Trim plugin

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comedians
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by comedians »

I find them quite useful on occasions and particularly like the https://www.sonalksis.com/freeg.html which has a good fine control and apart from the stereo version they also do a mono plugin.
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aquataur
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by aquataur »

Starship Krupa wrote:Helmut, can you educate me on this?
Have you seen this video?

What they do, they have built a mechanism into their DAW that allows you to gain manipulate a clip, meaning it can work on a part of a track. This approach has also the benefit to make a visual change to the waveform along with the zoom factor. Makes it easy to see what is going on. You still change the track´s overall gain with its fader.

DAW´s that don´t have this feature have only the track fader, unless you employ a third party gain tool. Both work on all subsequent clips in a track.

I find this a great feature. I suggested it earlier. Let´s see if they incorporated it in Version ∞.

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Anorax
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by Anorax »

aquataur wrote:I find this a great feature. I suggested it earlier. Let´s see if they incorporated it in Version ∞.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I haven't seen anything of the sort in the Mixcraft 8 beta.
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Starship Krupa
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by Starship Krupa »

aquataur wrote:
Starship Krupa wrote:Helmut, can you educate me on this?
Have you seen this video?

What they do, they have built a mechanism into their DAW that allows you to gain manipulate a clip, meaning it can work on a part of a track.
Thanks, but what I meant was how this is different from Mixcraft's Clip Automation, which I remember being part of the program as far back as v6. For each individual clip, adjust volume, pan, and filter cutoff and resonance, both highpass and lowpass.

Check p. 191 of the Mixcraft 8 manual.

The only real difference I can see from the video is that PT's Clip Gain makes the waveform look bigger. Also, PT's doesn't work on MIDI clips and only operates on volume, not panning or filtering. Oh, and people think that PT invented it in version 11 even though most other DAW's have had it for a long time. :)

I've used it on several projects. If I have 10 seconds out of a 3-minute lead vocal track that are too soft or of a different tonality because the singer backed off from the mic, and/or the clip is copied in from a different take, Clip Automation is my friend.
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BillW
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by BillW »

Got the Blue Cat trim plugin (gain control) and started remixing a song. Reset all the faders to 0 and turned down the gain on the two (hot but not clipping) guitar tracks. What a difference! Had to turn down 10dB in order to keep the level peaking at about minus 16 instead of near 0. So I'm not chasing the volume imbalance with faders. The master control peaks only at about minus 12. Plenty of headroom for when I start to eq and compress. In fact I suspect I'll not have as much to "fix" as I thought I did before

While it would be nice to "see" the headroom in the waveform as PT can do, this is fine. It does two things. Reminds me not to record hot the next time. And it helps me mix with my ears and not eyes, though I do pay close attention to the level meters on each track.
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by Mark Bliss »

OK, Bill achieved his goal, but backing up to the discussion within a discussion here, I wanted to point something out.

While the functions shown in the linked video are pretty interesting, that solution is pretty complex and I think it can be trimmed down to a simpler idea, sleekly integrated.

While I had seen that before, I was much more intrigued by this solution in another product.
In this short clip, while putting together a rough mix, the user quickly adjusts the gain visually using the waveform as a guide, then performs another minor adjustment during playback to get the level close to where he desires.

In seconds. Simple and handy. pretty cool idea IMO.
https://youtu.be/s7A5Ug0lbO4
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by aj113 »

I just look at the waveform of each clip. Anything that's more than a a thin black line gets its clip automation gain reduced. You can even render to a new track to see the effect of the gain reduction, and then adjust accordingly. After a few times doing that you soon learn how much reduction each clip needs.

As for clip zoom, I just normalize the tracks, then un-normalize after editing. (CTRL+A, CTRL+K)

I used to be 'for' a clip zoom feature but now I actually think the other way: Because MC is hardwired to always show the 'correct' waveform in relation to 0db, potential mistakes are eliminated, such as thinking a zoomed-out clip is recorded at the right level when in fact it is red hot.
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BillW
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by BillW »

aj113

A lot for me to digest here in such a short response. just when I think i know all the terminology...

"...gets its clip automation gain reduced."

I'm unclear what this means - and how it's done. Simply go into the volume automation lane and lower it for the entire track? Somehow I suspect you mean something else.

"You can even render to a new track to see the effect of the gain reduction, and then adjust accordingly. "
Ok - I'm not at my home computer now, but I'll try that out.

Also - not clear what "normalizing the tracks" means but I will again try that out when I get a chance.

But you're last point is similar to what I was saying - I'd rather see the waveform as it was recorded - if nothing else to remind me to stop recording too hot.
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Mark Bliss
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by Mark Bliss »

Hi Bill.

Normalization is an automated function, where the chosen track is analyzed, the highest peak determined, and the track level turned up to put that peak at a predetermined level.

That predetermined level seems to vary between DAW's somewhat, and some allow some choice or preferences.

In my testing, I have found Mixcraft to normalize to a peak of -2 dBfs.
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Re: Trim plugin

Post by aj113 »

BillW wrote:"...gets its clip automation gain reduced."

I'm unclear what this means - and how it's done. Simply go into the volume automation lane and lower it for the entire track? Somehow I suspect you mean something else.
Each clip has an automation line running through its middle. You can automate it just like the automation lane, but (in terms of a mixer), you're automating the "gain" as opposed to the "fader".
"You can even render to a new track to see the effect of the gain reduction, and then adjust accordingly. "
Ok - I'm not at my home computer now, but I'll try that out.
Right click the track on the grey area to the far left where the track's name is, select Mix To New Audio Track.
Also - not clear what "normalizing the tracks" means but I will again try that out when I get a chance.
Normalizing makes the signal as close to 0db as possible without going over. If you already have a big fat waveform you won't see or hear much happening, but if you have a low signal, say - 10db, you will hear a large boost in level and see the waveform jump.
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