Silly idea, but you could copy the starting sound and back it up a half measure to initiate the control then bounce down and trim. Would that help?

@backwoods... Not familiar with that one. Is that the reverse bounce function kind of like you would do to create a reverse reverb effect??

@gswitz... In the light of a new day I'm think if I do indeed end up using this on the master it's gonna go down something like that. I know this isn't exactly how this thing is supposed to be used but it just sound so good. Cheers.

Spare time reading about reverse audio compression http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=2631845

Beep, I had a couple of thoughts.  Which mode are you in, compressor or limiter?  Is this something that could be cured by adjusting the latency of your  converter?  I've had good luck with the gain set between 40-50 and the pitch reduction between 30-40, and never a pop.  Somewhere in those ranges is the meat of the PC2A.  And, the last thought is gain structure.  Hope it works for you because it sure is sweet.

Thanks, guys. I just spent the day mixing things getting ready for export sans the PC2A. Gonna try some stuff tomorrow but my test export cropped up a whole new pile of of questions but I'm gonna fiddle with that crap tomorrow. I was thinking I might try it on the exported stereo file instead to see what happens but my first export was WAY different than my mix. Not sure why... but as I said, tomorrow. Brain needs a break. Cheers.

As mentioned by others here...

Simply enable a clip gain envelope (I believe the shortcut is ctl-click-drag in a clip and the gain envelope appears)...

Then click-drag in the lower portion of the clip going from just before the peak to just after and finally click-drag down in the upper clip area of the marked zone... That will lower the gain of the clip for that portion before it hits the compressor. This will lower the gain of that portion as well as buy a bit of time for the attack to get moving to follow that starting peak...

Keni

Hiya, Keni. But that's gonna effect the volume is it not? Like I said it's a big open chord at the very start (kind of like the beginning of Won't Get Fooled... but different). I don't want to lose the punch of the first pick attack. If that trick somehow triggers the compressor before the signal then that would be cool. I'm still thinking I'm gonna have to stick a clip of whatever random noise a second before the start of the tune and cut it out after mixdown. Just wish that Fast Attack toggle thingy worked better. Cheers.

Not really, you should be able to zoom in and tweak it so that the abrupt change from silence to full on does not blow up the PC2A and still maintain the blast of energy you are looking for.

hmm... It does already have a quick fade in. Isn't that pretty much the same thing or will what you guys are describing do something different. I guess I should describe this a little better. There are two rhythm guitar tracks panned hard right and left. One is the big open power chord and the other is a chunky single note riff (first note low E). There is TH2 (heavily distorted) on the tracks. Both are sent to a single bus where I have applied the LP64 EQ for shaping. As I said there is a quick fade on both (using the regular clip fade tools... not automation). The only other thing that happens is a BFD ride cymbal bell sound tapping away but I'm assuming the guits are the more likely culprit of inducing the POP.

Anyway... just thought I'd provide a bit more info. I'm not really up to messing around with it tonight because I spent about 4-5 hours mixing so my brain is fried for the day (yeah... I'm a wimp but I start screwing things up after a while). Cheers and thanks for the suggestions.

Then put a little notch in the gain at the pop or figure out which instrument is the offender (if is it just one) and put a notch in it's volume.