Auria Pro tips and tricks

richardyot

Thanks. I have my own share of issues with Auria but I've learned to live with them

JohnnyGoodyear

@richardyot said:
This tip shows an alternative workflow to automating volume, by instead chopping up the waveform and adjusting the gain on the individual sections. The problem with volume automation using the fader is that it's really fiddly to adjust, and also makes it very difficult to adjust the overall track level once automation has been applied because the fader is being controlled by the track automation, so you have to route your track out to a bus or a group to control it's overall volume with a separate fader.

Editing the actual waveform avoids this problem since it doesn't affect the track fader, and also allows you to have much better visual feedback because you can see the size of the relative waveform in the track editor, and is also easier to change and edit.

So we start with a vocal section that has obvious volume fluctuations:

Let's isolate the loud section at the start by chopping it up:

Now zoom in to that section until you see a small dark semi-circle appear in the middle of the chopped-up section:

Put your finger on the dark semi-circle at the top, and drag down, keeping an eye on the info box at the top which will tell you how much you are reducing the gain by. You should also notice the waveform getting smaller as you do this:

Once you've done this you will see a line is drawn through the waveform to indicate that the gain has been reduced in that section.

Then we move on to the quiet section just to the right, cut it up to isolate it:

Once again zoom in until the dark semi-circle appears at the top:

And this time tap on that semi-circle and drag up, again keeping an eye on the info box to get a precise value for the amount of gain you are adding:

You can see that the two waveforms are much closer in size in the editor view, so you have leveled them out manually, without using automation or compression.

As a side note you also have additional control with the ability to fade in and fade out every individual section of the waveform that you have isolated, so for example if you have loud plosive sounds cut them out and fade them in so that they come in more gently.

Yes, good stuff, and well explained for the duffer. I think more than anything this highlights the attention to detail required at this stage of the process. It reminds me of building an Airfix kit. I was always terrible at it. Too many little bits that needed careful combination etc.

Hmtx

Richard, these are great little tutorials, thanks!

It seems like gain adjustments within a track would create unnatural volume jumps, is that not the case?

richardyot

@Hmtx said:
Richard, these are great little tutorials, thanks!

It seems like gain adjustments within a track would create unnatural volume jumps, is that not the case?

No, especially if you take the time to use the fades as well. It's just like volume automation.

richardyot

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@richardyot said:
This tip shows an alternative workflow to automating volume, by instead chopping up the waveform and adjusting the gain on the individual sections. The problem with volume automation using the fader is that it's really fiddly to adjust, and also makes it very difficult to adjust the overall track level once automation has been applied because the fader is being controlled by the track automation, so you have to route your track out to a bus or a group to control it's overall volume with a separate fader.

Editing the actual waveform avoids this problem since it doesn't affect the track fader, and also allows you to have much better visual feedback because you can see the size of the relative waveform in the track editor, and is also easier to change and edit.

So we start with a vocal section that has obvious volume fluctuations:

Let's isolate the loud section at the start by chopping it up:

Now zoom in to that section until you see a small dark semi-circle appear in the middle of the chopped-up section:

Put your finger on the dark semi-circle at the top, and drag down, keeping an eye on the info box at the top which will tell you how much you are reducing the gain by. You should also notice the waveform getting smaller as you do this:

Once you've done this you will see a line is drawn through the waveform to indicate that the gain has been reduced in that section.

Then we move on to the quiet section just to the right, cut it up to isolate it:

Once again zoom in until the dark semi-circle appears at the top:

And this time tap on that semi-circle and drag up, again keeping an eye on the info box to get a precise value for the amount of gain you are adding:

You can see that the two waveforms are much closer in size in the editor view, so you have leveled them out manually, without using automation or compression.

As a side note you also have additional control with the ability to fade in and fade out every individual section of the waveform that you have isolated, so for example if you have loud plosive sounds cut them out and fade them in so that they come in more gently.

Yes, good stuff, and well explained for the duffer. I think more than anything this highlights the attention to detail required at this stage of the process. It reminds me of building an Airfix kit. I was always terrible at it. Too many little bits that needed careful combination etc.

Well processing vocals can get a little fiddly - but think of this a little differently: when you're playing back the track over and over while mixing, certain little things are going to bother you. It might be a loud P sound, or just a word that is too quiet. This is a great way to fix those niggling little parts. It doesn't mean you have to perform waveform surgery on every single bit of the song.

NTKK

More please. Would that mid/side eq trick work if you place the eq after the reverb? I have a long fx chain that I don't want to rebuild...

richardyot

@NTKK said:
More please. Would that mid/side eq trick work if you place the eq after the reverb? I have a long fx chain that I don't want to rebuild...

I imagine that placing the EQ after the reverb would be fine.

eustressor

@richardyot said:
How to import and play a custom sample into Lyra:

Import a sound into the timeline and edit as necessary:

Then bounce the track in place and trim the result if you need to:

Next select the WAV in the timeline and export it to Lyra as a sample:

You will then be able to play the sample on the keyboard:

And tweak the knobs:

Hi Richard. I'm enjoying your tutorials, and this one raised an extra eyebrow ... is this the same method one would use to create their own custom drum kit for playback via Lyra?

If not, is their a method inside Auria for rolling one's own drums - with multiple velocity layers?

richardyot

@eustressor no that method is a quick and dirty way to map notes on the keyboard, but it won't work for drums. You would need to create or import a library for that.

eustressor

@richardyot said:
@eustressor no that method is a quick and dirty way to map notes on the keyboard, but it won't work for drums. You would need to create or import a library for that.

Got it. Thank you for helping me sort that one

Shazamm

seems to be working good in IOS 11

JRSIV

@richardyot you're one of the main cats who I've really learned about the strengths & weaknesses of Auria from. The main Auria forum doesn't get much play, but the Auria Pro users amongst us over here appreciate it.

