like an audio condom

The protection concept brings up a good point. I mix and master at relatively low levels so it's not an issue for me, but I know it can be for others.
 
 

John
I do a little limiting on the master buss. I don't do much compression at all on the master buss or EQ. You have given us something to think about. 

Actually I almost never use compression, I should have been more general and said "dynamics." A multiband limiter is my processor of choice when I want a "hotter" master.

From bitter experience I have learned it throws my track levels balance out.
 
I now do understand why (bring guitar solo up, everything else gets limited back),
but my selection of commercial reference songs do not do this.
 
So do commercial recordings somehow bring something forward without just raising individual levels?

Week 140: SONAR’s Incognito Lo-Fi Plug-In
 
“Incognito” means “having one’s identity concealed, as under an assumed name, especially to avoid notice or formal attention.” And it’s important we get our terms straight before embarking on this week’s tip, because SONAR’s wicked nasty lo-fi processor is definitely avoiding notice by calling itself “Sonitus Modulator.” Oh yes, it may say “Hey, I’m just a flanger/chorus/phaser/auto-panner/tremolo, nothing to see here” as it sits innocently in your FX rack. But tear away its deceptively friendly façade, and there lurks a rude distortion processor that can produce deliciously lo-fi sounds suitable for industrial, hardcore techno, and electro-industrial…or if you’re just having a nostalgic Throbbing Gristle moment. This particular effect does nasty things to drums, voice, percussion, and bass; it sounds somewhere between a broken speaker, and a defective mixer that gargles rocks.
 
Referring to the screen shot below, duplicate the settings as shown: Choose the Flanger mode, and then slam the Rate, Phase, Depth, Delay, and Cross Mix faders fully to the left. Move Mix fully to the right. The disturbance in the Force happens when you move the Feedback slider from 60 (mildly indisposed) to 100 (seriously twisted). You’ll likely need to lower the Output control as you increase the Feedback amount. 
 

 
I’ve found this effect not only works when it's at full strength, but can also be pretty cool if you do parallel processing with the Mix control. You can take this further by processing the nasty signal - send it to a bus and mix the processed signal in with the original, non-perverted signal (you can also do parallel processing with an Aux track, or by copying the original track and processing the copy).
 
Of course to be a true Friday’s Tip of the Week, we need a “but wait…there’s more!” moment and this one does not disappoint. Here are some other ways to pervert the sound… 

• With stereo signals, vary the Cross Mix fader. As you move it more to the right, the center will start to drop out, making the distortion more brittle and less overwhelming. Note that this is pretty useless with mono signals, as the sound goes away the further you move the Cross Mix fader toward the right.
• Experiment with giving the EQ mode and frequency controls some love. The High Cut mode can muffle the distortion into oblivion as you lower the frequency below around 4 kHz, while Low Cut adds a wah-like effect whose resonance depends on the Feedback setting…although varying Cross Mix with stereo signals can also do some fun stuff.
• Oh, and the EQ mode and frequency controls are automatable. Don’t say you weren’t warned. 

Yes, we like sonic purity and wonderful sounds. But if you’re looking for some dirt, you’ll find this lo-fi processor can really give your audio a spanking.

Yeah that modulator plug does not disappoint. 

Excellent tip. Thank you Craig :) Kind of interesting saturator :) Those old Sonar plugins surprise me with their possibilities  :) Thanks to you we can discover them again :)

Perfect timing Craig. Just recorded a vocal that needs a little nastiness added to it. Gonna give this a shot. Thanks!
 

"somewhere between a broken speaker, and a defective mixer that gargles rocks" is definitely the best sonic description I've heard in some time. You missed out on a (likely depressing and poorly paid) career in music journalism!

Week 141: The Humanized MIDI Hi-Hat
 
What with the various MIDI spec advances and the revamped SONAR PRV that streamlines MIDI controller editing, there’s been increased discussion in the forums lately of how to make MIDI tracks more human-sounding. As far as I’m concerned there are a lot of options, but let’s deal with this a piece at a time by starting with the Step Sequencer. Yes, the Step Sequencer—that bastion of über-quantized, electro-friendly beats. But it doesn’t have to be that way...at least it doesn’t have to be that way in SONAR, as we’ll show with a 16th note hi-hat part.
 
If you enter a string of successive 16th notes and simply play them back, I take pity on anyone listening. So, let’s turn that hi-hat part into something more humanized. My model for a 16th-note humanized hi-hat part is what Tony Williams did on Miles Davis’s “In a Silent Way.” No, it’s not EDM...but if you do EDM, you need to know about this hi-hat part. So check out the following video (if you’re the impatient type, start at 01:30).
 

 
Adjust dynamics. Note that the first 16th note of each beat is accented the most, with the third note of each beat accented less, but more so than the second and fourth notes. Also note that this isn’t a rigid change—there are some variations, but the most consistent element is that first beat.
 

 
Now let’s mess with the dynamics some more. Right-click on a row to bring up the Velocity Multiplier. This compresses velocity with values under 1 and expands velocity with values over 1. Here I’ve expanded the velocity by 20%, and because that raises the overall level, trimmed back the Velocity control just a bit by -4.
 
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Some people think the purpose of swing is to create extreme shuffle beats. Well that’s one application, but with something like a 16th hi-hat pattern, even a small amount of swing—in this case, a value of 53—adds a variation that makes the part swing and come alive. A little swing goes a long way in this context, but it’s all you need.
 
Push it, baby! Now let’s “push” the beat a bit, which is ideal for EDM because it adds a sense of urgency yet doesn’t interfere with that rock-solid “four on the floor” kick. Here, an offset value of -4.2 ahead of the beat does the job. However, if you really want to get into it, you can get more detailed than a global amount of offset: Select Time Offset from the drop-down menu, and you can add individual offsets for each note if you want.
 
To prove to yourself what kind of difference this makes, lay in a closed hi-hat part with straight 16th notes and then make the kind of tweaks shown in the screen shot. The difference is not just night and day—it's a winter night and summer day in Alaska.
 
But wait—there’s more! Yes, there always is...isn’t there?
 
Hopefully you can modulate the hi-hat’s decay time a bit to make it more or less closed, and therefore add even more dynamics. Or, start off with a lowpass filter all the way up at the beginning of the beat, then close it down ever so slightly over the course of the beat. And then you can convert the Step Sequence to a PRV-editable clip while retaining the humanized elements you’ve programmed in...but that’s another story, for another time. Happy hi-hat!

Good stuff Craig, a tip like this may cause me to use the Step Sequencer.