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audiokid Boswell kmetal MAGIX et al...
Hi guys, I have a question regarding Samp Pro X...
Occasionally, I'll get a quick reverb trail at the top of a song, it's always whatever happens at the end of a song - like, if I have a reverb on the last line of a vocal at the end of the song, when I rewind back to o the beginning and hit Play, I hear a quick snippet of that vocal reverb at the top of the song. I don't much care if I'm still mixing, but it also shows up on the final mixdown/render as well.
Is there a "zero out" command somewhere in my settings that would stop this from happening?
Something similar to the "zero midi controls when play is stopped" feature?
Or does this have to do more with me not allowing enough space at the end of a mix for the reverb o trail out completely? Like, would adding a few blank seconds at the end of the song to increase the project length be what I need to do?
I don't know if I'm being clear about the problem I'm describing...
Thoughts?

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audiokid Sun, 11/05/2017 - 08:00

sorry for the delay,

I'm sure you have tried this but I'll still ask if you've tried isolating each track either by disabling or muting everything you can think of to see if or where its located in the mix?

I've heard this happen in Pro Tools that was the cause of a (not ever confirmed) bug in a reverb plugin. Even though the reverb was disabled, it could still be heard on one of the master bus or aux lanes.

I've also heard this on midi tracks. Look in there. Could be its one byte at the front of timeline lane that was tracked in realtime (not quantized) making it easy to miss.
You could also look on the metronome.

My experience tells me you have something at the start you can't see under normal editing. It could also be in the Object rather than the timeline lanes

DonnyThompson Mon, 11/06/2017 - 03:32

audiokid, post: 453902, member: 1 wrote: My experience tells me you have something at the start you can't see under normal editing. It could also be in the Object rather than the timeline lanes

I know what you're saying pal, and that makes total sense, but it's not that.
It's the reverb trail from the last note at the end of the song - in this case, backing vocals - that for whatever reason, I hear a quick blurb of at the top of the song... BUT... I have found that if I let the song play until the verb trail has died, then go to the beginning and start playback, it doesn't happen. It's only when I stop play before the last notes have fully decayed.
It's not like this is a deal breaker or anything, it's not hard to work around it, but I was curious if any other Samp users had ever encountered this...
I was curious to know if there was a command of some kind in the settings menu that I could check ( or uncheck), that would "zero" or "null" the track effects when I hit the Stop button... sorta like a "zero midi controllers" function that we used to use so you wouldn't get sustained notes stuck when you hit Stop...
It's no biggie, I know the workaround for it now... letting the song completely finish... I was just curious if anyone might know what was causing this.
Thanks though! :)

Boswell Mon, 11/06/2017 - 04:56

I believe this is a bug in the Samp play process. When you hit stop, it stops the play immediately at the output stage rather than stopping the sound sources and letting the output buffer empty itself. If you stop the output immediately, any reverb tails will still be left in the output buffer, and are there to play when the next output begins, whether that be a continuation of the previous play or a start from anywhere else such as the top.

Flushing the buffer before starting play is an obvious way of preventing the tails being audible at the next start. It's the sort of thing that there might be a Preferences option to control, but I couldn't see one.

With most other DAWs I have used, when I hit stop play during a loud passage, the output buffer runs on until it's empty. I'm fequently surprised by how audible the reverb tails are on their own and how long they go on for, even though I had them set to just below the level of specific audibility in the mix.

MAGIX Mon, 11/06/2017 - 05:29

Hey!
Thank you for this very detailled feedback! Would you define this issue as a bug or more as an unconfortable thing having impact on the workflow?
If you want to, we can send this to the developers so they can have a look at it. But we would need some information how we can reproduce this bug/inconvenience. Also some screenshots :)

Best,

Basti

Boswell Mon, 11/06/2017 - 06:52

I would call it a bug, in that I'm sure it was unintended and overlooked by the program developers. However, it's not crippling, has no lasting effects and does not cause any problems in the printed mix. As an audio engineer, I find it an annoyance, but nothing further than that.

In terms of reproducing the problem, I think Donny gave sufficient information for any of your developers to experience it.

