Flex causes loss of audio information?

[globet]

Interesting case, maybe something was done incorrectly? Flexing an audio region and then adding to Apple Loops will cause it to lose audio information. This is confirmed when the audio region becomes immediately quieter when flex is turned on.

Top is the original audio and bottom is after adding to Apple Loops and reimporting it.



Also created a video showing the whole process. What are your thoughts?
 

 

[David Nahmani]

There's no loss of audio information.

The gain on the Apple Loops is automatically set to -11.4 dB in the region inspector. If you don't want that, click the "..." button at the bottom left of the Loop Browser and deselect Auto Leveling. 

Also note that turning on Flex before creating an Apple Loop is not necessary. 

[globet]

2 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

There's no loss of audio information.

The gain on the Apple Loops is automatically set to -11.4 dB in the region inspector. If you don't want that, click the "..." button at the bottom left of the Loop Browser and deselect Auto Leveling. 

Also note that turning on Flex before creating an Apple Loop is not necessary. 

This is interesting, why -11.4dB? Why that exact dB subtraction or any at all?

[David Nahmani]

1 hour ago, globet said:

Why that exact dB subtraction or any at all?

By default, Logic Pro automatically adjusts the volume level of Apple Loops so they play back at the optimum level when previewed in the Loop Browser or added to a project. This ensures that the loop volume is neither too quiet nor so loud that it clips the output.

Source: Play Apple Loops in Logic Pro for Mac

[globet]

Something else interesting mentioned in the initial question is that why does turn on flex makes the audio signal quieter? Aurally you can hear it. When you bounce it off to Apple Loops, turn off Auto Leveling, reimport it and zoom all the way in. You can visually see it as well. There's a slight decrease in audio waves formation. 



Any thoughts?

[David Nahmani]

9 hours ago, globet said:

why does turn on flex makes the audio signal quieter?

It doesn't. In your video, you're turning on Flex @0:04 and you can see that the waveform remains the same height. 

Why are you turning on Flex? 

[globet]

11 hours ago, globet said:

Something else interesting mentioned in the initial question is that why does turn on flex makes the audio signal quieter? Aurally you can hear it. When you bounce it off to Apple Loops, turn off Auto Leveling, reimport it and zoom all the way in. You can visually see it as well. There's a slight decrease in audio waves formation. 



Any thoughts?

From that image you can clear see that with flex, the audio file wave form is slightly thinner.
 

Flex allows for speeding up the audio that we are adding to Apple Loops.

[sunbrother]

Normalize the loop before and after. Are they different after that?

Edited March 31 by sunbrother

[globet]

1 hour ago, sunbrother said:

Normalize the loop

Can you elaborate on this? Will try it 

[David Nahmani]

5 hours ago, globet said:

Flex allows for speeding up the audio that we are adding to Apple Loops.

No, there’s no need to turn on Flex before converting an audio file to an Apple Loop. Try it without turning on Flex.

[David Nahmani]

5 hours ago, globet said:

From that image you can clear see that with flex, the audio file wave form is slightly thinner.

That image doesn't compare the Flexed file with the original, it compares the Apple Loop version with the original. And I can't really see a difference in the waveforms.

[sunbrother]

6 hours ago, globet said:

Can you elaborate on this? Will try it 

Normalizing adds gain to an audio file/region to reach a specific amplitude. This would allow you to see whether or not anything is actually changing. If "Logic Pro automatically adjusts the volume level of Apple Loops so they play back at the optimum level when previewed in the Loop Browser or added to a project" then there would be no "loss of audio information," it might just be quieter or louder. This would only sound different until you brought them to the same volume. Normalizing the loop before and after will allow you to confirm this.

To normalize in Logic Pro, in the Audio File Editor menu bar, choose Functions > Normalize (or press Control-N).

[globet]

Will experiment and report my findings here.