Clip Fades

I know if I search long enough I'll find it, but a cursory look at the help file didn't help.

The situation: I have taken a track from a CD that a dancer friend gave me to shorten - she needed it 2-3 minutes long. I split the clip, eliminated the middle section and scooted the clips over each other for a Bee-A-oo-tiful crossfade that sounds like the song was recorded that way!!! So far, so good.

However, the second clip now has a parabolic fade-out starting at the crossfade and extending the length of the clip. Fortunately it's a slow fade, not a fast one, so the results are, at some level, acceptable.

But, I can't for the life of my figure out how to eliminate or edit the fade-out. What do I do?

ORIGINAL: raweber

I know if I search long enough I'll find it, but a cursory look at the help file didn't help.

The situation: I have taken a track from a CD that a dancer friend gave me to shorten - she needed it 2-3 minutes long. I split the clip, eliminated the middle section and scooted the clips over each other for a Bee-A-oo-tiful crossfade that sounds like the song was recorded that way!!! So far, so good.

However, the second clip now has a parabolic fade-out starting at the crossfade and extending the length of the clip. Fortunately it's a slow fade, not a fast one, so the results are, at some level, acceptable.

But, I can't for the life of my figure out how to eliminate or edit the fade-out. What do I do?

Hi, raweber,

I've had the same experience a few times over the past couple of days as I've been editing some audio tracks. In fact, it happened again about 1/2 hour ago. I have no idea what causes this to happen, but I was able to get rid of the long fade on the second clip by moving the mouse around near the upper left hand edge of the clip with the fade in it until the little triangle with the arrow sticking out of it pops up. Then, I just dragged the evelope all the way to the right end of the clip, which got rid of it. This is, of course, the same thing you'd do if you were adjusting a regular clip envelope. But it's confusing because you didn't put the envelope there in the first place. I assume this is some sort of bug, but maybe there's a good reason for it......

Anyway, try what I just described and see if that works for you. Oh, by the way, I'm still on Sonar PE 5.2 so things might work a little differently if you're using a different version. Good luck!

Best regards,
Bill

Might try checking to see if auto cross fade clips is switched off. That's the only time it's ever happened for me is when it was switched on.

ORIGINAL: Rbh

Might try checking to see if auto cross fade clips is switched off. That's the only time it's ever happened for me is when it was switched on.

Hi, Rbh,

Great tip! Yep, I have automatic crosfades in the "on" position. Must have left it on after doing some crossfades eariler in the week. I'll disable it and see if the problem continues. Must admit that it was starting to get a little frustrating have these clip fades appearing out of nowhere..... ;>) Well, at least I don't appear to be the only one who's run into this bit of strangeness. ;>)

Best regards,
Bill

It usually happens when you select BOTH clips and try to fade out one of them. Before you fade out clip A, make sure clip B isn't selected.

Ahhh, I thought the OP meant he had a fade that was printed to the clip.

Mike

I find that when doing clip fades there's an interaction -- potentially useful, but more often not -- when multiple clips are selected that isn't necessarilly associated with crossfades, or with whether or not the automatic cross fades button is engaged. I'm pretty sure it CAN happen in connection with crossfades, especially *manual* ones, but I typically only see it in situations when I'm doing comps. (I usually keep automatic crossfades turned off, and turn it on only when I want to create a crossfade. That lets me move clips from lane to lane without worrying about minor overlaps creating unintentional fades.)

Here's what happens.


Adjusting clip on upper right.

I've got 4 clips selected. I want to set a fade in for the one on the upper right (the red triangle indicates that's where I'm creating the fade; the mouse pointer isn't actually visible.) The clip just below it, which also happens to be time-aligned to it, also gets a parallel fade in of the *same length* as the one on which I'm actually doing the fade. That can at times be a useful thing -- just as it's often useful that slip editing a clip will line up the corresponding edges of other *selected* overlapping clips.)

But in this case, the two clips to the left also get fade ins, only their fade ins automatically jump to the full length of the clips -- it would seem because that's as far as they go towards the same time location (approx. mm 31) as the clip where I'm actually doing the fade in.

If I do a fade OUT on the upper right clip, the clip below it again gets a corresponding fade out, but the two on the left that aren't time-aligned with it do not (though i'm not really sure why not...)

But now -- look what happens when I give the clip on the upper LEFT a fade OUT (note the red triangle):


Adjusting clip on upper left.

The selected clip just below it also gets a time-aligned fade out, but the two selected clips to the right get full length fade outs that try to time-align to the fade out start time of the active clip to their left.

It's as though the code says: "You're a selected clip; another selected clip is getting a fade; create a fade for yourself that starts at the same time as the one being faded." And the non-time-aligned clips do the best they can, which is often a full length fade. Or something like that.

This is inconvenient -- I'm constantly falling into this trap! But it doesn't seem like a bug really (even though I called it that in my post above) so much as an unintentional byproduct of a feature (or maybe it's just a featurette) that lets you apply time-aligned fades to multiple clips IF the selected clips are themselves aligned in a way where such fades make sense (e.g., the two on the right in the first screen cap above). You just have to be careful that those are the ONLY clips that are selected, or you end up with unwanted full length fades on the other selected clips.

perfect description - i wish i had had the nerves to describe it like you did ....
but actually i would call it a bug - because with just two clips (not on the same timeline - but one after the other) its not possible to make a "double" fade because one fade is short and one is long... well thats what i´d call a big bug!

Yeah, I guess it is a bug, but I'm feeling generous... it seems more like an oversight... like when they created the basic feature they called it "done" a little too soon, before it was tested under all circumstances. Sonar has a good number of such things, IMV... stuff that's just not quite what it should be (and easily COULD be) but that's not a showstopper (e.g., pressing Shift-N opens the Snap to Grid dialog, but pressing it again doesn't *close* the dialog... it should! There are a few just like that... the various views should work the same way: keystrokes that open a view when that view is closed should close that view when it's opened... vaguely incomplete implementations... hey, I'm lazy... I hate using the mouse... and I love complaining about software... but I also love and marvel at what Sonar lets me do... so, hey... hehehehe)

If your working with MIDI, its better to just select the events you want faded and use the MIDI tools to fade out.