Keith Johnson Mon, 11/06/2017 - 07:45

audiokid, post: 453913, member: 1 wrote: Does this happen to you too (within Samplitude) Bos?

It would be interesting if this resolved after upgrading to the latest Samplitude version.

Did to me too...not sure I've noticed it on X3 Suite...

I have got another bug or something going on though that I need to report to them...double clicking on projects to open them for the open projects window has started causing all sorts of mayhem including the program locking up and needing a task manager 'end task' to get out (which is a problem if something is unsaved!).

Boswell Mon, 11/06/2017 - 08:04

audiokid, post: 453913, member: 1 wrote: Does this happen to you too (within Samplitude) Bos?

It would be interesting if this resolved after upgrading to the latest Samplitude version.

I remember it being a surprise to me on one mix I did with Samplitude, but it wasn't a show-stopper, and I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. I use many DAWs for different tasks, and, as it happens, the mixes I have done recently have mainly been with other DAWs.

DonnyThompson Tue, 11/07/2017 - 03:02

Wonderful insight here guys.
I'd never thought about the output buffer theory, but it makes total sense.
I'm also wondering now if this happens when I'm using higher buffer settings when I mix (1024, 2048), because I don't recall this happening with lower buffer settings while tracking... the other side of that coin is that I'm not really using effects during the tracking phase, either ... so it may very well do it at lower buffer settings and I just haven't encountered it because at that stage I'm using very few - if any - effects like verb or delay.
I'd be interested to hear what the Magix support team says about this - like I said, it's not a deal breaker or anything, I can work around it by simply making sure that the song playback is completely finished before I actually render a 2 mix. But I'd still like to know what they say. :)
Thanks to all for your input. ;)

DonnyThompson Tue, 11/07/2017 - 03:11

Keith Johnson, post: 453915, member: 49792 wrote: Did to me too...not sure I've noticed it on X3 Suite...

I have got another bug or something going on though that I need to report to them...double clicking on projects to open them for the open projects window has started causing all sorts of mayhem including the program locking up and needing a task manager 'end task' to get out (which is a problem if something is unsaved!).

I've not encountered that issue, Keith... but in that scenario you might not lose your last most recent changes if you wait a few minutes and allow Samp to save what you've done as a ".bak" file ( it's a backup file that is automatically writtten every five min or so , ( or whatever time frame you have selected in your preferences ). So, if you are forced to end the task on TM, after restarting Samp, open the project name with the .bak extension, and that should take you to your most recent auto save. That being said, none of that solves the issue of why you're having to do a TM-end task hard shut down in the first place. I've not had this problem, so I can't tell you what it might be. I'd suggest filing a support ticket with Magix for this. If you do, let us know what you find out.
:)
-d.
PS... have you tried opening the project by clicking on the file name icon for the song? (on the desktop, or wherever you're storing your project files)... try locating the file, (it should have a Samp icon), and clicking on that as opposed to opening Samp and then selecting the file... not sure if it will make any difference but it's worth a try)... also, have you inserted any new plug processors in your recent mixes? It may be that Samp is having difficulty opening a particular file that has new plugs inserted (like freeware, or something you've actually recently purchased and installed) that may be buggy...
Just thinking out loud here. ;)

DonnyThompson Sat, 11/25/2017 - 15:39

audiokid, post: 454194, member: 1 wrote: Please share!

Okay. But these are just my thoughts. Others may not agree. Or even care. But I'll post them anyway:
1.) the ability to track through inserted processing and to print that processing to the track -or to a bus - in real time.
2.) the ability to assign channels/tracks to multiple busses.
3. A built-in phase/time alignment feature; something native that's similar to Melda's Phase Alignment or Wave's InPhase VST - that you can align tracks like overhead drum mics to a single source, such as the Snare track.

These are just thoughts I've come up with. It's not my intention to start an argument, although I always welcome healthy, intelligent and respectful debate.
I don't really consider any of these feature ideas to be "deal breakers", but I do think they could be useful features to have, for different mix and creativity scenarios.

;)
-d.