Cakewalk Guide

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PRESENT

A step-by-step mixing tutorial to help you dive into SONAR X3’s software

Includes a link to download a SONAR X3 trial and a pre-recorded project!

by Craig Anderton

Mixing in the ProChannel with SONAR X3 Producer

While many DAWs let you customize a mixer’s views (like show/hide certain components, or widen/narrow individual channel strips), the ProChannel lets you create your own mixer architecture. For example, some strips might emulate a well-known console with its characteristic EQ and sonic qualities, while other strips could emulate a completely different console with a different type of EQ. You can also choose different “flavors” of dynamics control—say, the compressor used in a classic console, or an emulation of a vintage outboard hardware compressor.

The ProChannel offers several workflow advantages compared to traditional virtual studio technology (VST) or DirectX plug-ins. All the modules are located in a single strip, so you don’t have to open multiple plug-in windows all over your project, which more closely resembles a “real world” mixing console. It’s easy to collapse or expand and focus on individual modules, and in Track View, you can see the ProChannel in the Inspector. In the mixer-oriented Console View, you can “fly out” the ProChannel for one or more console channels so that the ProChannel sits side by side with its associated channel.

Aside from tight integration with SONAR X3, the modules themselves are excellent. Many users find that the performance of ProChannel modules meets or exceeds that of third-party plug-ins. As a side benefit, collaborating with other SONAR X3 users is simpler because you can count on specific ProChannel modules being included.

THE PROCHANNEL, A UNIQUE FEATURE IN SONAR X3 STUDIO AND PRODUCER (AS WELL AS EARLIER X-SERIES VERSIONS), IS A CUSTOMIZABLE, HIGH-QUALITY MIXER CHANNEL STRIP.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

The song we’ll use for mixing,

“Black Market Daydreams,”

was written by British song-

writer Mark Longworth (you

can hear more of his music at

soundcloud.com/songwriter101)

and is used with his permission.

The drums are from a Chris

Hughes sample library. There’s

a music video for this song on

my YouTube channel.

2www.discmakers.com 1-800-468-9353t

https://soundcloud.com/songwriter101

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCraigAnderton

• Trial version of SONAR X3

• Trial version of the CA-2A (also called PC2A) compressor

• “Black Market Daydreams” tutorial project

GETTING STARTEDYou’ll need to download the following for this tutorial:

We’ll assume you’re already familiar with basic SONAR procedures, like loading projects, selecting the various views, choosing inputs and outputs, setting preferences, and how the transport works. However, here are a few additional tips for this tutorial.

• For effects and the ProChannel, power On/Off buttons are blue when on and gray when off.

• The ProChannel has a master On/Off button as well as buttons for each ProChannel effect.

• Clicking on a mixer channel with the ProChannel visible in the Inspector (type “I” to open the Inspector if you don’t see it) gives that channel the focus, so the ProChannel displays the modules for that channel. You can click on the channel’s name, or just a blank space in the mixer channel.

• The Inspector can show three different views. If you “lose” the ProChannel, click on the “ProCh” tab at the top of the Inspector.

• The Console view can show send buses, but to keep the tutorial simple, this project doesn’t use any sends, therefore, they’re hidden.

• SONAR’s console view has three distinct areas — the individual channels, buses, and the master output to your audio interface. The grabber bar to the left of the buses lets you slide it left or right. The project should open with the Master bus visible, but it won’t be needed until later in the tutorial, so you can slide it right to view the maximum number of console channels if desired. (see fig 1)

fig 1

Ready? Let’s mix. This tutorial takes

approximately one hour to complete.


http://www.cakewalk.com/Discmakers-2014



As a reality check, let’s listen to the finished song. Load the .cwp file “Black Market Daydreams.cwp,” then type “1” to choose Screenset 1 or click on the “Screenset 1” button (this should already be selected, but just in case, we want to make sure we start from a defined starting point). This brings up the Console view. (see fig 2)

You can also see the Timeline toward the top, and the Now time cursor, so you can navigate easily around the song. The “–” and “+” buttons toward the Timeline’s lower left zoom out or in horizontally so you can see a shorter or longer section of the song. (see fig 3)

Click “Play” and listen to the mixed version of the song. For this tutorial, we’ll deconstruct the song and analyze how EQ, dynamics, and other processors helped create the final mix.

