and workflow.

I would bounce the song on a stereo track inside the same project, then do the same to the additional verse and position it in the right place. That way there's no risk at all of messing the original project in any way. Then, if you like the result you can go the whole ripple editing route of all 30 tracks.

Simply put: A mono source/input recorded on a stereo track plays back through the left side only.

The difference in audio is not the point when choosing between 32/64 bits. 64 bit version can utilize much more memory, thus giving far better performance.

[I have a simple MIDI track that I downloaded, and wanted to change the instruments on one of the tracks. But, when I edit that track to use another instrument, it changes the playback of all the tracks.] What do you use for producing the sound? In order to have different MIDI tracks with different instrument sounds you usually need to have each track using a different MIDI channel. You don't tell anything about your workflow. Could some of your problems root back to the actual MIDI-files you're using? I've never used other MIDI than the one I've created myself, so I can't give real answers, but could there be some settings embedded in the MIDI-files? Someone here surely knows more. I've never experienced the kind of issues you describe.

A lot of good advice above. Having often seen cases, where the OP doesn't actually know how to find out the actual level of the audio, I want to ask: How have you come to the conclusion that the tracks level is too low? Remember, that what you hear, is not the answer. There are many ways of getting distracted listening to the exported audio through different signal paths (Different routes inside the DAW, Media Player, etc.). What are the db levels of the exported track ? When you import it back to the DAW, does the level remain the same? If this really is a question of a single acoustic track, normalizing is a very sane first step, IMO. Just don't normalize up to 0 dB, but somewhere around -4 - -5 dB. Then add a limiter/compressor to raise the level to your liking. Just don't aim at 0 db. If the wav audio is later converted to mp3, you need at least 0,3 db margin to avoid clipping when converting. What do you have on the acoustic track? An acoustic guitar or piano? It's possible that low, almost inaudible hums of the instrument disturb the sound image, adding volume that is irrelevant, and leads to clipping, when you try to raise the dominant audible parts to a good level. Try EQing / High pass filtering out the lowest 50-80 hz (or even 100-120 hz depending on the material).

So, is it not possible in Tempo view to move the whole edited tempo curve with all the adjustments up or down? I've never needed to do it, but I've always thought that's the way if necessary.

I'm closer to 70 than 60. I remember Serling and his voice well. Foreign series are here always with subtitles (except for documentaries), so I could enjoy his voice already in Twilight Zone opening /closing lines. His voice matured and got better with age, due to better recordings as well, I believe.

I think it's quite interesting how spoken word can be more difficult to record than singing. As already referred to by some, it may be an unpleasant surprise to realize, how small "artefacts" or mannerisms in speech can make the result irritating or distracting. Details that may sound good, or at least quite ok in singing can make spoken expression hard to listen. The smallest unnecessary sounds, grow "louder" by every repetition. Very common is speech produced with mouth movements too "narrow", so that the result is sprinkled all over with tiny smacks and licks, which are impossible to edit out. Which makes me think of the TV-series "Taken" from early 2000's, starring Dakota Fanning. The narrative parts by Dakota were so unbelievably good I could never imagine a ten year old child can do something like that. I sometimes did rewinds just to enjoy the perfection.

...and it depends very much on the material how well the conversion is done. For example distorted sounds may cause lots of mistakes. Be prepared to do a lot of corrections manually.

Klaukkala, a stone throw north of Helsinki, Finland.

A compressor may introduce results, that make you need to EQ, and an EQ may cause a need to compress. So, depending on the material, it can be useful to have more than one of one or both. I would start with an EQ, though.

My warmest condolences.

My first thought was: Which one of the two audio interfaces sound more true? Which one should you use for music making in order to get mixes that work outside your studio? As SB is known better as a gaming card, could it be the sound you hear is somehow enhanced or otherwise manipulated? I may be totally wrong, but that's what popped in my mind. I used to be a happy SB user years ago.

A disc with Cakewalk Apprentice came with a Sound Blaster something around 1991.

If this were a bug, most likely many users would have experienced it, as the task you describe is something people do all the time. There surely is a simple explanation.

I'm a crossword fan. It's my way of getting my brains settled before going to sleep. Yes. The topical hit words vary along years. The picture of 9/11 terrorist Atta was one "entry" that was very notable back then. I believe every crossword filler here recognizes his face for the rest of their lives. I wonder if that might be too sensitive or politically incorrect a clue to be used in the US? Just popped in my mind: I havent seen a single crossword puzzle with Trump as the answer in it! What are the odds...I can't believe it. One of the impressive constructions that I remember was two 16-letter words on top of each other horizontally, and if I remember correctly, a 23-letter word crossing them vertically. I don't remember what the words and clues were, but that particular crossword was a masterpiece.