So I just put my two mono rhythm tracks into a stereo group channel and it seems after doing so, the track events make that popping sound as if I didn’t have any fade ins or outs at the beginning and end of each event. Before I put them into the group channel, it was fine since I had the fades. No matter how much fade in and out I put on them now, the pops remain. Why does making a group track of guitars cause this popping sound and how can I fix it?
Are you using sends to route the signal to the group?
If so, make sure the sends are post fader.
Otherwise, I have no idea why it is doing that.
Could you try to build a new project with just the channels in question and building a group there to make sure it’s working alone?
Sorry being late getting back to you, I just got home from work. What do you mean by post fader? I’m not sure if I’m using sends to route the signal to the group. All I did was select the two rhythm tracks, right clicked them in the mix console, and then selected, “Add group channel to selected channels”. I made the sure the configuration was stereo so that I could maintain my left and right hard pans. There’s nothing in the ‘sends’ tab when I select it in the mix console. I can take a screenshot if it would help?
So, no sends. Just routing.
@TannerH.Wilson Sorry to interfere. Could you do a summary of the project from the very beginning of it including the link groups deal, so that @st10ss has a better picture of what’s happened? Because normally the pops shouldn’t occur. I think something went wrong with the project after that deal with the link groups. (If you don’t want to bother much with troubleshooting, you could start a new blank project, and then import all the tracks of this project to the new one, one by one. My guess is that it would be fine.)
You posted a screenshot earlier on that other thread, does the pop happen on the orange guitar track visible here? If yes, could you pinpoint at which point it happens?
No need to apologize, the more help the better. The process goes back quite a long way, I could just start with the guitars? When I first started recording the guitars, I didn’t have any group channels, just the individual mono tracks. I recorded the rhythm first (Orange), then the leads, then the harmonies, then the solos. The Ignite Emissary amp sim doesn’t have a built in noise gate, so I toyed with one for a while but noticed that the gate cut out some of the pinch harmonics so I decided to chop up the tracks where there were rests in between, and then manually faded in and out the events after selecting them all. I had the amp sim loaded on each guitar track which became tedious when I wanted to make any adjustment to the tone or eq, even though I had them linked. I decided it was time to try making group channels or busses so when I figured out how to do them I linked all of the separate guitars in their own group channel (Rhythm, Lead, Lead Harmonies.) This brought my first issue. I noticed after I put the guitars in a group channel they centered the guitars so I didn’t have the tracks in the channel panned hard left and right anymore. With the help of ggmanestraki, we figured out I needed to make the group channels stereo to maintain the pans. Then the guitars were only audible through one of the channels, which was because I needed to have the output on my amp sim set to stereo as well. We figured that out. Now I’ve noticed the popping sound only after I’ve put the guitars into their own group channels, even though I have the fade ins and outs on every event, and no matter how much I fade in and out the popping remains. It wasn’t popping before putting them into the group channels since I had the fades on.
The pops happen at every event start and end, on the orange guitar track, and after correcting the group channel for the lead guitars, now does it on them as well. I still have yet to try opening a new project and transferring the tracks over and making a group channel to see if it does it 'cause I’ve been busy with work this week, but this weekend I will try it out and see what I can do. I was just trying to make my workflow easier with the group tracks and instead made things way more difficult haha.
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Now, that’s the interesting part.
Is the pop still there when making the fade longer ?
I know right? There’s no reason it should just decide to start popping.
Yes, no matter how long I make the fade ins and out it still pops.
So if I understand right, the pop is at the Event Start then the audio fades in, and same with the Event End, it first fades out then it pops. Is that it ?
And do these pops sound the same as when it starts/stop at non zero, or is it different ?
That’s right, it pops at the event start and end. What do you mean by non zero?
When you start or stop playback in the middle of the waveform, it makes a characteristic very short “tick”, because the signal abruptly goes from zero to whatever sample value the Cursor is already on.
If it makes the same sound then it means the fades actually ignore the first and last sample of the Event.
Okay I know what you mean. No the pops that are happening are louder and a lot more distinct and noticeable than when you start playback in the middle of the waveform, as if I didn’t have any fades at all. It also only happens at the beginning and end of the events, without pausing playback. I just don’t know why it would ignore that fades after putting them in the group track when they were fine before. Like I said though, I’ll transfer them into a new project and see what happens.
Alright, would you mind sharing a stripped down version of your project that only include a few Events that exhibit the problem ?
Okay so instead of making a new project and transferring it over to try it I made a group track in one of the other songs on the album and it was doing the same thing. However, I noticed that in a certain section when I’d hear the pop, playing it back multiple times, the pop would either disappear, not be as loud, or be louder. It just seemed kind of random. I noticed my computer had another update and after installing the pops disappeared and thus the problem is finally solved. So, to anyone else having similar issues learn from me and MAKE SURE YOUR COMPUTER IS FULLY UPDATED BEFORE TROUBLE SHOOTING ANY RANDOM AUDIO ISSUES. Thank you guys here for being willing to help. I appreciate it and will surely be back next time I encounter any issues.
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