As you listen, press the “E” key. This bypasses all ProChannel modules (and the VX-64 Vocal Strip plug-in on the vocals), so you can hear how much difference the ProChannel modules make to the mix. (Yes, my voice really did sound that bad originally!)

Click the transport “Stop” button. Close this project, and open the project “Black Market Daydreams Tutorial.cwp.”

LISTEN TO THE FINAL MIX

fig 2

fig 3




Click on Track 4’s “Solo” button to hear only the rhythm guitar. (see fig 4)

Loop part of the song containing the guitar is so it’s easy to make adjustments. On the Timeline, click on the name “VERSE 1” (not the arrow next to it located at measure 7). This selects the region between this marker and the next one. Then click “Set Loop Points” or press “Shift+L.” (see fig 5)

Set the Now time somewhere within the loop, and then click the transport “Play” button. The guitar covers a wide range of frequencies—potentially enough to interfere with the other in-struments, so let’s make it more focused.

The ProChannel shows the effects used for the guitar; click the ProChannel’s global “On/Off” button to on (blue) and then click on the EQ’s “On/Off” button to enable the ProChannel’s EQ. (see fig 6)

POWER GUITAR (TRACK 4)We’ll start with something simple.

fig 5

fig 6

fig 4

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Double-click on the EQ’s header (where it says “EQ” and shows the EQ power On/Off button). This zooms in on the EQ plot, flies it out, and displays the Spectrum Analyzer in the background. (see fig 7)

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Note how the sound is more focused, and emphasizes the meat of the guitar sound. Click the “LP” button toward the EQ display’s lower right to disable the lowpass filter; the sound gets buzzier and more harsh. Re-enable it. (see fig 8)

Now click the “HP” button toward the EQ module’s lower left to disable the highpass filter. There are more bass frequencies present — you can see them well in the spectrum analyzer — which can interfere with the bass and drums. We don’t need those frequencies for the guitar to sit well in the mix, so re-enable the HP filter.

Next, disable the Hi Mid filter by clicking on the “Hi Mid” button just below the graph. Re-enable the filter, and you’ll hear the guitar has a more fo-cused sound that emphasizes its midrange.

Vary the green Hi Mid Freq control in the lower row of controls. Note how you can shift this em-phasis around; higher frequencies sound more harsh, while lower frequencies tend to sound boomy. Return this control to the initial setting, around 966Hz.

Close the EQ’s “flyout” by clicking on the close (“X”) button in the flyout’s upper right.

Turn off the “Solo” button on the Power Guitar channel, and also, mute the Gated Guitar (mixer channel 3) to its left so you can hear Power Gui-tar better in the context of the mix. Now, switch between turning the Power Guitar’s ProChannel on and off. When the ProChannel is on, the guitar sounds more focused, and comfortably occupies the midrange part of the mix.

Unmute the Gated Guitar channel, and now let’s work on the vocals. Keep the verse looping for now.

Tech Tip: The Gated Guitar sound is the result of inserting a gate effect after an amp simulator, then driving the gate’s sidechain input with the output from a drum track. This causes the gate to open and close in time with the drums.

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fig 7

fig 8


Because vocals tend to be the focus of a song, we’ll work on those next.

Turn off the HP filter. This steep filter cuts low fre-quencies like the “plosives” that happen with “P” and “B” sounds. Re-enable it, and turn off the Hi Mid and High bands by clicking on their buttons — all the intelligibility (and life) goes out of the vocals.

The High band is set for a shelf; re-enable it. This is a big improvement, but now enable Hi Mid to give a little more snap to the vocals in the upper midrange. Disable and re-enable the EQ to hear the difference, then close the fly-out and collapse the EQ module. Now we’ll work on dynamics.

Turn on the PC2A Leveler module’s power. Vary the Peak Reduction control; counterclockwise gives more

dynamics, clockwise decreases the dynamic range. Decreasing the dynamic range also decreases the level; the Gain control compensates for this. A good setting for this vocal is around 45 for Gain and 55 for Peak Reduction.

