bitflipper

Compression and automation. The former to raise the quiet bits while limiting the loud bits, but using gentle settings, e.g. 2:1 ratio. Mostly, though, use automation to level the overall volume changes. If you're happy with the mix and are mainly concerned with overall dynamics, put a volume envelope on the master bus. If you want to get tricky, you can automate the limiter instead, but that technique takes some time to master and Christmas is fast approaching, so the volume automation is probably your best quick 'n dirty approach.

I just save up all the little chewy candies that come in every Sweetwater shipment, then eat them until one finally grabs the foreign object. It's not always easy. Sometimes, it can take more than one bong hit before I can truly get the job done.

In the old forum, whenever I'd come across a memorable post I'd paste it into a text file. Got some doozies in there. But not a single entry has been gleaned from the new forum. Here's a reminder of how it used to be... And let's not forget this classic: We just don't see that sort of humor around here anymore, and I have to agree with Mike's assessment: "noice!", indeed. Fortunately, we still have Gearslutz for our daily doses of entertaining malarkey. Yes, I said "malarkey". Not a political endorsement.

Also, Keni, have you considered a GoFundMe page? I've never done that so I don't know how effective it is, but you've got a lot of friends here. I know I'd gladly throw something into the hat.

Nothing at all this year. Came close to clicking on Fabfilter Pro-R, but decided I didn't really need it. The only Black Friday purchase I made was a copy of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Video games: the anti-productivity marvel. I actually resented having to put the game on hold for Sunday's band rehearsal.

My burglary took me completely by surprise. Even if I had anticipated it, I don't think I would have been adequately prepared. For one thing, I couldn't even list all my stuff. Lots of little (but still expensive) items such as stompboxes, cables and software. So first step is to make a list. Create a spreadsheet that you can continually add to as you acquire new items or think of things you'd forgotten you had. Make sure you regularly back up that spreadsheet offsite, e.g. a thumb drive that you can stash in your car's glove box. In the list, note descriptions, price originally paid, serial numbers, model numbers and the date you acquired it. The insurance company will want all that information. When the cops arrive, they'll want that list, too, so keep a printed copy on hand because it's hard to think of everything when you're still in shock. Next, take photos of everything, front and back with a closeup of the serial number. Again, back those photos up in case the thieves make off with your computer and/or phone as well. Photos taken with you in the picture, e.g. at a gig or during a recording session, carry more weight than just a static photo because they lend proof that it's really your stuff. Assume the police will be little or no help. Theft is so rampant these days that they'll usually come right out and tell you that your gear is gone for good. Even if you find items at a music store or pawn shop, in most locales they are not obligated to give them back to you, even if you can prove ownership. So just let it go. In fact, the worst outcome if you are insured is that the police do recover your stuff, but after you've already been reimbursed by insurance. At that point you have to pay back the insurance company, and now you have duplicate gear. That means having to unload your old stuff on Craigslist, which could be complicated because all that stuff has been already been reported as stolen. My advice to Keni: think of it as being magically transported back to your 20's, a time when you also had nothing. Now you get to start over, this time with decades of wisdom to inform your choices about what's truly essential. Maybe that's a second-hand Chinese Strat copy and a no-name amp. What's important is that you still have the ability to make music - with two sticks if that's all you have - and that can't ever be stolen from you.

I'd have to test this to be sure, but my guess would be that the mono plugin is still forcing mono even though it's disabled. And no, not all plugins work the same way when mixing mono and stereo. Some are smarter than others. Some get downright flaky when you send the "wrong" interleave to them. When in doubt, if the vendor offers both mono and stereo versions, use whichever is appropriate for the track. In the case of a stereo effect such as ping-pong delay, it's best to set the track interleave to stereo, even though the audio itself is mono.

I have most of the D16 fx plugins. Each one has some unique trick that suits a very specific application, just not for everything. For example, Toraverb is never going to be your go-to on the main reverb bus, but it's really good on toms and snare. Only one of the D16 plugins gets used here in almost every project, and that's Redopter.

Everything's 40% off. Lotsa goodies over there. Here are two I can personally recommend: APE (Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble) is a small percussion library that I use a lot, and it's currently on sale for $27. (The full non-micro version is also on sale for $69.) A good complement to APE is the Bamboo Stick Ensemble for $23. And don't forget to grab a handful of the $3 Iron Pack mini-libraries while you're there.

This is the default chain because EQ -> Comp is more frequently used than the other way around. Of course, that's neither a hard rule nor an implied recommendation. Any and all default values are chosen by the developer based on his best guess as to what the user is most likely to want to do, most of the time. Why EQ before compression? Simple: EQ affects how the compressor works, while the reverse is rarely the case.

OK, I get it. Your (mono) effects are on the buses, not on the tracks. In that case, it makes sense.

Sure, that'll work fine. But do you really need those extra buses if they're each being fed a single mono track? Having a common (stereo) bus for guitars makes perfect sense, just as does having common buses for vocals and drums, for macro-mixing or exporting stems. But a mono track doesn't necessarily lose any of its mono-ness when routed to a stereo bus.

