OK, I’m feeling really dumb needing to ask but I don’t see anyway to adjust the output level in the standalone version. I see how to adjust the volume of layers and selections but I mean the overall playback volume. I ended up turning the level down on my audio interface. And I know if used from Cubase it will go through the CR. But I wanted to check it out standalone so I can ignore the ARA integration.
Hi raino, there’s no output volume control in SL.
Robin thanks for the reply.
Why did you choose not to have an output control? If I launch SL, load an audio clip and hit play the sound is much too loud for normal listening and needs to be turned down somewhere to a workable level. The only place I can adjust that is in the audio interface which in turn changes the playback level for any program using the interface.
Actually there used to be one in the first versions of SpectraLayers, but at some point in order to simplify the UI, seeing that neither Sound Forge (Sony was the distributor back then) or RX had or required one, it was plain and simply removed. The technical code is still there though. If there’s a need for users to get it back, it could be certainly be reactivated at some point.
Well for ARA 2 (or really any hosted use) I don’t see any need for a control as the host provides the ability to adjust the volume. But for standalone use it seems kind of important to be able to easily make that adjustment. Yesterday I hit play followed as quickly as possible by stop and then spent 15 minutes hunting for a control before giving up and setting the level in the interface.
Just my humble opinion, but I prefer never to adjust output volume in software. While I fully understand that this interferes with your current workflow Raino, it’s just so handy to have a hardware knob within arm’s reach (in my case the volume control of the power amp). Even in WaveLab, the only time I use the volume sliders in the master section is when I intend to render the project with attenuation.
The other thing about using the standalone SL6 is that it has a WASAPI (i.e. “modern” Windows) driver. I see you’re still on Windows 7, but on Windows 10 this works well and can then be controlled by the system volume controls if necessary. There’s pretty much no reason to use the ASIO driver in the standalone SL6 on Windows 10.
+1 for output volume control, especially in the stand alone version of SL.
I used to be setup that way, but then my big knob went bad which very indirectly prompted me to replace a pair of monitor speakers. So now it is totally digital out to the speaker cones and the only volume control is software based. In Cubase not a big loss using the big knob because I have a CMC-AI and that large-ish knob controls the CR volume which I used to leave at 0dB. My audio interface can be midi controlled - need to look into that.
I don’t need the volume control as I use an external volume control - I don’t really trust software one - as you found out it’s fairly easy to be caught out when something pings out a ‘full volume’ signal - even well behaved software can crash in unexpected ways.
having said that it I think a volume control makes sense on all standalone software even if you decide not to use it, not everybody has external volume controls and also you might be switching between several different apps in the same session.