Turning the ProChannel on and off shows just how much difference these processors make to the vocals, but we’re going to add one more effect. Click on the “VX-64” button in the Vox Lead’s channel strip FX bin to enable it, and the voice is now doubled and has echo. (see fig 10)

To see the VX-64 settings, double-click on the name “VX-64 Vocal Strip.” This is a sophisticated processor, but all we’re using are the doubler and delay functions. Close out the VX-64 effect interface.

Tech Tip: You can fly out the EQ even when the EQ is collapsed — just double-click on the header.

LEAD VOCAL

fig 10fig 9

Click on the Vox Lead channel strip. The ProChannel now shows the modules for the lead vocal. Solo the lead vocal. (see fig 9)

We’ll start by adjusting EQ. Click on the Pro-Channel’s global “On/Off” button to turn it on, then turn on the EQ’s power. Double-click on the EQ’s header to fly out the EQ plot.

Tech Tip: You can expand or collapse a ProChannel module’s graphic interface by clicking the double arrows toward the right of the effect’s header.

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Stop the transport, then move along the timeline to the marker that says “Chorus 2” (at measure 75). Click on the name “Chorus 2” then click “Shift+L” to loop the second chorus. Place the Now time somewhere within this loop.

With the Vox Lead still soloed, also solo the Vox Har-mony channel strip and start playback, so we can hear the lead and harmony together. Click the Vox Harmony channel strip to give it the focus. Enable the EQ and ProChannel power, and expand the EQ graphic interface by clicking on the double arrows to the EQ header’s right. The EQ setting is similar to the lead, but with more emphasis in the upper midrange so the level can be lower, but the vocals are still intelligible. Now let’s add some compression.

Right-click on a blank space in the ProChannel, then choose “Insert Module > PC2A Leveler.” The default position for an inserted module is at the bottom of the ProChannel, but you can click the module’s header and drag to re-position a module in the signal chain. Collapse the Console Emulator, then drag the PC2A above the EQ—we want to compress first, then EQ. (see fig 11)

Now let’s work on the harmonies.

Tech Tip: You can also navigate to markers by typing Ctrl+Shift+PageDown (“downstream”) to go to the next marker, or Ctrl+Shift+PageUp (“upstream”) to go to the previous marker.

Tech Tip: The question “Should I EQ before or after compressor?” has no universal answer. EQ has more of an effect when it follows the compressor, but sometimes it’s appropriate to

place the compressor after EQ to even out any excessive peaks caused by the EQ.

fig 11

HARMONY VOCALS

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Tech Tip: If multiple solo buttons are on, the easiest way to turn them off is by clicking on the green global solo button in the Control Bar (if it’s gray, no solo buttons are enabled).

fig 12

As luck would have it, the PC2A’s default settings work fine. Now let’s add some reverb. Right-click in a blank space and choose “Insert Module > BREVERB 2.” Drag it between the EQ and Console Emulator.

Again, the default seems pretty good, but the reverb effect seems a little long. Click on the Time control, and choose around 1.00 second. Set about 26% for Size—these two changes tighten up the reverb.

Finally, enable the VX-64 vocal processor for the Vox Harmony channel, and the harmonies are done. Stop the transport.

Click on the Bridge marker name at measure 92, then press “Shift-L.” Place the Now time within this loop.

Solo the Vox Bridge+FX channel, and click on it so it has the focus. This channel uses very similar EQ and compressor settings to the other vocals, but with a bit more of a high-end boost and less peak reduction, therefore the gain is lower. Enable the ProChannel power On/Off button and enable the VX-64 for this channel, and now the vocals are done. Start playback to hear the vocals for the bridge.

For a reality check, turn off solo for the vocals, press “L” to turn off the loop, return to the beginning, and listen to some of the song. It’s sounding better already, but we’re definitely not done yet. Stop playback.

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Drums are a crucial element to drive a song, so let’s do them next.

DRUMS

Loop Chorus 2, which starts at measure 75, then solo the drums. Start playback. They’re not too bad, but could use some EQ. Click on the Drums channel strip to give it the focus.

