Editing a track with no audible difference.

[Zydrus]

I'm using Reaper and every time I try to fix a small section of a track I can tell where the fix is when I listen back to it. It isn't a seemless fix.

About 6 years ago my band and I went into the studio and recorded a 5 song EP. The producer had me record the guitar in parts. Verse, then the chours, bridge whatever. It was never a single track all the way thru. Then if I messed up in certain section we would go back and he would create a new track and just punch in and out whatever part of that section it was, then drag and drop it back to the original track once we got it right.

Of course when it was all said and done he made it sound like one seemless track. I can't seem to get this to work for me. I can always tell where the old and new sounds are. There is a sound difference even when using the same settings. What am I doing wrong or what do I need to be doing?

 

[Chili]

If they sound different, then they weren't recorded the same. It is possible you might be inducing some psycho-acoustics; you know where the edits are so you hear differences. The casual listener may not hear any difference at all.

Or, are you talking about something completely different like glitches at the punch in/ punch out points? Because that is a simple crossfade fix.

 

[Zydrus]

Or, are you talking about something completely different like glitches at the punch in/ punch out points? Because that is a simple crossfade fix.

I think this might be it. I don't know how to crossfade properly. Maybe that is what he was doing because he would overlap the parts somehow.

 

[Chili]

Crossfades are simple. I don't know how to do them in Reaper, but for sure they are described in the manual. In Cubase, you overlap the two parts, select both and hit 'X'. Simple.

 

[TimOBrien]

you can cut any audio item using the 's' key (think 'scissors').

Hovering over the edges of the parts gives you fade envelopes you can drag out.
Even a few parts of a second can smooth out the bumps.

Read the manual....it's all in there...

 

[mixsit]

you can cut any audio item using the 's' key (think 'scissors').

Hovering over the edges of the parts gives you fade envelopes you can drag out.
Even a few parts of a second can smooth out the bumps.

Read the manual....it's all in there...

Does Reaper also have 'punch (or cut'?) at zero crossing'?
Sonar here, but I always try to punch into a gap in the audio. That can be half the battle (solution) right there. Often no edge trim needed.
(If it is a punch into a continuous flow, likely I'd expect to do a bit of custom cross blending.

 

[mjbphotos]

You can set Reaper to automatically do cross fades, manually do them, or disable them (to do point-point punch-in/punch-out). It's all in the manual and pretty simple once you get the hang of hovering, to get the tool, then dragging, but if your takes are not similar-sounding, you will notice a difference. I will usually record multiple tracks/takes of a part one after the other so that if I need to do a small 'repair', I've got the extra track right there to pull the part from.

 

[ashcat_lt]

You can set Reaper to automatically do cross fades, manually do them, or disable them (to do point-point punch-in/punch-out). It's all in the manual and pretty simple once you get the hang of hovering, to get the tool, then dragging, but if your takes are not similar-sounding, you will notice a difference. I will usually record multiple tracks/takes of a part one after the other so that if I need to do a small 'repair', I've got the extra track right there to pull the part from.

If you can't be bothered to play it over and over again until you get the whole thing in one take without fucking up, then record two or three whole takes and hope you don't fuck up in the same spot twice!

Failing that, it's a good idea in general to play into and out of a "punch". Don't just wait till the punch point and then play your little fix. Have some pre-roll ahead of time and play along so you can get into the groove and match the dynamics of what you did before, then some post-roll so that you don't get all weird and stop dead, or rush out, or hold something you shouldn't have held. You want to be playing as close to exactly what you were (or should have been) playing before. Then you've got something to fade between that should work pretty well.

 

[miroslav]

Learning how to do seamless crossfades is key if you are going to work inside a DAW and use it to its full potential.
It's got nothing to do with just not getting that *perfect take* after 75 attempts (which is a laborious waste of time IMO, but some people like to do anyway )....it's also about comping from 3 great takes, where you might prefer the first half of the first take, the middle of the second take, and the end of the 3rd take.

Though like MJB said....you need to at least get similar takes, otherwise, just the well done crossfades will not always be enough to make it work.

I'm a master at crossfading....I can splice the tail of a jackass onto the body of a clown, and you'll never see (or hear) where it's spliced.

 

[grimtraveller]

Right back to the early 90s when I first started recording, I got into the notion of constructing some tracks in sections. I did, do and can play something all the way through, but many moons ago, it occurred to me that as I'm not going to be playing my stuff live, it didn't matter how things came together. So some guitar or keyboard parts I'll construct as I go along, not moving on to the next bit until I'm satisfied. When all my bits are down, then I construct one track made up of all the bits and while it can be tricky with the faders, part of the skill is in getting it to sound seamless.
For those that deem it as laziness or cheating, all I can say is that as a lover of music from the 60s and 70s and all those dizzy psychedelic recording techniques and studio hocus pocus, I love all that stuff and putting it together is as much fun for me as playing it in one go. More, actually.
It's a bit like DIY, like if you've drilled a hole for a rawl plug but the hole is a bit too big. Rather than re~drill, stick some wood shavings and glue into the hole, put in your plug, let it dry and harden and Bob's your uncle ! No one is ever going to know !

If you can't be bothered to play it over and over again until you get the whole thing in one take without fucking up......

You say that like it's worthy of jail time or deportation.....

 

[ashcat_lt]

!
You say that like it's worthy of jail time or deportation.....

I can see where you get that. Probably should have been some form of emoticon. It's really more like I do it exactly the way I described (two or three takes to comp together) all the time.

I guess, though, that I did lose sight of the fact that we're talking about piecing a song together section by section, rather than punching in over mistakes...

I can't really get into that, myself. For me, the transitions are pretty important, and how you get into a transition is at least as important as how you hit the transition, and it seems like if you're playing up to the transition knowing that you're about to stop... IDK, I've never had great results with it.

 

[grimtraveller]

Yeah, I don't punch in anymore either. If I fluff the section I'm doing then I repeat until it's right. I have to be at the 4th point of unconsciousness to get to take 75 ! My playing may be lame.......but it's never that lame !