Clip Gain through dragging within the clip.

[Francoteves]

I'd like to know if there is a way to do this just like it can be done in Audition or Studio One where you change the clip's gain by dragging the levels and have a VISUAL reference of how loud it will turn out. I searched in the forum but nothing appeared. Ty

Edited November 21, 2019 by Francoteves

[David Baay]

No, that has never been implemented. The only visual guide is that 6dB intervals are marked in the track scale, and each 6dB change in the Gain line will halve/double the amplitude. Ultimately, you have to use your ears.

[chuckebaby]

Yea, I was going to break the bad news to you yesterday when I saw this post, but it isn't possible to see waveform changes in real-time using clip gain.

It would be a nice addition though no doubt.

[chuckebaby]

I would like to make a suggestion though if I may.

IMO, Clip gain is not what it used to be when plug ins had no way of controlling their input stages, back then clip gain was essential to "how hard you hit the compressor" with your first path (the gain stage input). If you need to adjust gain in large increments weather it be bring down/bring up gain levels, then your recording wasn't done properly. Sure there are those vocal phrases that need to be evened out.

But this can be done using volume automation in one whack !

We are all set in our ways, in the way we have been working for years but when you use volume automation, you bypass having to use clip gain automation which saves time. There are those extreme times where clip gain automation should be used, but as I said earlier, those are typically times were the recording level was not properly maintained.

All the popping P's, the snaking S's, the K's CA's can all be leveled out using volume automation.

[Jones]

Sorry for the late post.

I'm not sure if I understood the question correctly but if you're asking about changing the clip gain by dragging gain on the clip envelope and you can see the waveform change in thickness in real time then...

Yes. You can increase and drag the waveforms level or clip gain, just found it yesterday. I also originally thought cakewalk didn't have it but they do.

I was climbing the walls for this one because clip gain is essential to mixing.  Without it you cannot create a good mix. It is doomed from the start.

Your instruments won't fit together in your mix and effects wont work optimally.

So, this is clearly a little bit hard to find. When I did find it was so obvious, duh!

But it is little bit burried in the menus.

Clip gain is straight forward for audio waveforms but for vst instrument tracks you need to make one small extra step. But don't worry it's really small and easy. I'll explain the vst instrument clip gain later.

So, let's say you recorded a waveform on an audio track, you then look at the track panel where mute, solo and  routing info are. There is a selection menu where it reads "Clips" click that and a roll down menu comes up, there choose "Clip Automation" and then choose "GAIN". Now you get an automation lane type line on top of your audio waveform that you can boost up to +6db (which is more than enough). But if you need more add gain from the process menu where normalize is.

If the rare occurence happens that clip gain isn't enough it just means you need to record hotter.

With Vst (instrument tracks), midi tracks don't have clip gain. You record your sound out of the instrument. Now you have the midi. You need to to bounce or freeze the midi into audio first and then choose "Clip" and "Clip Gain" will be there. 

But there's just one more thing.

With freeze tracks you need to take the audio and place it on a new audio track. Because if the track is frozen you cannot use any of the tracks properties. Cakewalk is awesome enough to let you drag and drop audio on an empty space in your tracker view and it creates a new audio track automatically. 

So there you go. Such a small thing, such a long post. Now you can just get to mixing and having fun.

Have nice day.

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Jones