Turn on power for the Drum’s ProChannel module and the ProChannel EQ. We’re using all four channels; you can hear the difference when you toggle the individual bands on and off. Here’s what they do:

Turn the EQ on and off, and you’ll hear the cumulative effect of these changes.

Let’s make the drums pop a bit more by adding a hint of tube saturation. Right-click in a blank space in the ProChannel, and choose “Insert Module > Tube Saturation.” Click and drag it above the EQ.

A little bit goes a long way: set Drive and Output up halfway, then set Input to +3dB. The drums definitely have more punch.

Toggle the ProChannel power to hear how the EQ and distortion affect the sound, then un-solo the drums to hear how they now drive the track more forcefully. Stop playback, but keep the Chorus 2 section selected for looping.

Tech Tip: Putting distortion on drums isn’t “normal,” but in this case, it definitely makes the drums punch. Again, this proves the old adage in recording that “the only rule is that there are no rules.”

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• Low band. The approximate 3dB boost around 60Hz, with a fairly narrow spike, gives a bit of a “push” to the very lowest kick frequencies. If nothing else, it will make the people with subwoofers happy.

• Lo Mid: The -3dB drop takes away a bit of the “tubbiness” and tightens up the sound.

• Hi Mid: The snare in this part has cool ring, so this boosts the frequency where this ringing occurs to make it more prominent.

• High: This adds just a little bit of high-end boost to bring out the hi-hats and cymbals.


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Bass is always tricky, because the frequencies are low enough that you can’t always be sure the system playing back a song will be able to reproduce the sound properly. The bass range is also where rooms have an uneven response. As a result, bass parts are often compressed, with the highs boosted somewhat to emphasize the pitch (this helps if you can’t hear the really low notes all that well).

BASS

Start playback, and solo the bass channel. Click the Bass channel to give it the focus.

Turn the ProChannel and Compressor power on. You’ll notice a level drop, because the compressor is reducing the peaks to restrict the dynamic range.

Turn up the Compressor Input control to halfway (around 10dB). This increases the level going into the compressor, forcing it to work harder to compress the signal. This helps even out the overall level. Look at the channel meter with and without the compres-sor enabled, and you’ll see the level stays more con-stant with compression.

Enable the EQ. Note how the midrange EQ brings out a bit of the bass’s “growl” and gives more of a sense of pitch. But let’s give it some more growl...

To add another module, right-click as we did to insert the compressor and reverb on the harmony vocals. But another option is to click on the “+” sign in the ProChannel’s header. Either way, select the Satura-tion Knob module. Drag it between the Compressor and EQ. If the EQ isn’t hidden, you’ll need to collapse the Console Emulator to do this. (see fig 13)

The Saturation Knob power should already be on (modules default to power on when inserted). Choose the “Keep Low” setting for the switch, and set the Saturation knob up about halfway. It sounds pretty buzzy, but turn solo off for the Bass and you’ll hear that it fits well in the track now. The EQ also has more of an effect with the Saturation Knob in play.

Stop playback.

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fig 13


fig 14

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

The Acoustic Guitars first appear in the bridge to add some variety, and continue to the end. This example will show how notching response can be a powerful technique to avoid overlapping with other instruments.

Loop the bridge section (starting at measure 92) to play with the acoustics and set the Now time within this loop. Start playback, solo the Vox Bridge+FX track as it plays, give it the focus, and fly out its ProChannel. Yes, you thought we were going to EQ the acoustic guitars, but be patient.

Look at the Spectrum Analyzer. The bulk of the vocal energy happens in the 200Hz – 1kHz range, with significant peaks in the 500Hz area. Put that thought on hold for a second, then close the fly-out. Turn off solo for the Vox Bridge.

Solo either Acoustic Guitar channel and give it the focus, then turn on the ProChannel and EQ power buttons. Fly out the EQ.

Turn off the Low, Lo Mid, Hi Mid, and High buttons to take out the effect of any EQ. Observe the Spectrum Analyzer. (see fig 14)

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fig 15

Tech Tip: You can toggle a ProChannel’s global on/off control in the Console view as well as in the ProChannel itself — the button is just above the ProChannel EQ graphic, and to the right. (fig 15)

Note that there’s a lot of energy in the same 200Hz to 1kHz range of the voice, as well as additional energy above and below the range of the voice.

