I've tracked...the next step...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Molinari
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Jason Molinari

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hello...

sorry for coming off like such a dolt but it was me and my 424 for 6 years and i'm not too savvy with the 'puters. slowly figuring out CEP 2.0. (although it would be helpful if they had an a-to-z tutorial for a 'typical' session...do they?) advanced apologies for past, present and future lame inquiries.

so...

i finished tracking my song/session and am curious about the details of mixing it. understand the eq but i'm a bit clueless about:

1. using edit view!!!!!????...
2. adding effects; more specifically adding an effect to a small portion of the waveform; furthurmore, adding multiple effects to a single waveform for specific durations (i.e. track 1--delay for 10 seconds then distortion for 10 seconds after that...for example)
3. how to cut out silence/inactivity in between guitar or vocal or keys parts...does this save drive space?
4. getting final mixed product (16bit?) onto a cdr...

unfortunately i don't really know all the questions i want to ask...or how to ask 'em. but thanks for reading and any input that you can lend me.

jason
 
LOL Okay, I'll take one question. Somebody else take the next one, and so on.

Edit View is where you take tracks from Multitrack to make permanent changes on them. In Multitrack you can change the volume and the panning all you like, but it doesn't alter the basic digital content of the track. But when you make changes to the track in Edit View, it's a permanent alteration once you've saved the track. (Before you save the track and the changes you've made in Edit View, you can always click 'undo', which is very, very handy.)

One way to use Edit View is to take a track there from Multitrack, then EQ or compress or effect it there, then check it back in Multitrack to see how it sounds in the mix. If you don't like it, use Undo. If you like it, save it. (However, because you might change your mind about what you've done the next day, it's always useful to have a backup of the session somewhere, a version of what it was like *before* you started making changes in Edit View.)

Anything else about Edit?
 
Edit View allows you to, guess what? Edit your tracks. The Multitrack View shows all the tracks at once; click on a track to highlight it and push F12 to toggle to Edit View. In Edit View you will be able to apply effects, change the amplitude, and so forth.

To apply a delay for a 10-second stretch of the track: click at one end of the area you want to use the delay on, and "drag" the highlight to the other end. The highlighted (lighter-toned) area will be the only part affected. If you want to affect the entire track, push Ctrl/A and that will automatically select the whole track. If you want to apply the effects to the whole song, go to Multitrack View/Edit/Mix Down All File and this will give you a stereo mix (in Edit View) to play with.

You can delete noise (and "empty space") two ways: select (as above) a segment of the track with no music on it, then go to Effects/Noise Reduction/Noise Reduction and click on Get Profile From Sample (or similar language). When that processes click Close, then Ctrl/A, the F3. CEP will take the noise profile and apply it to the whole track and this will leave much of the space in between the music silent. The other method is to highlight your area, then click on Effects/Silence. This will reduce the data in the selected area to digital 0s. What overall effect this has on hard drive space I don't know.

The best way to learn all this is to experiment. Take a recording, make a copy, and mutilate the copy. (Rule One in digital recording and graphics: don't mess with the original!) There's always Edit/Undo (or Ctrl/Z -- a lot of the keyboard shortcuts are the same for CEP as they are for Word, Photoshop, etc). The best school is in taking a project and massaging it. You'll learn far more than by thinking up "what ifs". Cool Edit Pro is a deep program: you won't learn everything about it the first time through. I've been using it regularly for 4-1/2 years now and I am constantly discovering new features.

It's best to let CEP do all the work in 32 bit. To burn a CD, the finished mix has to be in CD-audio format, which is 44.1kHz sampling rate and 16 bit. I record at 44.1kHz, because my digital mixer is limited to that or 48kHz and why convert for the small difference? To set your default recording to 44.1 (or anything else you want to use), in Multitrack Session go to File/New Session: a window will appear that allows you to specify the sampling rate, and it will always open at that rate until you change it. When your mixdown is done, hit F11. A window will open that allows you to set the sampling rate to 44.1 (whatever the original was), to dither when it converts to 16 bit (check Enable Dithering, Dither Bit Depth(s)=1, for p.d.f. select Triangular), and for Resolution select 16 bit. Click OK and when it finishes (incidentally it will always convert the whole file) you will have a CD ready song all set to dazzle the judges at the Grammys.

Have fun.
 
Windows commands

Jason Molinari said:
hello...

sorry for coming off like such a dolt but it was me and my 424 for 6 years and i'm not too savvy with the 'puters. slowly figuring out CEP 2.0. (although it would be helpful if they had an a-to-z tutorial for a 'typical' session...do they?) advanced apologies for past, present and future lame inquiries.

so...

i finished tracking my song/session and am curious about the details of mixing it. understand the eq but i'm a bit clueless about:

1. using edit view!!!!!????...
2. adding effects; more specifically adding an effect to a small portion of the waveform;


I can take the next one.

Use windows command to highlight a part of your wave while you are in edit window. Left click on your wave hold the bottom and drag to the Right (or left)
I recommend you to zoom your wave first. (Plenty of zoom bottoms in cool edit) After your wave part is highlighted you go to your effects many and use the effect you want on this part. Before final editing you can always preview how it’s going to
 
thank you

i very much appreciate the help....

others add more if it applies.

info will be put to good use.

on the look out for more 101 questions.

thanks

jason
 
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