A problem has arisen after a reinstall. The tracks created in the mixer appear to be going through a limiter or compressor. I can hear the instruments being squashed to make room for the other instruments if I raise the volume of individual tracks. If I drag the individual tracks into my DAW (cakewalk) I still get the same squashed sound.
The first thing to check is if the tempo of the song is set to the tempo recommended for the Realtracks. For example, if a Realtrack has 120 at the end of it's name, this means that it will sound best if the song is set to 120 bpm. A tempo setting that's too far away from 120 bpm will introduce audio artifacts and these will cause the track to sound a little strange.
Secondly, enter into Audio Settings (as shown on the upper image below) and check the status of Peak Limit (#3 on image) and Use Realtime VST/DX Audio Plugins (#4). I always have these enabled - that's the default state.
Thirdly, click on "Edit Plugin Settings" (#5) and you'll be taken to the VST/DX window. When in this window, click through each button/instrument on the left side of the window (#6 on lower image) and check that there are no plugins present in those menus that I've labelled #7. The only setting that should contain something is "Default Synth" (#8) and this will have a software synthesiser in the top slot (#9).
Thanks for this. I had Peak enable off thinking that was the cause.
I'll give an update later.
Also noticed that some tracks when dragged over to my DAW are twice as long as they should be. A reset usually fixes it though. Not sure if this is related.
Also noticed that some tracks when dragged over to my DAW are twice as long as they should be.
The first thought that occurred to me is that "Double-time" of "Half-time" is active in the Realtrack settings.
For a number of styles, the Realtrack "Timebase" is set in the style itself. This means that if you load a style in which double-time or half-time is activated and then change Realtracks on that track, all the Realtracks loaded onto that track will be affected by this timebase setting.
The setting is found in Realtrack Picker.
To check if the above is the case, load a Realtrack onto one of the other tracks and see what happens. Alternatively, open up Realtrack picker and see what the Timebase is set to.
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