Now re-enable the four band parametric EQ. The strategy here is to dip the response in the same region as the voice so the guitars don’t mask it, while boosting the ranges above and below the voice so the guitars can be prominent in their own part of the frequency spectrum.

Now it gets really interesting. Solo the Vox Bridge vocal channel and the two Acoustic Guitar channels. Make sure the ProChannels and EQs for both Acoustic Guitars are enabled.

Turn off the ProChannel EQs for the Acoustic Guitar tracks, and you’ll hear that both the guitars and the vocal lose clarity. If you turn the Acoustic Guitars EQ back on, the vocal will seem louder—even though nothing changed in the vocal channel—and the guitars will also seem clearer and more defined.

You’ll hear an even more dramatic difference if you pan the acoustic guitars to center and toggle between the ProChannel on and off settings for the two channels. Remember, the vocal doesn’t get louder when you turn off the Acoustic Guitar EQs — it’s just not being covered by the guitars.

After checking, turn the pan pots back to where they were (Acoustic Guitar 1 mostly left, Acoustic Guitar 2 mostly right).

Stop the transport, and turn off all the Solo buttons with the Global Solo on/off button.

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LEAD GUITAR

Here’s another example of using EQ to carve out a part’s own sonic space.

CHOIR

Click on the Chorus 2 marker name (starts at measure 75) and type Shift+L to loop the chorus. Place the Now time within the loop.

Start playback, solo the Choir (in channel 10), and give it the focus. The part is mixed fairly low, so you may to turn up the monitors a bit when it’s soloed.

Enable the Choir ProChannel and EQ power. The EQ is set with a low shelf that reduces the frequency response below 2kHz. This emphasizes the Choir frequencies above 2kHz, giving a high, ethereal timbre that floats above the track. Also, Gloss is enabled on the EQ to give a little extra high-frequency “air.” It’s very subtle, but does make a difference.

Now unsolo the Choir to hear it in context. Stop playback before proceeding.

Tech Tip: Note the automated fade movement for the Choir track. This adds some dynamics and variety to the other static sampled sound. The Acoustic Guitars get the same kind of treatment in the bridge.

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Click on the Guitar Solo marker name (starting at measure 124), then press “Shift+L” to loop the solo. Solo the Lead Guitar track, give it the focus, place the Now time within the current loop, and start playback.

You’ll hear that the Guitar Solo has a lot of low- frequency crud which not only detracts from the solo, but will also overlap with a lot of the instruments. We need to get rid of it.

Turn on the EQ and ProChannel, then turn on the HP button to enable the lowpass filter.

Set the slope to 48dB/octave, the steepest slope possible. Now vary the HP Frequency control (to the left of the slope) to find a setting that leaves the notes intact, but gets rid of the crud. 150Hz seems about right.

Turn off the Lead Guitar channel’s Solo button.

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WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE CONSOLE EMULATOR?

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As you may have noticed, the whole time you’ve been doing this mix, the Console Emulator modules have been enabled. After all, to simulate the effect of mixing through some vintage consoles, the vintage consoles should be enabled. Now let’s hear what it sounds like if you take the Console Emulator out of the signal path.

The easiest way to do this is to use a unique Cakewalk feature called Quick Grouping. Here’s how it works.

If you vary a control on a console channel while holding down “Ctrl,” you’ll change that same setting on all console channels. As one example of how this is useful, you can use this feature to turn all the Console Emulators on and off simultaneously. Here’s how.

Start playback if the project isn’t already playing back. While holding down the Ctrl key, click the “Show/Hide” ProChannel button on any track. (see fig 16)

Pretty cool: All the ProChannels fly out for all the tracks.

Hold the “Ctrl” key, and click any channel’s Console Emulator power On/Off button. Turning it off will turn off the Console Emulator power buttons for all Console channels.

The difference with the Console Emulator turned on or off is quite subtle — as it should be. You should notice a little bit more clarity in the highs, and possibly a slighter fatter low end from the result of emulating the input transformer found in many vintage consoles. But if you want a more obvious effect...