That bounce in place/Lyra sample import is one of those tips I had never knew about. So cool...Still to echo what @eustressor was touching on, I wish it were this easy to import drum resamples but this technique is for "traditional" instrument sampling, ie: taking a sound & pitching it on the keys. Using drums on Lyra I suppose is limited to the use of SF2's, etc.

richardyot

Well Rim has talked about releasing Lyra as a more fully-featured standalone app, so maybe one day it might be possible to create kits etc in the standalone Lyra and ten import them into Auria.

crouchie

I know it's not rocket science (but then I'm no power user of any of these apps sadly), but I have taken to importing each of my drum samples into an instance of Lyra each. It carries a significant memory overhead I suppose, but it does give me control of the FX on each sound. And I feel like I'm using Auria more "completely", which justifies the expense somewhat ;-)

tja

I downloaded some MIDI files from J.S.Bach and such and opened them I'm Cubasis.

Cubasis did this:

tja

This is quite perfect, I think.

Then I tried the same with Auria Pro...
But neither when there was no track, nor when there was one track, Aura was able to import the MIDI.

Did I do something wrong?
Do I need to know the exact number of tracks?

ccs2

@tja hi, did you select 'import file' from the menu? A .mid file from http://www.jsbach.net/midi/ (The art of Fugue, contrapunctus 1) opened in and selected in Auria's file manager opened fine here (with corresponding instruments):

Note the '+' icon for destination track,
Cheers

tja

Hello ccs2 ;-)
No, I found a page with a zip file containing 3 pieces.
Both Cubasis and Auria Pro offered the self as "open in" target, so I just did the same to both.

Will try again with the unzipped files!

Thank you

tja

I tested this: No, Auria Pro cannot handle zipped files.
It does not even show them.

And it can only use Dropbox, not AudioShare :-(

I am always astonished, that so many Apps are so basic and have not even the most common input / output options.
But still, they registered Aura Pro as target for zip files, strange.
That about "Pro" ;-)

Same with other Apps:

Last I learned, that BeatHawk, while totally able to handle MIDI, just cannot import MIDI files. I do not understand the developers :-|

I am still trying to find a way to somehow handle more than one file at the time in Cubasis - also not possible, I fear.

Getting things in and out fast, easy and reliable is one of the most important things.

ccs2

@Tja - unzip a file in audioshare, from Auria Pro import it by going the menu-edit-share route, good luck.

tja

I don't get it, being a bit dull ;-)

Anyway, when I unzip the file in AudioShare, I would need to import the contained files one by one, or not?!?

That would kind of destroy the purpose of the zipfile

I have no interest or time to import 10 or 100 files individually.

Therefor: Importing and exporting zip files is heavily missing and should be one of the first things for a DAW where you regularly import and export many files.

Cubasis can at least import from zipfiles!

Denzkps

Maybe you can find your files in "inbox" folder

tja

Sadly, no.

Did that work for you?!?

Telefunky

you don't need to import the files individually.
Once you've unzipped in Audioshare and direct Aurial to that location, Auria will show the files and you can mark them plus (if you want) pick the destination track.
You have to select them one by one, imho rather an advantage - then they are placed in a single on the proper destination track (and not in alphabetical order).

1 month later, see this by chance... what a rubbish.
Audioshare import is always 1 file after the other, I messed it with Dropbox ...

eustressor

Brand new tutorial on using ProQ2's "EQ Matching," explained by the ever effervescent Mr. Worrall:

theconnactic

Very cool!

JohnnyGoodyear

@eustressor said:
Brand new tutorial on using ProQ2's "EQ Matching," explained by the ever effervescent Mr. Worrall:

Nice. Thanks Mister.

eustressor

Dandy Dan Worrall is back with some more creative ways to use EQ matching - remember to engage auto gain before applying!

theconnactic

Very cool!

boone51

@richardyot said:
This tip shows an alternative workflow to automating volume, by instead chopping up the waveform and adjusting the gain on the individual sections. The problem with volume automation using the fader is that it's really fiddly to adjust, and also makes it very difficult to adjust the overall track level once automation has been applied because the fader is being controlled by the track automation, so you have to route your track out to a bus or a group to control it's overall volume with a separate fader.

Editing the actual waveform avoids this problem since it doesn't affect the track fader, and also allows you to have much better visual feedback because you can see the size of the relative waveform in the track editor, and is also easier to change and edit.

So we start with a vocal section that has obvious volume fluctuations:

Let's isolate the loud section at the start by chopping it up:

Now zoom in to that section until you see a small dark semi-circle appear in the middle of the chopped-up section:

Put your finger on the dark semi-circle at the top, and drag down, keeping an eye on the info box at the top which will tell you how much you are reducing the gain by. You should also notice the waveform getting smaller as you do this:

Once you've done this you will see a line is drawn through the waveform to indicate that the gain has been reduced in that section.

Then we move on to the quiet section just to the right, cut it up to isolate it:

Once again zoom in until the dark semi-circle appears at the top:

And this time tap on that semi-circle and drag up, again keeping an eye on the info box to get a precise value for the amount of gain you are adding:

You can see that the two waveforms are much closer in size in the editor view, so you have leveled them out manually, without using automation or compression.

As a side note you also have additional control with the ability to fade in and fade out every individual section of the waveform that you have isolated, so for example if you have loud plosive sounds cut them out and fade them in so that they come in more gently.

I know I'm late to this party, but I don't understand this at all. With the ability to edit the volume via handles in the edit window, why would you go to all of the trouble of breaking up the tracks and going through (what I perceive to be) this roundabout? i'm probably missing something. This is not the first time.