Howdy
Guys, im trying to save money so decided id have a go at mixing a song myself.  I have a few punch ins on a bass track (due to bumb notes etc).  I've noticed that at each punch there is a kind of pop or click. Almost like when an old record skipped.  I thought it might be the crossfade not set correctly but i am hitting two snags with crossfade.
1:  Under the Options menu, there is a crossfade item.  i've gone through all options there but no joy.
2: Under the process menu item there is a submenu called Apply Effect.  This also has a crossfade item in there.  Using this option, a small window is displayed with a kind of graph which you can drag with your mouse to adjust the crossfade.  but when i do this and click ok i get the following error.  "None of the selected audio events selected overlap. Crossfade not done".
Two questions really.
1: Do the pops have anything to do with crossfade to begin with?  if not, does anyone know how i would "clean up" the punch ins.
2:  If it is a crossfade issue, why does the error say the audio events dont overlap.  As a punch in, surly it does overlap.
Very confused here.  thanks guys. 
Xave
 
 

have you tried applying a small fade in/out to the 2 clips?
i always mark 2 clips (or more), hit ctrl + g and apply 1ms fade in/out 
 
works for me at least :)

Its most likely due because your punch points do not start and stop at a zero crossing and/or the clip to where it start the punch and ends the punch isn't at a zero crossing. Stopping a wave file in mid flow can and will cause artifacts if the file isn't at the zero crossing.
 
 
Cj

Thanks for the feed back guys.  I'll try the ctrl G (i've never seen this to be honest).
I dont know what a zero crossing is :(

Agentcalm
Thanks for the feed back guys.  I'll try the ctrl G (i've never seen this to be honest).
I dont know what a zero crossing is :(

A zero crossing is where the wave file crosses the center line. If you interrupt a wave file in mid stream ,you can get artifacts. This is not like analog where you can cut and paste tape together with no artifacts.
 
CJ

thanks CJ.   So i should zoom in first (enlarge the view) and pick a point of the waveform that either at the peak of the mountain or the bottom.  And put the punch in points there?

Select the clips you want to join seamlessly then in track view, above the time line go into the "clip" menu. From there use the fade option or close gaps (I think it's called) and the voila the clicks disappear.

The solution is simple....and I use it all the time.
 
When you have a mistake that needs to be punched.... 
1. split before and after the clip to create a unique clip that will be replaced.
2. highlight the clip and set the auto punch points to that clip. LET THE AUTO-PUNCH PLACE THE POINTS AUTOMATICALLY that is critical. Don't try to manually place them unless you have silence at the punch point.
3. delete the existing mistake clip and record the new one.
 
A punch done this way will be totally silent....as in... no clicks or pops. I use this method to fix mistakes in tracks that have continuous music data in them. Piano and guitar tracks, for example...
 
I manually place punch points on vocals, where there is silence between the phrases. Other than that, let Sonar place them automatically.
 

Agentcalm
thanks CJ.   So i should zoom in first (enlarge the view) and pick a point of the waveform that either at the peak of the mountain or the bottom.  And put the punch in points there?

No, the zero crossing is at the center of the wave file. all you need to do is apply some very short fades to the start and ends of each joining clip to get rid of any artifacts that may occur from this..
 
CJ

When you use the method I described above, there is no need to use fades to "smooth" the punch. Sonar automatically selects the zero point in the wave and puts the punch points dead on it.
 
I have tried time and again to manually place the punch and it never ever works. There is always a click. But let Sonar chose those points, and you can be in the middle of a held guitar note and the punch is perfect every time. No click, no pops, no split second of silence, no need to edit fades.... it just works.
 
If the punch is on a vocal track, its super easy to split and punch between words and phrases so there's no need to worry, HOWEVER, I still use the same exact process for vocal punches.