Tech Tip: There are three different console emulations. The “S” type is the most subtle, the “A” type is the most noticeable, and the “N” type lies somewhere in between.

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Tech Tip: If the Inspector configuration changes to show the track and Master fader, you can always get the ProChannel view back by clicking the Inspector’s ProChannel tab.

fig 16


Tech Tip: In most cases, double-clicking on a control returns it to its default position.

fig 17

Make sure all the Console Emulators are on. While holding down the “Ctrl” key, vary a Console Emulator’s Drive control. All of them should move together. You’ll definitely hear a difference if you turn them all the way up or down. To return all the Drive controls to their mid-position, double-click on one of the Drive controls while continuing to hold Ctrl down.

For an even more pronounced effect, while holding down the “Ctrl” key, turn up the Trim controls. Again, you can return them to their default center positions by double-clicking on one of the Trim controls while holding down “Ctrl.”

Let’s tidy up the Console view. While still holding the “Ctrl” key, click the “Show/Hide ProChannel” button again, and all the ProChannels will collapse back into the Console channels. Stop playback.

COMPRESSING THE MASTER BUSOur mix is done, but the current musical fashion is to add some com-pression or limiting to the final mix to make it louder and pop a bit more. Usually, a mastering engineer applies this kind of overall processing; the musician supplies a mix that represents the best possible balance and sound for the existing tracks, but doesn’t add any overall processing to the final mix.

However, Sonar can do basic mastering, which may be all you need if you’re posting a song on YouTube, or burning some CDs for your loyal fan base. Although mastering is a complex topic that’s beyond the scope of this tutorial, the main elements used in mastering are EQ and dynamics processing, which the ProChannel can provide.

Press “2” or click on Screenset 2. Click the Master bus to give it the focus, and click the “ProCh” tab on the Inspector if needed. You’ll see the PC4K Bus Compressor, QuadCurve EQ, and a collapsed Console Emulator module. (see fig 17)


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Tech Tip: There’s an alternate meter look. Click on the meter’s adjustment screw and drag up; the meter background will turn blue.

Tech Tip: SONAR defaults to using the PC76 com-pressor on tracks and the PC4K on buses. However, you can use the PC4K on individual tracks, or the PC76 on buses. The main difference is that the PC4k has a somewhat gentler action that works well with complex sounds like a complete mix, whereas the PC76 is a bit more aggressive, making it well suited to individual tracks. For both types, remember that compressor controls interact — adjusting one control will often require adjusting another control to compensate.

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Tech Tip: Right-click on the master bus meter, and choose 24dB for the range. This will make it easier to see the upper part of the output’s dynamic range. The numbers under the meter indicate the highest peak level; double-click to reset. (fig 18)

2 Loop a section of the song (like a verse), place the Now time within the loop, start playback, and then enable the compressor. The default compressor setting totally squashes the song, so let’s tweak this further.

Vary the Threshold control. Signals lower than the threshold are compressed, so turning the Threshold control clockwise sets a higher threshold, and therefore causes less compression. Conversely, turning the control counterclockwise lowers the threshold, which compresses the signal more.

Note the compressor’s Gain Reduction meter. Adjust the Thresh-old control until the meter hits a little under 4dB on peaks; this is a fairly conservative setting. The Threshold will be around -16dB.

Toggle the compressor power button. When the compressor is enabled, the output is lower. The MakeUp gain control compensates for this. Turn it up (to around 2.5dB or so) until the peak readings on the master bus meter are about the same. The difference will be subtle, but the compressor will “glue” the mix together a bit more.

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WRAPPING UP

fig 19

SONAR is a very sophisticated program, and what we’ve done only scratch-es the surface. There are many additional tools, shortcuts, and other pro features that allow tailoring a mix to your exact specifications. We haven’t even touched MIDI, virtual instruments, the Matrix view, the Track View, Loop Construction, video, timing repair, and many other SONAR features. Feel free to use this mix as a springboard to further experimentation, play around with the levels if you like, and above all, have fun.

