Aux Levels in Pro Tools

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borntoplease

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okay, so im having a bit of a problem with my aux levels. i'm using the auxes for the waves renaissance reverb. but, the minute i slap the aux track down, it all starts peaking. not the actual channel, but the bus level (the actual channel barely gets into the yellow the whole time). i can pull the gain control all the way down on my reverb, pull the aux level all the way down, and the bus fader is still clipping. i dont, however, hear any distortion on the specific track. but, when i start to fade the aux up, to get the reverb on that track, it starts distorting like crazy. its like the levels are too high for the plugin or something. the strange thing is, if i just set the verb as in insert on a single channel, i dont have the problem, its only when using aux tracks and bussing effects. so if anyone has any tips for me that would be cool.
 
first make sure you are post fader metering during mixing. up in the operations menu i think.
next, set the aux send to bus 1 and make it pre fader. then alt click it to bring it up to unity gain. set the input of the aux track to bus 1 and use that tracks gain to control the wet/dry level that you listen to.

not sure if this will fix your clipping problem (i'm not sure why it's doing it), but this is a typical way of adding reverb to a track
 
option on mac i believe...sorry. and yes, unity is also considered 0dBFS or 0dBVU
 
yeah, that still didnt work

this is really bothering me
 
How are you routing audio to the Aux? re you using sends, on how many tracks, and at what level? Also, do you "hear" the clipping or just see it?
 
put the tracks fader at unity as well just for the time being. my guess is you were clipping when you recorded it and sending it prefader on the aux is warning you that you did.
 
bennychico11 said:
put the tracks fader at unity as well just for the time being. my guess is you were clipping when you recorded it and sending it prefader on the aux is warning you that you did.
Click to expand...

im pretty sure that i wasnt clipping. the track fader is at unity, and its still in the red. the fader doenst control input when im recording does it? i mean, even it it did, i almost always leave it at unity when i do record.

could you explain pre-fader and post-fader, i understand it, kinda but, some clarity would be cool. explain it specificaly, if you could, for pro tools. is there just a way to turn the aux level down? besides the fader i mean?

:confused: :mad: :eek:
 
you said your tracks fader in the mix window is at unity and the level is clipping?? in the aux strip or the track strip??

prefader and postfader are exactly what they sound like. if pre is selected in the aux send window, the signal that is sent on that bus or whatever, is send PRE track fader control. In other words, if that tracks fader is all the way down (or if the track is muted) the signal will still be sent out the aux send because the signal is being sent pre fader. Just the opposite is true for post fader. Any changes on that track volume wise effects the signal being sent through the aux send.

so check to make sure none of your regions are clipping when your track fader is at zero. that's really the only explanation i can think of...that you recorded too hot.
 
okay, i just sat down again and messed around with it. this is what i got... i took the verb off the aux track and the problem is still there. so i know its not that. i put every fader at unity, the aux, the busses all the tracks... and then i muted the aux. everything sounded good. no clipping. then i unmuted the aux. the volume in my headphones JUMPED up. there was no clipping (nothing hitting in the red) but there was still this sick crackle in everything. the levels did jump up on the aux meter too, and now that i look at it again, it is clipping. but even when the levels jump only into the yellow, there is that crackle. almost like the track is overdriving.

something strange also happened. when i first sat down today and set up the aux track, every time i moved it past infinity, i got this terrible loud hum/fuzz.

and another thing. i cant move the fader below or above 0 on my aux track. it seems to be controled by a dragable volume line on the track in the edit window. i cant figure out how to get rid of the line. i dont think this is the problem, because before the line showed up, i had this problem.

this digital thing is so confusing.
 
do you have any plugin inserts on your track?? bypass those and see what happens. the reason the volume jumped when you unmuted the aux was because now you have two tracks with the same signal going out the outputs, rather than one.

to get rid of the volume node that's bugging you, swich over to volume view and triple click on that track to select everything....then press delete. should do it for you.

it's hard to say what the distortion problem is. i'd like to see how you have it setup in PT. PM me if you'd like to send it to me and I'll take a look at your session. no biggy if you don't want to though.
:cool:
 
can i burn a whole session on a CD? my mac isnt connected to the internet

and my computer with internet doesnt have PT installed on it, so i can still load up the files to email?
 
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well, as often happens, the problem dissapeared. i dont know what i did :confused:
 
By the way- that line that was controling the volume is the volume automation line. To diable it you have to turn automation off for that track. Just under the in/out assign section is a button that usually says "Read" - change it to off and you'll have manual control of your volume again.

Automation is a good thing to figure out- but can be a pain at first.

Take care,
Chris
 
Chris Shaeffer said:
By the way- that line that was controling the volume is the volume automation line. To diable it you have to turn automation off for that track. Just under the in/out assign section is a button that usually says "Read" - change it to off and you'll have manual control of your volume again.

Automation is a good thing to figure out- but can be a pain at first.

Take care,
Chris
Click to expand...

yeah, i eventually figured that out... thanks though!! :D
 
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