Imagine that: someone who's actually knowledgeable about a topic drops by the CH. Thank you, Craig. Just one minor correction...Kindles work in the bathroom, too. Which is not to say they don't have their limitations. After reading them, you cannot start a fire with them. Passing them along to friends gets pretty expensive. It's distressing when you accidentally leave one behind in an airport departure lounge. They suck at leveling a wobbly table, tilting up a guitar amp or propping a door open. If you try folding over a page to mark your place, they tend to not work afterward. And finally, you can't make yourself look smart by displaying all the trendy titles you haven't actually read on a bookshelf.

My mother died at 63, a fact that wasn't lost on me as my own 63rd birthday was approaching. Then, while enjoying barbecue at my 63rd birthday party, the phone rang. It was the call that informed me that my wife had terminal cancer. She would be gone a few weeks later, taking her last breath the night before Thanksgiving. Shades of "Final Destination"; death had granted me the reprieve I was hoping for, but it wasn't free. In the months that followed, I realized that I was exhibiting signs of depression: insomnia, avoiding people, being generally unmotivated. I thought back to how I'd coped with my mother's death - back then, music had been my therapy. So I joined a band, which forced me to play more while also addressing my creeping unsociability. Even solved the insomnia issue, at least on weekends. Today, my chops are better than ever and even my tortured singing voice has been somewhat rehabilitated. I've made new friends, gotten closer to my grandkids, and actually leave the house on a regular basis. Once the hospital bills had been cleared - with the help of Social Security and Medicare - I was eventually able to rehabilitate my finances and buy new gear. I intend to keep breathing long enough to milk the government for every penny I've got coming.

Don't get your hopes up, Geoff. My daughter's over 50 and despite working in electronics for 20 years still hasn't figured out that light switches are binary devices.

Yup, not a Windows issue. Modern monitors just don't scale like CRTs used to. Consequently, the biggest display isn't necessarily the best choice. And sorry, there isn't going to be a software solution. One potential solution is to add a second monitor that's a lower resolution, for ease of reading. I have three monitors: 34" for the track view, and two 22" displays for plugins, Melodyne and the PRV. If something's hard to read in one window, I just drag it into another. I can live with the small text in the track view, since I know where everything is. It's mostly synths and fx plugins that make me squint.

Short answer: no, it doesn't matter. But it doesn't hurt anything, either. I guess that's just another way of saying it doesn't matter.

Yes, they were sold to an investment company. Never a good sign.

We have somebody in our midst who could shed light on this, particularly why they all went away at once (industry consolidation would be my prime suspect), and that someone would be Craig Anderton. However, he doesn't waste his time down here in the CH and probably won't see this thread. I think I'll extend an invitation via PM.

It's all my fault. I used to buy most of those titles on a regular basis. Then they closed the nearest Barnes & Noble, making it less convenient. Couldn't be bothered to drive the extra distance. I accept culpability for my part in the demise of music magazines. OTOH, maybe it's your fault. You said it was a "time-filler'. Does that mean you were one of those people who read the mags but didn't buy them? Left the racks in disarray? Mixed up the drum mags with the keyboard mags? Or worse, stuffed the music production mags behind Cream and Rolling Stone?

I am not in the habit of playing virtual instruments while recording, having long ago established a methodology wherein I play and monitor hardware synths, record their outputs as MIDI and only apply soft synths after all performances have been recorded. That way I can keep buffers at max all the time while ignoring latency entirely. The only time I'd ever lower the buffers would be when experimenting with a new VI in real time. A couple weeks ago I was doing just that and had set my buffers to 64 samples, IMO the practical maximum for realtime playing at 44.1 KHz. Then I simply forgot to set them back to their normal values. By the time I noticed my mistake, I had a full project going with multiple heavy-duty samplers (Trilian, Kontakt, Superior Drummer) and fx, including Ozone. Sorry, Noel, but it didn't occur to me at the time that I owed all that to improved DAW efficiency. Knowing that it's now practical to track with smaller buffers will likely change the way I do things in the future. Way to go, Team Cakewalk!

It's unfortunately a common problem with many controllers, not just MAudio and not even just cheap controllers. Check your owner's manual, as there may be a trim adjustment inside. At any rate, it's unlikely to be a software problem.

Best line in the movie: "I pity your wife if she thinks six minutes is forever".

Brilliant! Even if that recording wouldn't have actually fit on a 78 RPM record. Coincidentally, just minutes ago I watched a video about Scott Joplin and ragtime, stride's progenitor. That and then this made me want to boot up the Kronos and jam out some old-timey piano...then I realized that despite my rather extensive collection of piano libraries, I have nothing that sounds quite like this. What is it?

Cool. It's been over a week since the last time that happened. Still getting my money's worth from those blotters in 1970. Now I gotta warm up the ol' lava lamp and try it again.