Applying effects causing increase of volume

OK, maybe this is just another one of those weird quirks that happen to me occasionally for no apparent reason. Then again maybe someone can offer an explanation or shed some light.

I have a vocal track with a number of effects in the effects bin. At the highest point the volume meter reads at –2.7

I want to clone the track so I can apply the effects in the cloned track and then archive the original one, thereby decreasing the CPU.

In this vocal track, after applying the effects, the volume meter is now clipping at +0.3

I have not changed anything in the track. The only thing I have done is to apply the effects to the track that were in the effects bin and then delete the effects from the bin. I have tried this over and over again with the same results. Before applying the effects it’s at -2.7, after applying effects it’s at +0.3

This has never happened to me before and I’m thinking it’s just one of those odd and unexplainable occurrences.

Here’s the effects in the bin:
Cakewalk Pitch Shifter
Sonitus EQ
Spitfish De-esser
Sonitus Compressor
Sonitus Reverb

It just goes to show, that there is usually an expaination for most things if'n you just look at the facts. I have noticed that many issues are caused by plugins, or VSTis

You're right Robo. I can usually figure things out. But this one kept me stumped for hours. Seems I learn something new everyday because the learning curve is endless.

Joe20:

You've intrigued me. I tried to find MPEX in my Sonar4 PE program. The only thing I could find in the help menu of my Sonar4 when I ran a search on "MPEX" was Cakewalk's Time/Pitch Stretch 2 which can not be used in real time. It has an advanced tab where you can select either Normal or MPEX for the algorithm. Is this what you were referring to?

The only other tool I could find in my aresenal for changing the pitch was the one I already used which was Cakewalk's Pitch Shifter. But I couldn't find any tool called MPEX.

Thanks Joe,
Yes, I have played with that before but I haven't used it in a project yet. I guess my ears are not as attuned as yours because I can't really notice a difference in the sound quality between that one and the Cakewalk Pitch Shifter. Although the Time/Pitch Stretch does have the time stretch feature that the other one does not. I do like the regular pitch shifter becaused it can be used in real time. I have seldom used any of the offline features because working in realtime is so much easier when trying to mix.

Another point of interest: The Cakewalk Pitch Shifter only forces the track to mono if it is placed first in the chain of effects in the effects bin. But even if it is placed first, and you add other stereo effects, the audio will come out of the track in stereo even though the little stereo/mono icon indicates that it's a mono track.

BTW: Joe, a bit off topic but I purchased the upgrade to my PODxt with the additional amps & effects and have to say IMO it is well worth the 100 bucks. I purchased the combined 3 pack.

BTW: Joe, a bit off topic but I purchased the upgrade to my PODxt with the additional amps & effects and have to say IMO it is well worth the 100 bucks. I purchased the combined 3 pack.

I hear that. I recently added the 2 amp packs (XT live comes with the FX pack already) and the Bass Expansion. It is as close to endless possibilities as you can get, methinks. Glad you like it!

Pete,

The short and sweet of it is SONAR is a sequencer, not an audio editor. Personally, I don't think that you'd run into a problem applying offline effects in SONAR. The advantage of proggy's like SF and Audition is that they allow a more isolated approach to individual wave files. Personally, I save it mostly for any noise reduction and any mastering, and I leave the rest up to SONAR. I've always done time-pitch as an offline effect, mainly because if the algorithm is good, it'll eat up CPU at astonishing rates.

That being said, I don't even think you can use mpex in another host, I've never tried, though.

OK. I understand now. Thanks guys.

I did a search in these forums and came accross some interesting posts on the subject of Sonar vs. Sound Forge for audio editing. Seemed to be about 50/50 pro and con. Most agreed that Sound Forge was the better program for mastering though.

But I see your point and it makes perfect sense. Again, thanks guys for the help. Now I have something else to chew on for awhile.

I recently installed Reason and have been working with it because I thought it would be a better program for working with midi. (I mention this because now I'm thinking that Sound Forge is better for audio but I just went through this same kind of thing with Reason) It works well with the rewire feature but quite frankly I like Cakewalk's midi much better. Although I do like some of the samples that Reason uses. The drum samples that Reason uses sound better than the other things I've been using and I've just finished creating the drums for my new song using Reason, creating the drums one note at a time. But in all honesty I think Cakewalk's midi program is a lot better than Reason's IMHO, although there are many similarities

Anyway, I'm way off topic from my original post here but things just kept getting more and more interesting as this thread continued and I was intrigued. LOL Thanks again guys.

Uh... you can't really be OT, seeing as it's your topic to begin with! You make the rules and all...

I'm not a Reason junkie myself. The sounds are a bit too dated and overused for my taste. I'd recommend the full nskit_7 w/either Kontakt or HALion for drums and the sample library from the sampler you chose along with any other specific plugin to take care of your other sounds.

I think the only sampling program I have is rgc: audio sfz.

But the only sound fonts that I have for sfz are the free ones because I've only downloaded the free sfz program. I've also searched the internet and have downloaded a few other sound fonts that I thought sounded interesting. I suppose I should invest in a good sampling program with high quality samples. Of course it would have to be a dxi or vst, vsti. or at least something that could be used with rewire. I have seen nskit mentioned several times throughout these forums. Seems it is widely used by a lot of folks.

Reason does have several sample files that came with the program but not a huge amount of them. I'm sure more can be purchased. Of course it has a ton of synth sounds I could use.
The drum samples in Reason's Redrum are fairly decent but it limits you to only 10 sounds per track which can be very limiting if you want to use several different cymbol sounds plus several toms and a couple snares, etc. It's surprising how quickly you can use up 10 sounds in a project. It also limits which drum sounds you can use together in a project. I think there's a way to create your own drum kits but it will still limit you to only 10 sounds.

Pete,

The FREE nskit is used by a lot of people. I think only like 150 or so people have the full kit (it's about 100 bucks for the samples). They get so mixed up it's hard to say "Hey, I use nskit" because then people consider you cheap, so it turns into "hey I use nskit (the full one) (I paid (a lot) for it) (really)." Okay, maybe not that bad...

Reason is not a bad program, it just won't end up in my studio, I guess that's what I was saying. Rebirth has been released for free, that will take care of the only other thing that Reason could have even offered.