Punch-In Recording & Blankets?

[Inspired]

Weird thread title, I know. It's because I have two simple issues that I figured I'd try to resolve in one thread.

I tried punch-in recording with CakeWalk Sonar the other day, and it wasn't subtle at all. How do I clean something like this up?

My amp is mic'd, and I'm debating on throwing a couple of blankets over it in order to turn the volume up some to push the tubes. I live in an apartment, so the volume has to be within reason. Should I leave the back of the amp open so it doesn't run too hot? I use a Boogie Mark IV, which has a fan in it, but...

 

[AlexW]

Punch-in: Try doing a cross fade between to the two parts to make the transitiong smoother.

Blanket: Probably won't help much. The low frequencies are what's going to bug your neighbors and the blankets will probably just absorb the highs.

 

[FALKEN]

you have to place the punch points either where there is no sound or on the downbeats. if your song is not synched to the measures in cakewalk, you can add markers on the downbeat by hitting F11 (or is it M, i forget). then you set that as the punch area.

the other way to do it would be instead of punching clone the track and re-record the area. then edit both tracks with envelopes, or copy and paste them together.

you should not need that amp to get very loud to get a 'loud' sound. I would experiment more with mic placement.

 

[giraffe]

punch JUST before the beat (or note in question, whatever), not directly on it.
then cross-fade.

git amp........ good luck on that one

 

[Inspired]

Great ideas for punching-in. Thanks.

My Boogie Mark IV is wearing me out. It sounds real stale being played or recorded, and I haven't gotten the mids the way I like. I need a little more scoop for palm-muting single note ideas a la Joe Satriani. I knew this amp was difficult to figure out, but this is getting ridiculous...

I wish my Nomad 55 would have never gone bad...

 

[FALKEN]

Great ideas for punching-in. Thanks.

My Boogie Mark IV is wearing me out. It sounds real stale being played or recorded, and I haven't gotten the mids the way I like. I need a little more scoop for palm-muting single note ideas a la Joe Satriani. I knew this amp was difficult to figure out, but this is getting ridiculous...

I wish my Nomad 55 would have never gone bad...

man. i know this is off topic. but on a project guitar, I decided to disable the tone controls. MAN did that make a huge improvement. I just get my tone at the amp and wow! opened the sound way up.

 

[eraos]

what i do for punching in, similar to what giraffe said, is place the punch at the end of the previous measure. Usually I do it at like the last 16th of the last beat.
To smooth the transistion, I set the cursor a measure or so ahead, hit record, and start playing to play through the point of punch. It's always worked out smoothly for me.

 

[dgatwood]

what i do for punching in, similar to what giraffe said, is place the punch at the end of the previous measure. Usually I do it at like the last 16th of the last beat.
To smooth the transistion, I set the cursor a measure or so ahead, hit record, and start playing to play through the point of punch. It's always worked out smoothly for me.

And play past the punch-out point a little bit, particularly when recording an instrument where you might suddenly realize the chord is in a different voicing than the original. Helps to be able to make the outgoing change at a different chord change when needed....

 

[tkingen]

In some cases experimenting with crossfades can all but eliminate the rough edges of punching in. And remember the slip editing feature...if your punchin area was a little too long, just slip edit it to be shorter and then grab the edge of the original clip and drag it to fill in the gap.
Using slip editing, crossfades and crossfade options can give you very good results.

Terry

 

[Rokket]

I can't advise you any better than was already stated on the punch in (I tend to retrack because I don't like to punch in), but as far as the amp goes, experiment with the eq a bit on it, and get it off the floor. That will help some with the boominess of it. You don't need a lot of volume to record. I record with 10-watt and 25-watt combos with the volume barely mid way up. I don't have to cover anything with blankets, and yes, leave the back open...

 

[Inspired]

Great ideas. I did find myself retracking quite a bit, but my punch-ins are sounding much smoother now also.

Another question: Once I'm through with a punch-in, how do I get rid of the little punch-in markers?

Dumb question, but I couldn't figure it out...

 

[tkingen]

If you have Sonar 4 click on the punchin icon in the toolbar to get rid of the markers. If you have a previous version...see the little window that says punch in recording (or something similar)? Click on the drop down box and choose overwrite. The markers will go away.

Terry

 

[Inspired]

Sweet. Thanks so much.

It seems like I learn at least one new thing everytime I use Sonar. I'm starting to really dig it!

Now, if I can just figure out my damn Boogie...

 

[FALKEN]

i forgot the bomb trick!!!!

here is how you make the punches smoother...

create a volume envolope, and zoom in on the punch point. way in. so that you see the sine wave. add 4 nodes (dbl click the envelope). then, grab the middle, and bring it down to zero. this will do a REALLY FAST mute on the punch point. works every time, and its completely inaudible.


about your boogie,

I am a huge fan of not using any post-tracking eq or compression on guitars. get it right at the amp, record it and you're done.

 

[Inspired]

i forgot the bomb trick!!!!

here is how you make the punches smoother...

create a volume envolope, and zoom in on the punch point. way in. so that you see the sine wave. add 4 nodes (dbl click the envelope). then, grab the middle, and bring it down to zero. this will do a REALLY FAST mute on the punch point. works every time, and its completely inaudible.

about your boogie,

I am a huge fan of not using any post-tracking eq or compression on guitars. get it right at the amp, record it and you're done.

You like it raw. I'm kind of the same way. I've noticed that computer effects tend to really "stale" the sound.

Your "bomb trick" is way beyond my current knowledge of SONAR. I noticed how to create an envelope, but I don't even know what an envelope is or what it does. I will experiment with your trick though, and see what I discover.

 

[Enzo Polotso]

Great ideas for punching-in. Thanks.

My Boogie Mark IV is wearing me out. It sounds real stale being played or recorded, and I haven't gotten the mids the way I like. I need a little more scoop for palm-muting single note ideas a la Joe Satriani. I knew this amp was difficult to figure out, but this is getting ridiculous...

I wish my Nomad 55 would have never gone bad...

try some more. if you can't scoop ENOUGH on a mark iv you're either doing something wrong or you're an idiot (no offense), get new tubes, get a new cab with new speakers, get a better or different guitar, do something, because the mark iv is the most versatile and can be one of the best sounding amps on there. everything from pristine fender cleans, to dirty rock to rediculous fucking metal.
what other equipment are you using? are you using the graphic eq? what kind of tubes do you have in it?
if it's the combo, you might have a tough time getting that "scoop" sound for muting, you probably want that pushing air sound, and a combo probably isn't gonna get you there. or maybe you're doing it all wrong! ADD mids! give it some meat

 

[volltreffer]

Might it be a problem of recording the sound optimized for single sound and then hearing it in the mix??

aXel