TremoJem
Are you kidding me. my tracks are riddled with those.

haha! You're a better man than me then... I reach for the limiter, as you can see from above 
 
I need to get into more of that though, it seems...
 
cheers
 
andy

i was reading an interview with todd rundgren lately....
he was talking about how he used Urei Limiters on almost EVERYTHING back in the early days...
and even tho THOSE sounds would be considered dated today, they are still good sounds.
 
i mix into a master buss compressor...
always have,
always will.
 
it's what i like.
 
so, mixing into a stereo compressor, makes you carefully consider all other treatments upstream of the master buss.
 
i use limiters quite a bit on individual tracks, but rarely to the point where you actually hear them limit.
 
i use it more for color, and as an 'upwards' compressor, almost like an expander.
it's subtle, but definitely colors tracks in certain ways.
 
 

Thanks for your input Rob. I hear what you're saying  and I'm taking all on-board...

synkrotron
 
I guess some of this is going to go over my head for a bit... So much still to learn. As I've said before, I'm a hobbyist composer, tracker, mixer and masterer, and my time can sometimes be limited. As well as learning new stuff...
 
I have, just recently, used a volume envelope to tame one particular peak down, so I suppose this is what I should be doing in the first instance.
 
By the way, I rarely "track" stuff, as most of my work is soft synth stuff, with the odd guitar thrown in now and then. So unless I freeze the instrument track I don't have a waveform to work with. Perhaps I should consider freezing first...
 
Thanks again for everyone's help here 
 
andy

Hi Andy,
 
If anything I mentioned went over your head, please let me know and I'll try to explain things better. I was doing a few different things yesterday when I typed those responses up, so if I confused you in any way, let me know and I'll try to make it easier to understand. :)
 
That's the right idea with the volume envelope. It's best to try to get things controlled with methods like that if possible. There are times where that won't work though...or maybe it won't work enough for what you need. Since you aren't tracking any real instruments, here are a few things to look out for with sampled material.
 
They just about always try to sell the sound on effects that are in the sample. Sometimes these effects are the reason for the transient to cause peaks. I mentioned transient shaper plugs before. Quite a few sample companies are using these types of effects right in their software. Superior Drummer uses them, Kontakt uses them and now even EZDrummer 2. Effects like this are used to give the samples a bit more character, so they can lash out at you. These aren't just used on drums...they can be used on anything.
 
I'd go as far as to say these transient plugs are the new exciters of the 2000's. So check for effects that come loaded on a sample you may be using. Turning that down can control peaks too. But this effect MAY be the reason you like the sound and curbing it a bit may make the sound change drastically to where you don't like it as much. So you'll need to find that happy medium.
 
EQ is also really pumped up on some samples internally. Reducing the frequencies that may be causing peaks will help, but again, just like the transient shaper example, if you curb the eq, you may not like the sound as much. The key in this field is to know when to use a particular tool and when to take care of it manually. Sometimes the "tools" give us other artifacts that we may not need or we may over-use something. This is why less can sometimes be moire in a good way. :)
 
Again, if I've lost you on anything, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to try and help you out.
 
-Danny

Thanks again Danny, I really appreciate this.
 
Regarding samples... The only VSTi I am using that uses samples it Battery 3, so yeah, I will look out for that when I am using that. Absynth also uses some samples, but I find I'm not using that so much.
 
All my other instruments, Hive (which I have just bought), all my A|A|S stuff, FabFilter Twin and its little brother, a couple of my Korg synths and what have you, are all modelling synths. But I think they can actually cause their own problems.
 
By the way, I posted this picture of a Pro-L instance on my master bus in that project:-
 

 
What are your thoughts on that? Even though I'm using a limiter, I'm not squashing the wave totally. It's more of an insurance policy really, and much quicker than trying to suss out which track is causing the problem and sticking a volume envelope on it.
 
Thanks again Danny... I am reading every word and it's great that you're helping 

That screenshot could have been taken from any one of my own projects.
 
I want to see the limiter just barely kiss the tops of the highest peaks. Lots of times the limiter doesn't touch anything at all, and only serves as a final volume control. I'm most satisfied when I manage to achieve my volume target without any limiting or master bus compression.
 
Sometimes, of course, a particular genre dictates how aggressively you limit. But it's not nearly as genre-specific as many believe. Anybody who doubts that need only listen to your stuff, which is refreshingly dynamic in a genre often ruined by ubersquashmentation.

I like to use Harrison Mixbus to edit peaks as it also changes the wav form visually as you edit. I guess I use it as a wav editor since I don't have one. This is one of Sonar's missing tools IMHO. I know you can split the clip and reduce gain, but when working on the peaks I really like the visual aid. There use to be a way to get Adobe Audition 3.0 from Adobe for free, but I can't seem to find it now. Maybe they changed their mind on that. I'm not sure if any of the free wav editors have this feature, but I would like to hear about it if any of you know of one.

I did find the site for Adobe Audition 3.0 and the entire Creative Suite 2. I believe there is also a patch for 3.0.1. All available from Adobe...not a crack or whatever.

bitflipper
That screenshot could have been taken from any one of my own projects.

Hiya Bit. That is most comforting to know 
 
Perhaps it's not all that bad then, providing it's not over done...
 
Hiya Clint,
 
I have Sound Forge. I'm pretty sure I've used that in the past to bring a peak down a bit.
 
I've had a look at the Adobe website and the costing indicates you have to rent it, and it isn't cheap...
 
cheers 

Yeah, the new version is the Adobe cloud thing...for $19.99 a month (I think). The version I'm talking about is 7 or 8 years old. If you have Sound Forge I doubt you would need it. I think you can configure Sound forge as a utility and launch it from within Sonar.