Sonar Home Studio 6, mixing, editing, Ozone 3

[bradlee]

I have 4 things that I want to get some help with:

1. Generally, I'm wondering how I can better mix and ultimately edit and fine tune with this software. I used Audacity to record a major project last year and could really zero on problem areas (smooth out punchy vocals, inadvertent background noises, etc.) and correct them. And, I could silence different sections of tracks or fade them in or out. I can't seem to do this in SHS6 and I've read over the tutorials and can't see how to do it from them either. Am I stuck with trying my best to get the takes perfect and some compression?? I'm actually doing some editing in Cool Edit Pro after exporting the wav from Sonar - then I open that wav up again in Sonar and use Ozone 3 for mastering. My question for this one is, how can I edit in SHS6 the way I'm describing or where can I look to learn how to do it?

2. Speaking of compression....compression is one of the audio effects that came with SHS6 - and one of the presets is 'mix compression'. I'm wondering if this is supposed to be for a mix as a whole or if it's for a track within a mix?? And, should I apply this compression before or after using the Ozone 3mastering tool?

3. And, speaking of Ozone 3....I see where I can download additional presets for Ozone on the Izotope website. I have tried this and can't get what I think I downloaded to open up in Ozone 3? Can anyone help me download and install the additional presets from teh Izotope website?

4. Finally....speaking of Ozone 3 and SHS6, when I'm mixing in Sonar and mastering with Ozone 3 (in Sonar) I am getting an error message from time to time that reads: "Document encountered invalid argument". I get the error and have to close SHS6 down. 'Any idea what might be going on and how to correct it??

I've ask a lot here - any help will be greatly appreciated. Thx ~ B

[brandondrury]

2. Speaking of compression....compression is one of the audio effects that came with SHS6 - and one of the presets is 'mix compression'. I'm wondering if this is supposed to be for a mix as a whole or if it's for a track within a mix?? And, should I apply this compression before or after using the Ozone 3mastering tool?

Presets are useless as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a fan of Ozone3 because I don't feel it has much to do with mastering. They shoud call it "Redudant 2bus processing" or something like that. Anyway, if you are going to use Ozone3, there really isn't much need to use the compression on your 2bus.

3. And, speaking of Ozone 3....I see where I can download additional presets for Ozone on the Izotope website. I have tried this and can't get what I think I downloaded to open up in Ozone 3? Can anyone help me download and install the additional presets from teh Izotope website?

What good are these prests going to do for you?

Alright, that did it. Officially, I consider Ozone 3 to be a scam. Instead of trying to help people make better mixes, they glorify the use of processing the living hell out of the 2bus. They are intentionally tricking newbies into creating bad sounding mixes. A great mix may use just a HINT of compression, maybe 1dB of eq (most mastering engineers agree that if you need more than 2dB of EQ than you need to remix), and a limiter. In rare situations, a multi-band compressor comes in hand. That's it.

Sorry I don't use Sonar, so I can't be of much help there.

Brandon

[jclampitt]

Originally Posted by bradlee

I have 4 things that I want to get some help with:

1. Generally, I'm wondering how I can better mix and ultimately edit and fine tune with this software. I used Audacity to record a major project last year and could really zero on problem areas (smooth out punchy vocals, inadvertent background noises, etc.) and correct them. And, I could silence different sections of tracks or fade them in or out. I can't seem to do this in SHS6 and I've read over the tutorials and can't see how to do it from them either. Am I stuck with trying my best to get the takes perfect and some compression?? I'm actually doing some editing in Cool Edit Pro after exporting the wav from Sonar - then I open that wav up again in Sonar and use Ozone 3 for mastering. My question for this one is, how can I edit in SHS6 the way I'm describing or where can I look to learn how to do it?

editing in sonar is different than editing in audacity, audacity seems more like a wave editor to me, i use it for my fake mastering cuz i'm too cheap to buy sound forge. i don't know how similar Sonar Home Studio 6 is to Sonar 5 PE, but i'm assuming they work pretty much the same. as far as silencing different sections of tracks you could use volume automation, or just split the clips and cut out the sections you don't want, there are several ways to fade clips in or out, you can use volume automation or try going to Process-Audio-fade/envelope.(again i'm not sure if shs6 is the same) the instructions should tell you all the different ways of manipulating of clips in sonar, and you should be able to do everything you can do in audacity, the ways of doing things may different, but you should be able to get the same end result.

Originally Posted by bradlee

4. Finally....speaking of Ozone 3 and SHS6, when I'm mixing in Sonar and mastering with Ozone 3 (in Sonar) I am getting an error message from time to time that reads: "Document encountered invalid argument". I get the error and have to close SHS6 down. 'Any idea what might be going on and how to correct it??

i've never used ozone and i have no idea what that error message means, except that computers are a pain in the ass.

[ferguson66]

Originally Posted by bradlee

3. And, speaking of Ozone 3....I see where I can download additional presets for Ozone on the Izotope website. I have tried this and can't get what I think I downloaded to open up in Ozone 3? Can anyone help me download and install the additional presets from teh Izotope website?

You have to have the full version, not the lite version to use additional presets. If you have the full version, I have no idea how to help you there.

[brandondrury]

as far as silencing different sections of tracks you could use volume automation, or just split the clips and cut out the sections you don't want, there are several ways to fade clips in or out, you can use volume automation or try going to Process-Audio-fade/envelope.

Cubase SX3 has a wav editor, but I seldome use it. I just cut everything out I don't want.

Brandon