Drum track auto-dips behind guitat

[Mark Bastable]

I have a simple time-keeping midi drum track routed to MTPower drums.

I set it to a level in order to hear it as I overdub a guitar part, but as soon as I start playing guitar in record mode, the drums get quieter. It happens on playback too - the drums are loud until the guitar comes in, when they immediately drop behind it.

This kinda suggests that there's some kind of limit on the Master, but if there is, I don't know how I've done it. And the meter on the Master doesn't seem to be peaking too high.

What am I missing?

[John Vere]

Are you using the direct monitoring system on your interface?  Most interfaces have a mix controller to adjust the balance between the input and audio playback 

Edited May 4, 2021 by John Vere

[Mark Bastable]

I'm using an Alesis IO2.

Yeah, it has a master, and also a monitor mix knob of which one extreme is 'Direct' and the other is 'USB'. But on playback, surely both guitar and drums are coming from the same source - the laptop -  so how would that control balance them? (I'l try it, but I'm not near it at the moment,)

Edited May 4, 2021 by Mark Bastable

[John Vere]

I don't understand when you say both the guitar and the drums are coming from the computer? You need to describe your set up a bit more. 

Normally the guitar is plugged into the interface and by setting the mix control more towards Direct you'll hear more guitar and less of the playback from the DAW ( USB) 

Only case I know of that will lower volume is using what is called DIM SOLO. https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X3&language=3&help=Playback.15.html

But you don't normally Solo a track you are recording if you want to hear the other tracks. 

[Mark Bastable]

I wasn't clear. Yes, the set-up is as you describe. Also the Master output is being sent to the interface, and out of there to the speakers.

I mean, when both the midi drums and the recorded guitar are playing back, they're both coming from the same source - the recorded tracks on the laptop, But even in that situation, the level of the drums dips as soon as the guitar comes in.  In fact, even if I mute the guitar, the drums still dip at the point where the guitar recording starts, even though the guitar's not heard. Changing the monitor mix balance on the soundcard makes no difference to that. 

Incidentally, the level drops on the meter of the midi track too, so whatever is happening seems to happening in the DAW, not in the later chain, 

The drums also dip when the guitar is being recorded - that is, when the guitar's coming in through the interface.

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Mark Bastable

[John Vere]

Check for automation on the drum track. Look in the event list as well. That is the only thing I know about that can change the level of a midi track 

[David Baay]

Just to be clear, when you say "MIDI track",  are you really using separate MIDI and Audio tracks for input to and output from MTPower, or is it a Simple Instrument track that combines MIDI and Audio features in one track?

If the dipping/ducking is really related to the guitar signal it sure sounds like you have a side-chaining compressor on the drum track taking input from a send on the guitar track, but that wouldn't happen by accident, and would be hard to forget unless this is a project you're coming back to after a long time or was created by someone else....? But it would explain the behavior since a prefader send wouldn't be affected by muting the track unless you deliberately altered the default behavior by setting LinkPFSendmute=1 in the Config file (AUD.INI).

If that's not it, you should share a copy of the project somewhere so we can figure out if the issue is in the project or in your DAW setup.

[Mark Bastable]

Figured it out....

I had doublepasted the first two bars of the midi, so I was getting each drum twice. From bar three, I wasn’t. It was nothing to do with the guitar coming in.

I doubt this will be the last dumb thing I shall do.

Thanks to all who put time into considering the problem. My apologies.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Mark Bastable

[John Vere]

Thanks for updating and letting the community know you found a solution.  Many don't.  Your thread might help others now. 

[Mark Bastable]

...I shall keep the dumb questions coming. In fact, I just posted another...