bitflipper

^^^ Good point. It may go against conventional wisdom, but not every mix needs both, or either. Sometimes, the limiter is little more than a volume control. At least half of my mixes get no actual limiting at all, and for half of the other half the limiter might only catch a handful of stray peaks and thus have no impact on the mix. But that's just me. And apparently, Synkrotron too. Depends on the genre.

What the ME brings is not better limiters, but better monitoring and the objectivity of a disinterested set of ears. If you've brought the levels up to your desired target using a quality limiter, and have then subsequently made any mix changes due to the limiter's emphasis, then the ME probably isn't going to make it sound so different that you will feel a need to re-mix. I think a poll of users here would indicate that most of us mix into a limiter. Personally, I only add the limiter late into the process, after the mix is 95% complete. That way, I can distinguish between what my mix is doing versus what the limiter is doing. In the past, when I was trying to settle on a favorite limiter, I'd often try several of them. The difference from one to the next was always so subtle that in the end I adopted the one that was most ergonomically friendly and easiest to use.

The way I read the OP was that Mark was listening to the uploaded files using WMP and heard they'd been altered. Not realizing it was the player that had been messing with the file, he assumed something had gone awry with SoundCloud. We've addressed similar issues many times. Usually it's in the form of "why doesn't my exported file sound the same as in Cakewalk?". The problem is that music players aren't designed for objective evaluation, but rather think it's their job to "improve" the sound (e.g. auto-normalization, boosting bass, etc.). One player that doesn't do any such thing is the previously-recommended Foobar2000. There are plugins for it if you do want to alter the sound, but those are always intentionally applied by the user, never automatically. It's also handy for other things, such as editing metadata, batch normalization and format conversions. You might want to also check out Boom. I haven't used it yet, but it purports to be a simple player.

I'm not sure how this is related, but it's what I was reminded of while reading everyone's posts. I've been remastering and fixing up an album for a friend. It was made in 1980 on analog tape and has never been in a digital format. So we got an original copy, liberated it from its shrinkwrap and found somebody with a high-end turntable to record it. Must have been cheaply pressed, because there were a lot of pops and crackles even though the record had never been played before. Fortunately, the de-clicker in Adobe Audition was able to remove 99% of the pops, but the few that remained were going to require manual editing. That meant lots of close listening once the most obvious artifacts had been identified and the remaining clicks got more and more subtle. After a while I began to hear tiny pops that I could not see in the editor, and they'd frustratingly occur in different places with each playback. I was beginning to doubt my sanity and/or editing abilities. Then I noticed it was raining outside.

I used to get intermittent EMI. Attempts to track it down weren't going well, so I went down to the main service panel and started turning off circuit breakers one at a time until the interference stopped. Took forever because, as I said, the noise was intermittent. In the end, it turned out to be a refrigerator in the adjacent garage. Which, unfortunately, was on the same circuit as my studio/office/garage. So in the end it wasn't my brilliant methodology that solved the mystery - I just happened to remember that there was a fridge next door and unplugged it. Then I had to go around and set every clock in the house.

Great job as always, Chandler.

I put in a support request to iZotope. First time, so it'll be interesting to see if, when and how they respond. BTW, that Interpolate tool is almost worth the price of admission by itself.

Standalone, invoked via CW's Utilities menu. So it's likely already running as Administrator given that it's invoked from CW which is. I've never interacted with iZotope in the 14 years I've been a customer, guess I'll see if there's a FAQ or a forum or something. Did I say "rash"? I meant "trash". You know, that weird distortion plugin from iZotope.

Say Ed, since I've got you on the line, let me ask you a question. Every time I start up RX, I get a messagebox saying Any idea what it's trying to tell me? Everything actually works fine. The folder in question is C:\Users\davet\AppData\Roaming\iZotope\RX 8 Audio Editor Session Data (the default), and I've confirmed that the folder exists and that I can write to it. While I'm at it, I also have this weird rash...

OK, I realize now that I've asked the wrong crowd for advice. Not complaining. I always thought the RX7 was a pretty nice-looking car, if a bit cramped and noisy. And though mechanics invariably greeted it with "wtf is that?". And if you collided with anything denser than a VW bug you would almost certainly die. In all probability the de-clicker in version 8 is the same exact software. At least, they did not claim it to be improved. Truth is, that tool isn't bad at all. It just didn't work as well as Audition's, which eliminated 99% of clicks. RX 8, however, eliminated 33%. There were probably some tweaks I could have done to make it work better, but I defaulted to what I already know, which is how to de-click by hand using a spectral editor. The de-hummer, OTOH, has been improved. So if you get a hummer you can (probably) be successfully de-hummed.

Actually, Paulo, I did consider that option. Unfortunately, I do not live alone. Unless my daughter and grandkids first unanimously agree that pants are optional, I shall remain prudently panted. As it is, they already suspect that grandpa is demented. Even though there is some evidence to support their suspicions, I am not prepared to confirm it just yet.

After dropping nearly 100 lbs I bagged up all my fat pants and gave 'em to Goodwill. A chapter closed, I thought. Then quarantine happened. I've had to buy new pants. Haven't tossed the now-too-small ones, though. One has to at least pretend to retain a little optimism in these trying times.

