Stereo Out/Master Not Working

[JAT]

Hello! Logic Newbie here,

 

I'm having a mixing problem. I would like to have a cello (Software instrument) track be louder than all of my other tracks, but softer than a click (software instrument) track.

This is to help a student practice their cello part with a softer ensemble and louder click track backing them up. I'd like to bounce/export the file this way.

 

After that, I'd like to bring the cello's level down and each other individual instrument in the ensemble up, one at a time. This is to help every other ensemble player practice via the same method as the cello method I described above. So I'd be sending each player a file that has their instrument + soft ensemble + click.

 

Here's the problem: I'm able to get the cello idea to work, but as soon as I want to lower the cello volume to the same soft dynamic as the ensemble, I still get a loud cello. I'm able to drag volume knobs with varying degrees of success. The "stereo out" and "master" channels don't seem to affect the cello at all; if I drag their knobs all the way down, the cello remains unaffected (still loud). This problem isn't happening with the other instruments, as far as I can see. I don't know--I'm kind of stuck on this step.

 

Anyway, does anybody know why that might be? How come the master and stereo out are both not affecting the cello's volume?

 

In an effort to work around this problem, I've tried rerouting the cello or the ensemble as a whole by experimenting with VCA, and bussing/aux channel strips so far--all to no lasting avail. I'm very new to all of this, so perhaps I'm overlooking something very basic.

 

Thanks for your help!

[David Nahmani]

Can you provide two screenshots, during playback, so that we can see the activity on your channel strip level meters, with the Cello soloed.

 

1. With the fader on the Cello up so that we can see the Cello loud on the meter.

2. With the fader on the Cello down so that we can see the Cello still loud on the meter despite its fader being down.

 

Ideally the screenshots should show the entire Mixer so that we can see all your input/send/output routings on every channel strip.

[JAT]

Can you provide two screenshots, during playback, so that we can see the activity on your channel strip level meters, with the Cello soloed.

 

1. With the fader on the Cello up so that we can see the Cello loud on the meter.

2. With the fader on the Cello down so that we can see the Cello still loud on the meter despite its fader being down.

 

Ideally the screenshots should show the entire Mixer so that we can see all your input/send/output routings on every channel strip.

 

Thanks for replying, David.

 

I did as you said. The Cello was not registering as being loud on the meter despite its fader being down, as you described in Step 2. Also, I could not hear any actual sound. Both of these seem to be what you'd expected, as in there's no problem.

 

I don't know if this will help, but I've included a third screenshot to elaborate on my problem. The picture shows play back with Cello NOT soloed, but volume is up. As you can see from the previous pictures and this one, I have most of the channels bussed to aux 5 (reason for that mentioned in my original post), Cello included. I've muted Aux 5, but I can still hear Cello loud and clear as before, even though there is no sound registering on the actual Cello channel. All of the other channels routed to Aux 5 muted successfully. A similar problem occurs if unmute Aux 5 and mute either Stereo Out or even the Master--Cello continues to be heard as if nothing was changed. All other channels seem to be behaving well. Hopefully this was relevant Please help.

Solo Cello, fader up, sound registering

Solo Cello, fader down, sound not registering

Additional picture of problem

[David Nahmani]

You've got sends to Busses on the Cello channel, start by toggling them all off for this troubleshooting procedure. Note that your post-fader send to Bus 5 will route the audio signal to Bus 5 even if dial the fader (routed to the same output = Bus 5) all the way down. It doesn't make sense to have both a send and an output to Bus 5 on the same channel.

[JAT]

Hey, David,

 

I think I might have found another way. I tried what you said with toggling the busses off. The problem still happened, so I tried switching the Cello's output to Stereo and also "no output." The "no output" option with busses still enabled ended up getting me where I wanted to go.

 

But since I'm still new to Logic and nothing is obvious to me, do you mind elaborating briefly on a few things? Like why it doesn't make sense to have both a send and an output to Bus 5 on the same channel. Perhaps I don't get what the exact purpose is for either.

 

Also, why does this problem only happen for the cello? None of the other instruments routed to Bus 5 with Sends and Output cause this problem.

 

Thanks for all your help!

[David Nahmani]

Why would you route your cello to a bus both through the output (adjustable with the volume fader) and through a bus send (adjustable with the bus send level knob) at the same time? Unless you have a very specific reason for doing that, it is redundant. Use either one, or the other.

 

Normally when you want to route 100% of your signal somewhere (for example to mix it with other signals belonging to an ensemble, a submix of instruments, such as all your strings for example) then you use the output. If you want to send a portion of your signal somewhere while keeping the main output going somewhere else (for example for parallel processing, for example to use a reverb) then you can use a send.