If you want a more extreme sound, you have several options. Adjust the MakeUp gain as appropriate to maintain the same peak level compared to when the compressor is bypassed:

The Dry/Wet control adds more flexibility. It lets you crossfade between the compressed and dry sound. So if you want, you can have extreme amounts of compression while introducing some dry sound to maintain some dynamics.

Now let’s add a bit more brightness. Enable the QuadCurve EQ, set the high frequency band to Shelf, Q to 1.3, Gain between 0.5 and 1.0 depending on how bright you want the sound to be, and Frequency to around 2300Hz. Now your ProChannel strip will look something like this. (see fig 19)

Toggle the Master bus ProChannel’s power to hear the difference. Again, it’s worth stressing this isn’t exactly mastering, but it will give your mix a little more presence.

Click on a console channel to give the main part of the console the focus. Now, press “E” to bypass all the effects.

We’ve come a long way!

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• Lower the threshold

• Increase the Ratio setting

• Set the Attack to 0. This clamps down on peaks, so you can turn the Makeup gain a little higher.

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The trial version doesn’t include all ProChannel modules. SONAR X3 Producer includes a toolbox of eight ProChannel modules. The trial version has all of them except the Tape Emulator.

• BREVERB 2 is a reverb with hall, plate, room, and inverse algorithms, along with eight controls for shaping the sound.

• Tape Emulator re-creates the saturation effects associated with analog tape, and offers two different virtual tape speeds as well as tape bias adjustment.

• Console Emulator emulates three different classic console types. While a very subtle effect, when added to all channels, the results become cumulative and add detail to mixes.

• Softube Saturation Knob offers three distortion characteristics with variable distortion amount.

• QuadCurve EQ is a four-band parametric EQ with four different EQ characters, from digital “surgical” to more vintage analog responses. The low and high

parametric bands can also switch to a shelf response, there are highpass and lowpass filters (slopes range from 6 to 48dB/octave), and a Gloss switch can add high-frequency “air” to a sound. Editing is done with knobs or a graphic interface that shows the EQ plot, or with Producer’s “fly out” view for a zoomed image with spectrum analysis in the background.

• PC4K Expander/Gate adds another dynamics control option. The sidechain input allows this module to respond to control signals from other tracks.

• PC76 U-Type Compressor emulates a vintage compressor and while optimized for individual channels, it can also sound good on buses.

SONAR X3 Studio includes the Softube Saturation Knob and QuadCurve EQ (without the zoom view).

AVAILABLE MODULES



• Concrete Limiter provides limiting for dynamics control, and is ideal for individual tracks.

• PC2A Leveler emulates an optical compressor and is well-suited for vocals, bass, and many other instruments. Its gentle response and tight control recreate the sound of the original hardware unit with a high degree of accuracy. When you purchase the CA-2A compressor, it includes the PC2A ProChannel module and also a VST version for use with other audio recording and editing programs.

• PC4K Expander/Gate adds another dynamics control option. The sidechain input allows this module to respond to control signals from other tracks.

• PC4K S-Type Channel Compressor models a different classic compressor known for its ability to “level” a sound.

There are also optional ProChannel modules for those with specific needs. You’ve already had a chance to check out a trial version of the PC2A. These modules include:

Author, musician, and Executive Vice President at Gibson, Craig Anderton has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major-label releases, authored dozens of books, and lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages. Check out his latest music videos at youtube.com/thecraiganderton.

Overloud offers eight ProChannel modules, available individually or as a suite. These are more traditional single function effects and include chorus, delay, overdrive, amp, compressor, phaser, preamp/stereo tremolo, and wah.

Softube also offers ProChannel modules as part of their Mix Bundle. Included modules are the TSAR-1R Reverb, Passive Equalizer (based on a famous German three-band passive console equalizer from the ‘60s), Active Equalizer (a modern design based on Swiss hardware from the ‘70s), Focusing Equalizer (a non-traditional type of equalizer designed to focus on specific frequency ranges), and FET Compressor (with sidechain).

Finally, it’s possible to create Effects Chains of VST and/or DirectX effects, and load them as ProChannel modules — so basically, anything can be a ProChannel effect. Overall, the ProChannel is a very flexible and useful solution, especially for the mixing process.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCraigAnderton

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