Amberwolf

Sound creation is entertaining and fun, and there are a bajillion ways to do it, so if you find that one way doesn't suit you or you don't have the things to do it (and can't find an affordable or free one) in one way, you can try out other ways that accomplish the same end, once you discover the essentials of how to do a particular thing. (that part may take some research, but there are a lot of resources, starting with the internet, and then there are physical books about sound design as well, that can be found at libraries in some cases). Some things are "obvious" once you start playing wiht the controls of synths and fx, and some you kinda have to learn what is actually happening with a specific sound to know how to recreate it...but it is possible to rediscover it without researching others' info if you spend enough time poking around at things (and you could discover a new process that's all your own for your own "sound" while you're at it). I started long ago (80s) with microphones and thrift-store-find reel-to-reel and cassette tape machines, then really cheap casio and yamaha "toy" keyboards, and because I was just doing what I could think of rather than researching anything, reinvented a bunch of processes that had already been known for decades :flushed face: . I started learning electronics and physically altering those cheap machines to do things they werent' intended for, and it was fun, but time-consuming (and sometimes disheartening when I would unfixably break something accidentally, and have to find a new (used) item to replace it. This century, when it started to get really cheap and easy to do stuff in the computer instead, I had even more fun because I could create sounds as presets, save those, experiment more, make chains of fx to do things that just one couldn't, and best of all everything can be saved separately and almost evertything has "undo" so if you make a mistake and didn't save as a new file yet you can go back to what you had before. These days it's even easier, since there are so many freebie synths and fx and sound manipulation programs, there's almost certainly already one around that already has a preset to do a specific thing you want to do.... I don't design all the sounds I use these days, because so many synths / etc come with good usable presets, but I hardly ever leave one exactly as-is, and "twiddle knobs" to see what i'll get sometimes when it isn't quite what I wanted (if I don't already know how that synth "works inside" to make the sound I want directly). For examples you can listen to stuff on http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com where most of the synth sounds I use are from or made on Z3TA2+ with assorted fx chains (mostly stuff that came with SONAR at one time or another), often automated to evolve the sounds over the time of the piece.

It *is* annoying. I use the Sonitus MBEQ, EQ, Reverb and Delay all the time (and the others now and then), at least one of them in every project (essentially since they came with SONAR the first time, perhaps a couple decades back). So I end up automating the band gains in the EQ, for instance, and the individual band bypasses in the MBEQ, the Mix in the reverb and the L & R Mix in the Delay (since the L/R link retardedly only affects the sliders and not external automation you have to use two separate envelopes to do it). In some cases it is easier to have two separate tracks (or buses) with the fx in only one, and either have clips that need fx in appropriate places in each one, or use automation on a track to send or not send to one or the other bus, etc. Or use per-clip fx bins for certain things, though I dislike doing that as it's very difficult to remember which ones have them and I can't automate those with in-track automation that I can copy and paste around. (a process which is difficult enough as it is, as is drawing in the envelopes to start with; though I'm sure that's improved since my version was created). Would save significant time if there didn't have to be workarounds like these. FWIW, I've had this issue with numerous plugins (and synths); almost nothing I have ever used has *all* the parameters I require to be automatable; it's almost always something obviously needing to be (like a bypass, or a mix, etc). My opinion is that if it has a controllable element, it should be automatable, *and* it should correctly expose the value ranges for the automation to the host, so the host correctly labels both the envelope itself, and the values displayed in tooltips/etc (rather than a name that's different than what the onscreen control shows, and values or units that are not related to those the control itself uses).

Sorry for the necropost, but seeing the artwork in the thread, I felt these belonged here (if they belong anywhere ). They were created in an attempt to make an avatar for use in various places; none of them are really what I was after, though, since Google's AI Test Kitchen ImageFX frequently ignores specifics in a user's input description, and is very inconsistent in "understanding" various terms.

Just a data point; probably not relevant: In Ookami no Kari no Yume I use the Radius (Mix Advanced, IIRC) stretching via Ctrl-drag-clipedge on most of the many wolf-sounds within it, some of them by at least as much as 154% longer, or 75% shorter (to help their timing line up better musically), with no significant audible artifacts. (if soloed, I can hear some tiny differences here and there from the unstretched versions, but in the mix it's inaudible, and no one who hadn't heard the originals would likely be able to hear these). Most of the clips are less than a second long, some are a few seconds, and some are as much as nearly half a minute. I don't have the other algorithm available in my version of SONAR, so don't know what results I'd get with it. I think I tried all of the available Radius options in the AudioSnap dialog with Mix Advanced giving the best results (not that there was much difference that I recall).

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Do you mean you haven't had access to the presets, or access to the plugins? If the former, I can export the presets as a file you may be able to import via the Preset Manager within the Sonitus plugins. If the latter, it could be that the plugins are locked to the version of Sonar that they were installed with (on my system they work with all the SONAR versions I have had, but I had not tried them with CbB back when I tried to use it on the system some time back (had to remove CbB because of problems it caused with the rest of my setup and have never tried it again on here), so I don't know if they can be used in CbB.

