insert silence before export audio

[jandlab]

While (possibly) still working on the export features, how about an insert silence (in milliseconds) option? I have seen this requested before for cakewalk and for several other DAWs that I follow. I am sure it would be easy to implement and would save multiple steps outside Cakewalk for many people having to reimport or use another audio editor to add a few tens of milliseconds prior to the track starting.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

One of the publishers I work with ask for a short silence of at least 250ms at the start of each track so this would be handy, especially if it could be added to the Preset

[Terry Kelley]

Do you care if it throws the tempo/beat/measure off or do you just want it added for the export? I usually do some post processing in Cool Edit like adding some empathy silence. Adding that via Cakewalk could be useful but adding "time" could have some effects to the timing.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Terry Kelley

[RBH]

This could this causing a lot of issues unless you are bulk importing all the same tracks. I import all kinds of tracks from other Daws that wouldn't have the same off-sets. Sounds like a lot of subtle  ( hard to fix )phase issues could crop up when off-setting milliseconds.

Edited October 11, 2021 by RBH

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

On 10/6/2021 at 4:51 PM, Terry Kelley said:

Do you care if it throws the tempo/beat/measure off or do you just want it added for the export? I usually do some post processing in Cool Edit like adding some empathy silence. Adding that via Cakewalk could be useful but adding "time" could have some effects to the timing.

No  - It would just need adding to the export.  Here is an excerpt from the publishers FAQ guidlines for deliverables.

----snip ----

ARE THERE OTHER TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS?

Yes, there are. As there will be no further mastering, all tracks should (1) have a maximum peak-level of -0.3 dB - NOT normalized to 0 dB to avoid “intersample overs” that cause clipping in D/A converters and in mp3 conversion. (2) All tracks should have an Loudness-Level of 12 LU/-11 LUFS  or an RMS-level of -12 dB (equals a dynamic range of 12 dB) – of course classical music will have more quiet parts than e.g. house or rock music, so try to adjust the loudest parts of each track to -12 LU/dB RMS. All tracks (3) should have a balanced level of high, mid and low frequencies. (4) They should have 0,25 seconds of silence at the beginning (some D/A converters in CD players need some msecs to work properly) and 0,25 seconds of silence at the end. (5) All tracks should be checked for clippings, dropouts, “clicks”, “pops”, cut reverbs at the end and other errors. (6) All Tracks should be checked for mono compatibility / phase problems.

---snip----

So imagine that you have to export a stem for every track cue they accept which is usually 5 - 10 exports, then the different alt mixes which is 3 or 4 normally, you're deliver at least 10 exports per track so using a stereo editor to as 250ms to the file after the fact is just too time consuming ( based on my own 100 tracks per year output which is fairly typical for the industry  ) 

Currently I get around it starting the track at measure 2 and then exporting a fraction of the silence at the end of bar 1 ( usually a 16th of a bar will do it )

So the option to add it automatcially as part of the preset would mean I could start my tracks at bar 1 which is easier because you get used ot the math of tracks being in 4 or 8 bar sections - plus it could be exactly 250ms, not some time that quite close but is different dpending on the track tempo.  

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

On 10/11/2021 at 3:10 PM, RBH said:

This could this causing a lot of issues unless you are bulk importing all the same tracks. I import all kinds of tracks from other Daws that wouldn't have the same off-sets. Sounds like a lot of subtle  ( hard to fix )phase issues could crop up when off-setting milliseconds.

I'm not talking about tracks exported for other musicicans to import into another DAW in order to record more tracks with, obviously you'd want those to be spot on. I'm talking about final exports of finished tracks.

Also you wouldn't get further phase issues if the same offset was applied to everything. However a lot of folks in home studios don't consider phase issues when recording or mixing either.

Years ago I had an argument with a guy on a collab site because his snare was 180 degrees out of phase and he couldn't hear it in his mix. Eventually after he'd called me everything under the sun he came back and said he'd gotten someone round to check his studio and there was a fault in the internal wiring of his compressor which flipped the phase....he thanked me in the end. ?