Hi, everyone! I'll cut to the chase:
- I think I accidentally clicked something in a project having to do with panning, and now everything SOUNDS panned but all the meters read 0%, some show in percentages, and a lot of them fade when pushed too far past where their panning is stuck. What is the fix for this? is it an X3e bug?
 
- Also- what is the best method for mixing brass in funk (disco-funk)? Who are some good artists I can listen to to get a feel for the way their tracks are mixed?
 
Thanks!

You could have changed something in offset mode.  Press "o" I think.  

davdud101
 
- Also- what is the best method for mixing brass in funk (disco-funk)? Who are some good artists I can listen to to get a feel for the way their tracks are mixed?
 
Thanks!

Tower of Power
Funkadelic
James Brown
Earth, Wind & Fire
Ohio Players
 

Thank you two, those are exactly what I needed :)

Where are you getting your brass from? I'm just starting to use Session Horns from Native Instruments and it's fabulous but this is my first time trying to mix serious brass parts and I'm having trouble getting them to sit in the mix. The trouble is I keep changing my mind. One minute I think they sound better wide with a thin raspy sound, the next I think they sound better narrow and panned with a warm creamy sound. 

Oh and another great brass reference you might look into is Steely Dan, particularly the Aja and Gaucho albums. Maybe not the kind of full-on brass sound you're looking for, but the Steely Dan sound is the holy grail of mixing in the eyes of many, and one thing they excelled at was getting their brass parts to sit perfectly in the mix. 

I thought about using a VST before, but I realized that at my skill level, I couldn't make it sound very realistic. I'm actually recording my own brass small section- 3 trombones and 2 trumpets. It's all 'played by me', of course, but I'm working out whether i want them panned wide across  the mix or really focused in one spot of the room. Then of course, I don't know if I'm looking for fatness or really crisp high end, which does explain why I wanna hear how some pros have mixed their brass.
thanks, sharke, I'll have a look.

Listen to Chicago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7PfwTAQB_8
 
for brass!
Or early soul like Soul Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVx2i6jGzf8
 

 
(Sam and Dave)
 
But I would not actually go by the way things sound on utube either though.
 
or Jr. Walker and the All Stars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuxErrSMztY
 
 
 
 

Ooh I LOVE Chicago though I guess I didn't consider them originally! I'll have a look for sure, spacealf, thanks. I was listening last night to some straightforward funk and it definitely demonstrated what my aim is...
 
Also, for lack of a better place to put this question: Why did all of my automation go all wacky? I had to slide all of my track over a few bars and it decided to copy all of my automation to EVERY MIDI track. Why did it do that? Why can I erase data from or delete tracks that contain the automation but are orphaned parameters??

I don't know since I am using Sonar 7, but sometimes I have to right click again on the what is supposed to be the empty track and delete it again, seems sometimes some parts are left over. But I only use volume envelopes and put in those by hand, never using the mouse to try and change volume on the track, not precise enough, so I add nodes at the correct times and all of that.
 
But sometimes a track is suppose to be empty and looks empty but still there is stuff there to delete with the Edit->Delete (or Cut) menu option (or right clicking on the graphics of the track (clip).
 
(may also have something to do with using Overwrite on a track or Sound-on-Sound on a track ??). The only thing I can say is check an delete it again if necessary.
 
Well, Chicago is not really funk and a lot of those may have already been mentioned.
Thousands of songs later, it is like trying to remember there was a band called "Orleans" once upon a time.
 
Huey Lewis and the News:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaXTcR4dtE
 
other version without the 2 minute talking at first also.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0SfUdlPkCQ
 
 Oh, just a sax, must have been with Tower of Power horn section in Power of Love, Back to the Future movie song.
Oh, well. Thousands of songs later, duh!
 
 
The era of horns, I think, duh.
Eddie Floyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSD5iMm3K6Y