Thanks for listening and replying! The vocal part was added after the percussion (and almost all the rest of the song except the distortion guitar sounding bits) was created. I didn't really have a specific intent other than to add the dreamy vocal sound to it, and to experiment with the new vocal samples I had gotten, and try some stuff with Perfectspace I hadn't done before...but it turned out to work with the rest of the music. Sometimes my experimental additions don't work and I leave them out, or move them to an entirely new project and start out with *just* the new stuff, and begin adding things to *that* to make a new sonic sculpture. Most of my stuff tends to be commented as something that would be the background of a movie scene or similar, so I call / tag them "MotionPictureScenes" most of the time. There's one on my bandcamp page called Patterns of Behavior with the subtitle "End Titles" because I was told it sounded like a track that would play during the end titles of a movie.

Having lived in farm country....better see than smell. Or step in.

What does "simple and round theme" mean? A visual theme for a specific program (presumably CbB)? A musical theme? ?? If a visual theme, are you looking for a specific color set, or other specific qualities?

I usually have several music projects going at any particular time. If I get stalled on one, I go to another. Often the resulting process stimulates a thought on how or what to do with the stalled one. Or I just flip the lid up on the piano and start noodling, or pull a guitar down and noodle on that. If I'm stalled on all of them, I go to one of my many other "hobbies" (learning robotics / coding, ebikes, cgi artwork, 3d printing, learning about astronomy / astrophysics and wolves (and many other things (often via random internet walks), but especially those), metalwork, electronics, sound creation (sometimes used musically, sometimes not), "gardening" / yardwork, playing with the dog(s), sewing and leathercraft, helping people with various problems (usually online), reading, etc., etc.). (I also use all these hobbies to fill the time when I can't sleep, which is most of the time, when I am not working the dayjob)

Some thoughts: If you're not posting the project itself, can you at least show us what is in the audio fx bin for a specific track and all of the busses it passes thru on the way to the audio interface? Or, disable all audio fx in the chain, then solo that track and play it. Then render it with fx still disabled, and compare. That will eliminate all the audio fx as a possible cause. (there is an option during the render to not use the fx, but this doesn't change how it's played back, so it's not useful for this comparison). I don't know why an fx would be different during render (realtime or fast bounce) than playback, but if it is, it could be causing this problem. There are synths that have different options for render vs playback; I don't know if any fx do (other than the dialogs you have already found, which are probably not from the fx themselves since they are all identical and probably wouldn't be if they were from the fx manufacturers). Note that even with that menu you've already found, there could be other (manufacturer) settings for this within the actual synth or fx for render vs playback (for instance, Z3TA+2 has such a setting for Realtime Quality and another for Offline Quality within it's Options menu), and if so, you may need to check inside the settings of every synth / instrument and fx to be sure they are set the same to get identical results...but even if they are different settings, you should not have a significant difference in the audio output; they usually only affect the quality of the render, and the difference in sound is usually slight, and does not normally have any volume differences). If it's not already been done, another test is to route one track directly to your audio output instead of to any bus, disable it's fx bin, solo that track, and compare direct playback to a render. (this eliminates any fx bin or bus issue) Another test is to create a blank test project, and copy/paste one track from your existing project to it (and do any synth setup necessary to make it the same as the existing project), and do the comparison within the test project. (this eliminates all of the busses and tracks other than the one copied). It's unlikely that anything above has to do with the problem you're having, but it's worth checking. FWIW, the only times I have ever had a project sound significantly different in render vs playback was when I had something unchecked in the included stuff during the render, but your latest screenshot eliminates that. The only other sound differences I've encountered were from the render settings within a synth, but these were all subtle differences, nothing like what you're experiencing.

During my last collaboration, the guitar track file sent to me had to be manipulated a bit to get it into SONAR, and it didn't lineup with anything. After some processing I got it to the correct tempo/timing, but hadn't yet found the lineup points (it was an improv track to the song I'd already nearly completed otherwise), so when I went ahead and listened to it to figure out where it should start, I found a few possible spots, and it ended up working out better with a different start point, and with some parts cut and shifted around from there, too. If you're curious it's Convocation of Lies over on http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com ; the Lauscho version in the Lies, Truth, and Assorted Inconveniences album has the guitar track, and there are at least a couple earlier versions on the page that don't have the collab guitar track in there (just the original bits I'd played in).

The options below should be available within modern Sonar, but I don't know exactly which dialog they are in. Just to be sure you know, excluding the MIDI device wont' stop it from accessing the audio portions of the device. The MIDi stuff doesn't affect the audio sample rate, only the audio device(s). If you want to prevent an audio device from being accessed at all, you might be able to do that by disabling it in the Windows Device Manager. If not, you should be able to uncheck the audio device from the list of devices in the Audio drivers within Sonar. If all you want to do is keep it from accessing or listing the MIDI portion, then let it add that, then in Midi Options / Devices, uncheck that device's in and out, and it won't be in any of the lists of ports that tracks can access. But it won't stop the audio portion of the device from being accessed, and it will probably prevent you from using MIDI to control the device. So doing what yoru thread title suggests is likely the opposite of what you want to do. I suspect you will get better answers by changing the word in the title of your thread from MIDI to Audio.

