Fade to inf.

I just mixed a new project and wanted a long slow fade.  But even though the fade is slow and steady...it still sounds like the audio just drops off at the end of the fade instead of hearing a gradual fade to infinity.

When I used to mix through my analog console, you could do a fade with the stereo faders and get a nice slow fade that sounded great.  I even have four of those Niche ACM's (I'm sure some of you are old enough to remember those) and I could automate my fade with my Cakewalk sequencer and it sounded great although it done the fade in midi steps.

All of my audio is 48K 24 bit...with a few soft synths in the mix too.

Is there a setting that will give me a smoother fade to inf...that sounds more like an analog fader fade?  It doesn't matter if I use a linear curve or just a straight line fade...the sound still drops off noticeably at the bottom of the fade.  This is noticeable not only after a physical mix to a file...but even when just playing the project and listening to the fade.

Any suggestions?  I know there is a setting for the meter...but is there a setting for the resolution of the steps of a fade out? 

I'm doing it with the master faders automation...using the automation lanes for the master sub.  It just doesn't seem to be a very smooth fade at the end.  It's not horrible, but quite noticeable to me...especially after using an analog console for so long in the past.

Tried it with both a straight line fade and a slow curve Karl.  And the fade is a long slow one, probably  40 seconds or more.  Maybe I'm just being too picky :) but I would think I would be able to get it a little smoother.  I could understand it if monitoring through headphones....but I can hear a definite "stop", although it's pretty quiet...but it's there.

It's not really what I'd call a problem....but I thought maybe I had missed a setting somewhere for a "fader resolution" of some sort of thing.

Thanks for the replies.  If I get to the point that I really want a true fade to inf....I'll run the audio through my analog console and do a manual fade as I'm recording the mix to a file.

I notice this as well Ted.  It's been there since at least Sonar 6 when I came aboard.  Irrespective of the slope, the final few db just suddenly fall off the cliff, and it's very noticeable.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that's noticed this.  As I said, it's not a major problem...but it is noticeable.

I do know that with the digital audio age things have changed a bit from the days of analog.  We have to look at some things differently...and even have to re-think how we do some things.

But do I miss having to do alignments on my multitrack machine, or having to clean tape recorder heads every few hours ?? .....not a chance...!

We have it made these days when it comes to how we work in the studio...!

Yep, same here. Don't know if all daws do this or not. Would like to know the science behind it.

Does it improve if you enable the 64bit mix engine in Preferences?

I do my fades in Sony Sound Forge where they give you a number of different curves, far more than Sonar.  I use the graphic curve which is like the letter S upside down and horizontal.  Add one second of silence after the fade and it's as good as you could ever hope for.

Lynn...I've done that before too.  I have Sound Forge 8.0.  I may have to go back to doing that way.

Thanks John...never really considered fading all the tracks instead of just the master bus....!

I can see where that would give better results.  I'll give that a try tomorrow.

Ted, you can automate the gain nob... by starting with the gain, you should get another 18 DB of precision in your fade.

I have not noticed this as I usually do a final fade of the mixed WAV file using Audition to trim the begining and end.  It does a nice smooth fade to 0 with no cliff.

I wouldn't even consider using the Main Outs or Master Buss faders for this - I'd do it on a track by track basis.

 
That's a rather long winded approach for a master fade out though?  Are you doing that because of the inherent innacuracies of a global master buss fade, or because you want to make relative level changes on the way out?

Wood67

I wouldn't even consider using the Main Outs or Master Buss faders for this - I'd do it on a track by track basis.

 
That's a rather long winded approach for a master fade out though?  Are you doing that because of the inherent innacuracies of a global master buss fade, or because you want to make relative level changes on the way out?

Definitely the latter Wood.

And besides, how many tracks are actually playing at the end of a song?

You might want any single instrument to fade out before others, so track by track is the way to go (for me)

Wizrd - You'd need to have at least 3 nodes for the fade.  The fiirst at the start of the fade, the last a -INF and then place a third somewhere in the middle. Start with a linear for each point to point.  Then modify the first so it is a 'fast', and the second so it is a 'slow' - or vice versa depending on what you want.  That will result in an inverse 'S' shape (twisted through 90 degrees anticlockwise I suppose!) for the fade curve.

I'm going to try some of these tricks over the weekend and see how they turn out.  Most of the time for me the main body of the fade is fine, it's just those last few db's where it jumps.