I bought myself an early birthday present and picked up RX 8 Standard a couple days ago. Yes, I should have waited until Black Friday, but I had an immediate need for it and forked over the $328 with tax. For surgical editing I have relied on Adobe Audition for 15 years, and have been consistently impressed with how good it is. But it's 32-bit code and crashed when attempting to load a particularly large file in the spectral editor. I have no interest in later versions of Audition, since you can only rent it nowadays. So RX 8 was my only option. First impression was that RX is nowhere near as easy to use as Audition. Just navigating the main window was frustrating, with something as basic as looping on a section being unnecessarily hard. The de-clicker wasn't as precise as Audition's, leaving several pops that had to be manually treated. Spectral editing took a lot more time than with Audition, but I'm sure it'll get quicker as my familiarity improves. I like that it supports fx chains, even if I'll probably never use them. What really intrigued me was this feature called "Music Rebalance", which I thought might help me with my immediate situation, which is remastering an album without access to the original multitrack files. It lets you separate bass, drums, vocals and "everything else" into separate stems and rebalance them. Sounds pretty cool, huh? So I tried it out on an old tune, just bringing up the drums by 2 dB. I loaded it onto my pocket player and later that night A/B'd it against the original. My critical-listening environment: lying in bed in the dark, on my best headphones with a headphone amp and the highest-quality pharmaceutical cannabis. It's a setup in which even the smallest detail doesn't escape me. True to their word, the song now had louder drums. RX had even figured out that the tambourine should be included. But to my great disappointment, it also had an unpleasant midrange boost and overall loss of clarity. Not exactly Celemony-level transparency. To be fair, the source material was an MP3. It might do better on a higher-quality file. But for now it looks as though RX 8's coolest-looking feature may not actually be all that useful. Anyhow, I thought I'd solicit others' experiences with RX and maybe pick up a tip or two.

Well, technically titanium may not qualify as heavy metal. It's used because of its light weight. Not implying Kenny's a lightweight. Now, had Kenny's insurance forced him to go with the cheaper wrought-iron option, he'd need a Les Paul just as a counterbalance to keep from toppling over.

I used to mock people who watch dog 'n cat videos, too. Get a frickin' life, I'd say. Well, a few years ago I was stricken with excruciating back pain that lasted for 2 years before finally remedying it through surgery. It was a truly miserable period of my life. Sleep was elusive. I couldn't lie down, had to sleep in a chair. No matter how much you bundle up your feet still get cold when you're sleeping in a chair. A handful of Vicodins would grant me maybe 20 minutes of sleep at a time. I could feel sanity slowly slipping away from sleep deprivation. Then one day around 3:00 AM I ran across a bunch of puppy and kitten videos while attempting to distract my brain from the pain. It was oddly relaxing. It soon became part of my nightly ritual. I'd mute the TV and zone out to happier thoughts. Now that I can sleep and walk again there's no longer any need for that, but I credit puppies and kittens for keeping me from going crazy during that time.

Try bypassing all effects and see if the peak value now remains consistent. When levels dance around on their own, it's almost always a plugin that's the culprit. Assuming we're talking about audio tracks, which will always be consistent with no fx. But if we're talking about a soft synth, then it's likely due to some randomized modulation within the synth, in which case a limiter might be the easiest solution.

Yes, it's something that can happen. Fortunately, it's very rare. Whatever you do, don't delete the broken project. It's possible you've had some disk corruption, and leaving the bad cwp there assures that bad spot won't be re-used. That's assuming the corrupt file is in fact the project file, which it probably is. Start a new project and start importing those wave files. If any of them are corrupt, this will let you know which one(s) they are and thus which parts you may have to re-record. You will probably be able to import all of them. You'll still lose your automation and plugin settings and have to recreate any buses, but that's still less hassle than re-recording - and you won't have to tell your client about it. Heck, you might even end up with a better mix after starting over.

shh, Kenny. Why did we all agree to NDAs if you're gonna just go and blab the truth?

It's just marketing hype. In truth, Sasquatch Moss tastes pretty much like regular moss. Might as well save money and just buy generic.

I guess anybody can make a "documentary". Take video from the TV news, research a few facts from Wikipedia and make up the rest, upload it to YouTube and wait for the clickbait ad revenue to roll in.

Of course I believe in Sasquatch!

Admittedly, the calculation was done in my head without the aid of maps or a calculator. Feel free to check my math. I have a long driveway, about 600 feet. That's 1,200 feet round-trip, or a mile per 4.4 trips. A thousand trips would be a little over 200 miles. Oregon is 300 miles north-to-south and 400 miles east-to-west, so 200 seemed a reasonable guess.

Back in SONAR days, Cakewalk would license plugins from third parties to bundle with the DAW. These cost money - built into the price of SONAR - so they were modified so as to only run within SONAR. There were also some plugins developed in-house for exclusive use with SONAR. Again, there's a cost there to be recouped through sales. Either way, it wouldn't make business sense to subsidize other DAWs by letting people use these plugins in rival DAWs. Every DAW vendor does something similar. Today's Cakewalk is a free product, so the previous model won't fly anymore. Bottom line: just re-install SONAR. Except for sample-based synths such as Dimension Pro, SONAR has a small footprint and it won't conflict with Cakewalk. So there isn't really any reason not to have SONAR on disk. Which specific plugins are you after? After SONAR's collapse, some generous third-party vendors provided open versions of instruments previously locked to SONAR. Others have offered discounted crossgrades.

Especially when you couple them with a good mimic who can do the voice believably.

^^^ this is the best way to do it for any sample-based instrument, because neither the instrument nor the DAW know you've even done it. No settings to fiddle with, no broken projects, no overlooked steps to worry about. It just works. I would leave the instrument itself where it is and just move the samples.