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Exported song sounds different from playback in Cakewalk


Lummy Keen

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16 hours ago, abacab said:

Bypass all the effects. If that works, then enable them one at a time until the problem resumes.

Thank you so much for your help. So I did bypass the FX but it was making it difficult to pinpoint what exactly was causing it. So I reenabled my plugins and I figured I'd turn off all the lead FX since that was the main problem. So I came to the conclusion that the problem is my EQ's which is bad because I have 3 of them. Why do I have so many? I have 1 EQ to remove some low end and make it sound brighter, then the second EQ is a post EQ which I slapped on after adding the rest of the FX so that in case any low end came back, I could just remove it. And the final EQ is to put it through a high pass filter for the build up. I'll keep looking to see if I should remove 1 or all of my EQ's or if maybe some other plugins that might not need to be here should be gone. Thanks for your help.

12 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Better yet, open the project and DELETE all the fx. It's a quick way to determine whether it's a plugin problem at all, and I don't trust any plugin to go turn into a straight wire when it's bypassed.

I appreciate the help on this one but the problem is indeed a plugin problem just as I had thought from the beginning. Normally when I begin to add plugins, my project just begins to stutter and cut audio for a split second and this is not happening to only this project. I would've tried your method but I don't want to go through the hassle of deleting them all and then opening the project again to find out which plugin is causing the problem and this would just bring me to bypassing them all anyway. So I appreciate your help. 

1 last thing. Do any of you have good tips on saving CPU when it comes to adding plugins and such? I have had some dropouts before posting my question and I figure that all those FX are taking a toll on my CPU. So if any of you has tips on saving CPU when it comes to that, I would be very grateful and so would my computer. 

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Glad that you found it!

If you freeze the synth track after you have it sounding the way you like, you end up with an audio track with the FX applied. The synth track and plugins get archived, so no longer a burden on the CPU. Freeze and unfreeze anytime as you wish.  Best way to deal with CPU hogs!

Edited by abacab
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1 minute ago, abacab said:

If I was going to start guessing which plugins might be at fault, I would most likely be wrong. But I would probably start with any compressors or other FX with sidechaining enabled. For example, is something ducking the synth signal?

As a matter of fact, yes. I have a sidechain bus that has the Sonitus Compressor on it and everything except the acapella is sent to that bus for sidechaining when the kick hits. 

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3 minutes ago, Music Meister said:

As a matter of fact, yes. I have a sidechain bus that has the Sonitus Compressor on it and everything except the acapella is sent to that bus for sidechaining when the kick hits. 

You quoted a reply that I have deleted after I read your resolution post. Responded to the CPU question instead.

Edited by abacab
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1 minute ago, abacab said:

You quoted a reply that I have deleted after I read your resolution post. Responded to the CPU question instead.

Oh sorry. But yes I do have a compressor for sidechaining. Is this taking up a lot of CPU? Should I delete it? Or do you have other ways to save CPU when it comes to plugins?

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2 minutes ago, bdickens said:

Not use so many is one. 3 different EQs on a track is unnecessary and overkill.

For 1, I'm not the only one who does this. For 2, I explained why I need those 3. Sure maybe the second one could be taken away and maybe I might be able to filter through my first EQ but still. 

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I believe that before adding a plugin, one should take a long, hard look and decide "do I really need this; is it really adding something necessary, or just more clutter to deal with?"

I read your reasoning behind this and quite frankly I think you could accomplish the same result with only one. I know I can.

When people use more than one EQ on a track, it is usually to have one as a broader, more creative tool to shape the sound and another in a more surgical role to fit it into the mix better. For example, creating complementary EQ curves to fit bass and kick drum together after shaping the broader sound of each.

And this is coming from the guy who layers 6 different synthesizers on top of one another or runs a guitar through a live amp and four different sims.

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23 minutes ago, Music Meister said:

Oh sorry. But yes I do have a compressor for sidechaining. Is this taking up a lot of CPU? Should I delete it? Or do you have other ways to save CPU when it comes to plugins?

Did you read my suggestion to freeze instrument tracks?

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4 minutes ago, bdickens said:

I believe that before adding a plugin, one should take a long, hard look and decide "do I really need this; is it really adding something necessary, or just more clutter to deal with?"

I read your reasoning behind this and quite frankly I think you could accomplish the same result with only one. I know I can.

When people use more than one EQ on a track, it is usually to have one as a broader, more creative tool to shape the sound and another in a more surgical role to fit it into the mix better. For example, creating complementary EQ curves to fit bass and kick drum together after shaping the broader sound of each.

And this is coming from the guy who layers 6 different synthesizers on top of one another or runs a guitar through a live amp and four different sims.

Yeah I see where you're coming from but I see if I am able to make it work with one. 

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4 minutes ago, Music Meister said:

I didn't get that one but I have tried freezing in the past before and it didn't take. 

Freeze should work. It does a quick mixdown of the selected instrument track, along with any inserted FX, resulting in an audio track in its place. Audio tracks with no FX use almost no (insignificant) CPU processing.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.23.html

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8 minutes ago, abacab said:

Freeze should work. It does a quick mixdown of the selected instrument track, along with any inserted FX, resulting in an audio track in its place. Audio tracks with no FX use almost no (insignificant) CPU processing.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.23.html

I just tried it and I tried to mess with my FX again but it still does the same thing. I don't know what to do and it seems like my problem has no solution no matter what I do. I can remove my EQ's but then I'll have no high pass filter for the build up and no way to shape the leads so they don't clash with anything. I can remove two EQ's and leave just one to do all the work but even with 1 EQ, the leads still cut out for that split second. It just seems like there is no way to fix this. 

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