Ok. I'll be sure not to reply to you in the future, to avoid causing you problems.

Do you mean Trim? **** If so, you can use Widget Tab Managment to turn that on in the Custom tab view (or make your own tab, or use any of the tabs except "All"). Right click in the empty space below your track strips, and WTM is in the menu there. (mgiht also be elsewhere). **** I don't have any track controls for Gain in my ancient SONAR version, just Trim and Volume for audio or synth tracks. I don't know what's available in modern versions.

I decided to delete it without installing when I started getting emails about free shipping for "my new mk8". First I just went to unsubscribe, until it showed in my prefs that I should get emails about my new Mk8, which I don't have, didn't and wouldn't and couldn't order. A company that can't keep their account info straight, and/or have deceptive info there, etc., isn't one I want to deal with.

At least in my ancient SONAR version, the same option exists in the track view PRV editing options in each MIDI track. In my version it's in the Show Hide Midi Events dropdown button with the little note and the "bar graph".

I use the in-track peak markers as well, so I can use automation to deal with the peaks as well as the main level of each track. For further metering I use the old free version of Voxengo SPAN (which I use to find out things I need to EQ out either to fix problems or to just see what I need to make holes for in other tracks.). Sometimes I pop in the free version of EAS Inspector to see what it tells me for it's various preset levels of strictness on the master bus. @giant ll If I EQ out stuff that a particular track doesn't need, then there's more room for energy in other tracks that do need that stuff, so the whole thing doesn't have to be as "loud" to get the same result. It also makes the audio less muddy. I use automation for some tracks that do need the stuff in some places, to reduce or turn off the EQ in those places. I tend to push mixes as close to 0dB as I can, because if I don't, then my tracks are too quiet and the few people that listen to them won't because they have to turn their volume up for them and then back down for their normal music. To help with that, I use the ancient but simple Sonitus Multiband compressor on tracks and/or busses as needed, using automation to turn things on and off whereever needed, bypassing or soloing bands, changing knees or levels, etc. The actual levels I use will vary (a lot) depending on the specific project, as some will need louder drums, some need quiet ones, etc. If you want to hear the results I get to see if they are applicable to your mixing / project style, there are a variety of different projects over at http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com The only ones that are not done in the methods above are in and below the row starting with the ancient Uncommon Ground album. Everything above that is done with variations of the above methods, with the newest stuff at the top, which has the most developed versions of these methods and probably the best mixes.

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The NG is still there? (haven't visited for....feels like decades?)

Naming storms for targets now?

Given the confusion by users that don't have that yet, perhaps you could consider creating a simple update to the BA (that it would notify users exists, assuming it is built to update itself, etc) that causes it to tell users to use the CPC instead? Having seen some of the threads here on this forum about such things, it might save your support people some time, and almost certainly save users frustration. Keep in mind that I'm not a target user for such things, just a recently-visiting outside-bystander looking at a handful of recent threads/posts, so I don't have anything like the depth of experience y'all do with this.

If they'd put Kontakt itself up at that price, then I *might* be able to skip enough household budget stuff to swing it, and then be able to use some of the many deals out there I'd love to then starve for, but they nearly all require the full version of Kontakt to use, so $300 for that plus the deal cost means they're impossible. (some deals also require things like buying an iLok dongle, as they don't come with them, and that's another cost I can't swing). If anybody runs across a super deal on Kontakt in the two-digit (or less :lol: ) price range, please post it up!

This plugin is supposed to (I think) generate various vinyl sounds without any audio input https://www.samplescience.info/2023/03/vinyl-crackles-generator.html but I haven't tried it. For regular processing like the one this thread is about, have you ever tried this one? I don't need this sort of thing very often, but have used this freebie a few times over the last couple decades. (don't recall when I first got it, but it's been a long time) https://www.izotope.com/en/products/vinyl.html if you like the older interface (the only one I have used) it should be the one at the bottom of the page here https://www.izotope.com/en/products/legacy-products.html This freebie I got at some point but apparently never tried out; it's still in my "not installed" folder https://vetrixmusic.com/download_vstplugins.html There's others out there, too but haven't tried them out. When I need a different kind of lofi-ness or similar in most of my projects, I use BiFilter2 https://www.tone2.com/bifilter2.html I don't remember which software that came with (been years), maybe some version of SONAR? but you can buy it separately. I use it for the automated distortion/etc on the synth / e-guitar-like "lead" track that starts around 30 seconds in on TT # Nex Ool here https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/tt-nex-ool the automation turns it off about a minute in. I've used it on quite a few projects as resonant filters and whatnot.

What is "the music player thingy"? How is it being used? Is it playing back rendered songs that are MP3, WAV or some other plain audio file? Or is it playing back Cakewalk / Sonar projects with their own internal effects? Within Sonar there is an Audio Option in the Advanced tab (in my version, it may be elsewhere in yours) for "Play Effect Tails After Stopping", that may affect the issue you see, depending on the specifics of what exactly you're doing. There is also an option (while freezing, bouncing, etc) for how long a tail to leave, IIRC.