Adjusting Headroom - How to move all volume input at once?

[David Polich]

Pulling down the master fader is probably the simplest and quickest
way to fix the situation.

As long as your individual tracks aren't clipping, pulling the master fader
down will work.

That said, there is no shame in sometimes admitting that the mix has
simply gotten away from you, and you need to start over...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Wouldn't reducing the bite gain on the tracks work? Not the way I generally do things, but it seems that it might be another alternative.

[Shooshie]

By the way, tell me, please. When you're holding down the "W" key and trying to change the automation mode does the menu jump around on you?

I just did that a few days ago, and I don't recall any jumping in the menu. But I've been getting some strange OSX hangups in which the keyboard quits working, but the mouse still works normally. Some things still recognize the keyboard, so I keep trying to find the one that will let it jump back into operation. Then all sorts of strange things start happening. One of them included a ghost of my Waves Linear Phase Multi-Band plugin jumping around like a kangaroo, then flashing on and off like a neon sign gone crazy. I thought for sure that DP would crash, then, but it didn't. Further, something finally triggered the keyboard back into operation -- I think it may have been the new version of QuicKeys, when I quit it. So that may be where the problem is coming from. (curses!) Anyway, that's the only strange behavior I've had. No jumping menus, not even in the automation settings.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

That said, there is no shame in sometimes admitting that the mix has
simply gotten away from you, and you need to start over...

The Undo History is a great place to go for that. Usually I can remember the point where I started losing control, so taking Undo History back to that point gives me a new start without losing everything that I'd done up to that point.

[Phil O]

There's also bite volume. Not elegant, but another option.

Phil

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Anyone hear an echo in here?

Wouldn't reducing the bite gain on the tracks work? Not the way I generally do things, but it seems that it might be another alternative.

[Dan Walsh]

The Undo History is a great place to go for that. Usually I can remember the point where I started losing control, so taking Undo History back to that point gives me a new start without losing everything that I'd done up to that point.

Would the mix mode feature also work in that situation? I've been usin' it alot lately and am really diggin' it

[wurliuchi]

Bite Gain and Bite Volume would affect any plugs inserted on the tracks and it sounds like the OP had a mix pretty well in hand except for wanting to lower the overall levels.

[Phil O]

Anyone hear an echo in here?

Wouldn't reducing the bite gain on the tracks work? Not the way I generally do things, but it seems that it might be another alternative.

I was adding to your suggestion (not echoing it). Bite Volume vs. Gain as it's an easy option in Create Continuous Data.

Bite Gain and Bite Volume would affect any plugs inserted on the tracks and it sounds like the OP had a mix pretty well in hand except for wanting to lower the overall levels.

True. I hadn't thought of that when I suggested it.

Phil

[csiaudio]

[/quote]


This was what I was going to suggest, if they're mixing at 24 bits or 32 bits fp. It's still hard for me to take this in, but Magic Dave has said repeatedly that it doesn't matter if the tracks clip internally at those resolutions, because the meters are set for standard audio calibration, whereas the higher bit resolutions have enough headroom that there's little chance of clipping internally.


No... wait... (letting you follow my train of thought rather than going back and erasing) It doesn't matter what resolution you've set your mix at. DP processes everything at 32 bits internally, which means that to clip any audio channel before it goes analog would mean having to pump something like 1500 dB in there. I forget the number, but it's sufficient to make you think "I could NEVER clip that."
Shoosh[/quote]

Shoosh I found this tread to be very insightful regarding ITB mixes. I picked up a lot of very good info from it. Possibly others will to.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much- ... mixes.html

[sprout]

I use DP7 primarily, but spent the last year in school where the DAW of instruction was Cubase, and it got me thinking...

Cubase has a trim knob on every channel in the mixer, so it's easy to group all channels, turn down the trim, then un-group the channels, leaving all relative fader positions and automation untouched.

Is there a clever way to accomplish the same thing with DP's trim plug-in? can insert plug-in settings be grouped in any way?

[dix]

Cubase has a trim knob on every channel in the mixer, so it's easy to group all channels, turn down the trim, then un-group the channels, leaving all relative fader positions and automation untouched.

Is there a clever way to accomplish the same thing with DP's trim plug-in? can insert plug-in settings be grouped in any way?

No. You could assign the group to an Aux, but that's not so clever. Anyway, the problem is often that the faders are at the top. An elegant way to bring all faders - both with and without automation - down evenly would be very useful.

[dix]

Another problem with the solutions available for bringing all-faders-down is that they all include the MIDI faders (if there's a way to automatically exclude MIDI faders i don't know what it is). I've never found the throws of various VIs MIDI volume changes to be even or consistent. I often don't even touch the MIDI faders in the course of a mix so an all-faders-down move produces unexpected results when VIs that had not yet received a volume change suddenly get turned down (from 127, where the MIDI faders rest in default). Plus, when pulling ALL the faders down you end up pulling the Instrument fader AND the MIDI fader. I'd rather exclude MIDI faders when I execute an all-faders-down move.

[wurliuchi]

Another problem with the solutions available for bringing all-faders-down is that they all include the MIDI faders (if there's a way to automatically exclude MIDI faders i don't know what it is). I've never found the throws of various VIs MIDI volume changes to be even or consistent. I often don't even touch the MIDI faders in the course of a mix so an all-faders-down move produces unexpected results when VIs that had not yet received a volume change suddenly get turned down (from 127, where the MIDI faders rest in default). Plus, when pulling ALL the faders down you end up pulling the Instrument fader AND the MIDI fader. I'd rather exclude MIDI faders when I execute an all-faders-down move.

If you use a Group you just don't include any of the the MIDI faders in the group. If you use the "W" key in the mixing board, you need to first remove the MIDI tracks from the Mixing board by deselecting them in the Track Selector. You can save different Board Layouts for this.

I agree with you that there needs to be a more eloquent and easier way of doing this.

[Shooshie]

I agree with you that there needs to be a more eloquent and easier way of doing this.

There COULD be more eloquent ways (maybe), but there need not be. What we've got works just fine. Set up a group, and it works. Select the audio tracks and use T instead of W. Put the MIDI tracks in a folder, and close the folder. I keep MIDI in a folder and Audio in a folder, with Auxes in yet another. It's so darned easy I can't even imagine something simpler unless computers start using ESP to read your mind before you even know what you want to do.

Shoosh