Fading out in Home Studio XL

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PhilihP

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I just finished a song with all midi tracks and need it to fade-out at the end. I can’t seem to get it to fade to nothing. What do I need to do.
Phil
 
PhilihP said:
I just finished a song with all midi tracks and need it to fade-out at the end. I can’t seem to get it to fade to nothing. What do I need to do.
Phil
Click to expand...

I use Sonar, but what you should do is look up Automation or Volume Enveloples... I'm pretty sure you can set them on the MIDI Buss.

Porter
 
A volume envelope on the VMain should allow you to do this.

Right click in the VMain "track" area and choose Envelopes > Create Bus Envelope > Main Volume. Put a node on the envelope at the point you want the fade to start. Put another node on the envelope where you want the fade to reach silence. Drag the second node down to infinity.
 
It was confusing at first until I looked into making Envelopes. It worked fine the second time around, but for some reason I wasn’t able to save the changes the first time I tried it. If it helps anyone else, this is how it went:

In the Track View
Right-click on a track
Choose: Envelopes> Create> Volume
A Blue Line indicating the Volume Level will appear across that track
Right-click on this line where you want the Fade-Out to begin and
Choose Add Node
Right-click on this line where you want the Fade-Out to end and
Choose Add Node again
Pull down on the second node to lower the volume to nothing or near nothing
Do this on all the tracks

Thanks,
Phil
 
PhilihP said:
It was confusing at first until I looked into making Envelopes. It worked fine the second time around, but for some reason I wasn’t able to save the changes the first time I tried it. If it helps anyone else, this is how it went:

In the Track View
Right-click on a track
Choose: Envelopes> Create> Volume
A Blue Line indicating the Volume Level will appear across that track
Right-click on this line where you want the Fade-Out to begin and
Choose Add Node
Right-click on this line where you want the Fade-Out to end and
Choose Add Node again
Pull down on the second node to lower the volume to nothing or near nothing
Do this on all the tracks

Thanks,
Phil
Click to expand...
As I indicated in my previous post, you should do this on the VMain. Doing it on the Main eliminates having to repeat the procedure for each and every track. Your steps are correct, just do it on the Main rather than on the individual tracks, it'll give you a smoother fade and allow you do it with just a single envelope.
 
Also, remember you can right click on the envelope line in between the two nodes and select what sort of fade you want... slow curve, fast curve, jump etc.

Porter
 
dachay2tnr said:
As I indicated in my previous post, you should do this on the VMain. Doing it on the Main eliminates having to repeat the procedure for each and every track. Your steps are correct, just do it on the Main rather than on the individual tracks, it'll give you a smoother fade and allow you do it with just a single envelope.
Click to expand...

dachay2tnr,
I’m sure your advice is good but I don’t know where the VMain is. I know I should know this by now being that I’ve had the software for months, but most of the time was spent copying what I had on my old Mac computer to my PC. What a pain in the butt that was, copying all that info one bit at a time. I’m glad to say I finished it two days ago and my 14 yr old Mac is officially retired. Actually it was a very good computer but it’s time had come. Now it’s time for the music.
Thanks,
Phil
 
The arrows in this picture are pointing to your VMains (you might only have one VMain (Main A) depending on your sound card and how you set the program up).

Clicking on the button that I have circled will cause the Mains to show or hide.
 

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I think the V-Main is hidden by default. You see those Mix, FX, etc tabs at the bottom left of the Track View? A bit to the right of those tabs there's a button with an arrow (or something) pointing up. Click it and the VMain will reveale itself! :)
 
Porter said:
Also, remember you can right click on the envelope line in between the two nodes and select what sort of fade you want... slow curve, fast curve, jump etc.

Porter
Click to expand...

Cool!
Thanks again,
Phil
 
moskus said:
I think the V-Main is hidden by default. You see those Mix, FX, etc tabs at the bottom left of the Track View? A bit to the right of those tabs there's a button with an arrow (or something) pointing up. Click it and the VMain will reveale itself! :)
Click to expand...
Right. And I also got the Virtual Main in the console view, I should have known because I've been there before. Well anyway, I still wasn't able to make it work. When I right-clicked I got other stuff on the screen, but nothing about envelopes. Maybe it only works with audio??? Well anyway I gotta run, be back later.
Phil
 
The Mains are, in essence, audio.

Where are you clicking? You need to click in the area to the right (where the arrows are in the above screen shot).
 
Phillip,

One piece of advice, try first and convert all your midi tracks into audio, edit them and mix them. Leave the fade for the end.

By why leave the fade until the end, Carlos?

I chose to leave my fade outs as one of the final steps in my mixing because if you do it at the beginning you're not really considering your fx levels and fx tails.

You wont be able to draw a fade on a midi track anyway so, if you still chose to fade a midi track, one way to do it is to gradually change (reduce) the velocity of the final notes on each midi track (very tedious but that way you have good control on your fade).

Hope this helps,

Carlos
 
I happen to agree with Carlos. I do my fades in the mastering stage, working with the exported wave file, rather than on the tracks in Sonar.

This is primarily because the file will get additional processing (compression, eq) which can effect the tail of the fade.
 
dachay2tnr and Carlos,

Great stuff!

“One piece of advice, try first and convert all your midi tracks into audio, edit them and mix them. Leave the fade for the end.”

“The Mains are, in essence, audio”
“I happen to agree with Carlos. I do my fades in the mastering stage, working with the exported wave file, rather than on the tracks in Sonar.”

I'm taking notes,
Phil
 
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