I cant tell from the jetdc page exactly what excalibur does

http://www.cakewalk.com/products/sonar/SONAR4_video.wmv

check out the mute tool on that video. If there could be a script, where you could preset the fade out then the fade back in, instead of just a true mute, but be able to just drag that handily, that would RULE!

An audio clip can be muted in its entirety by simply right clicking on it and then clicking on Switched and Mute.

For partial muting, I just whipped together a script that will do this using a mute envelope (you can also change the script to use the volume envelope). You can get it at:

Free Tools at peachrock.com

or

Mute Part of a Clip free script post at jetdv.com

I cant tell from the jetdv page exactly what excalibur does

It is discussed in full in three issues of the newsletter on that page (one for each realease version).

Also remember you can adjust the mute and volume in real time while the timeline is playing using the new automation features.

right but thats not the point of this. I guess I should clarify. When I am editing tom tom tracks, I split out just the tom hits and clear out everything in between. In addition, many times I will also fade out the tail of the tom

As you can imagine this can take forever! Sonar's new mute tool, if you watch the video, lets you just drag mute parts of the event, saving at least four clicks and four keystrokes. But can result in a nasty clicky sound...if we could do the same thing but with fade times, it would be AWESOME!

Im going to try out your script right now

If you edit the Mute.js script you will see near the top two lines that you can change to do what you want. Change the EnvelopeType to EnvelopeType.Volume and then change the fade value to the value that you want to use.

Randall

yeah its cool! I just tried it
Let me understand something though, you will need to make a selection above the timeline with an event selected then hit the script?

This MIGHT be saving me some time but Im not sure. The way sonar's mute tool works you directly click and drag the section of each event you want to mute, the mute script is going to be a little tricky across five tom tracks that each need a separate muted area.

I will certainly be giving this a fair shake though as I see plenty of other GREAT uses for this script, thank you VERY much

There is no way to use another tool to select the area directly on the event is there?

The Vegas scripting API does not expose any events that would allow us to detect that you were dragging over an event. So, at least until this capability is added to the API, you have to make your selection first then run the script.

You don't have to go to the top of the timeline to make a time selection. You can also click and drag in the gray area below the last track. And, you can click on the event to set the cursor, then extend the selection left or right by holding down the SHIFT key as you press the left or right arrow key on the keyboard.

Randall

any way so that you could hit another key and pick fade out and fade in length and type? this would have to be able to be changed fairly quickly really without intterruption


Right now I am editing the hell out of some guitar tracks with your mute script...I think the faders on my mackie control are gonna wear out in about ten minutes but you should see the look of awe in my client's faces!!!!

Are you asking for a way to change the fade in/out of the envelope that the Mute script is creating, or are you asking to change the fade in/out of an audio event on the timeline?

How much change do you want? I can detect if you are holding down the SHIFT, ALT, or CTRL keys and do something different but anything much beyond that would probably require displaying a dialog so that you could specify what you want to do.

If you can describe what you are looking for in a bit more detail, I will take a look to see what I can do.

Randall

Ok, lets say Im editing a tom tom track.

Normally I'd have vegas' default fade in/out set to like 10 ms

I'd go thru the tom tracks, lets say three of them. Once there is a hit on one of the tom tracks, I will split that individual track about 20mS in front of the hit. Then I will sometime after I hear the main body of the tom fade a bit or a lot depending on the style of music I will split it someplace, hopefully before a cymbal hit gets in there, then change the fade out to a certain length depending on the song and how the guy is playing his whole kit

Lets say the song is a mid tempo emo rock song, about 120 beats per minute. Likely within a little while after the tom hit there will be a snare hit, and that snare hit is usually a pretty good place to end the tom's fade out, lets say in this song the snares are usually about a 1/4 note after the decay of the tom, so in this case I would usually fade out for about 500 ms before the snare hit

after this Ill go and delete all the spaces in between the hits where the toms arent

Lather rinse repeat for each tom track for every tom hit and you got a nice clean drum track.Unfortunately, its also incredibly time consuming

Ideally I'd have a tool, where I could specify a fade out and a fade in time, scrub an area starting from where I wanted to start fading out, to where I wanted it to start fading in, hit a button and BANG my envelope is there, but instead of using splits and event fades and deletes, its all done with an envelope!

Whether this is doable or not, or even more ideally if it could somehow be done where I scrub on the event the exact area I want, I am very grateful for the mute tool you have already made.

Ok. I made some changes and reposted the script.

You can now edit the script to set the fade in/out times and curve types. I also changed the default back to using the volume envelope but you can change it to the mute envelope if desired.

If you want multiple settings, just copy the script to a new name and change the values in the script.

It sounds like some of what you are doing could be done with a track noise gate effect such as the Sony Track Noise Gate. If the gate worked for you it would be a lot faster.

Enjoy,

Randall

Thanks Ill try it!

Sometimes gates will work, but not often, for this anyway. The only really working useable gate for this type of situation thats available to us DX or VST guys is the Ultrafunk Sonitus Gate R3 which is great but doesnt support automation, which would be needed for a lot of the time.

Ill be trying this script you made in a bit, thanks for all your hard work!
So now I figure out what values I want for a project, edit it with notepad? and then copy and rename the script, then I should be able to grab it inside vegas?

This is GREAT!!!! Even a knucklehead like me can figure out how to edit the script...

My only regret right now is that If I assign the script to a mackie control button, I need to edit the main one if I want it changed, but I have made myself a set of many of them. Is it ok to rename the *.js file so I know which mute is which ?

Yes, you can have as many copies as you want with whatever name you want, just make sure that it ends in .js. If you want different icons, just edit the .png file in your favorite graphics editor.

Randall

OK Im having a problem, if I select different tracks at once, its not doing the level on all of them...I was thinking maybe I could group the volume envelopes and do it that way? Is there a variable to do it to all selected tracks? This would be a great boon to doing rough guitar, guitar and bass edits to the drums

No problem. I just reposted an update that will do all selected tracks. Just go an download it again.

Randall

will do!

I may be doing something wrong, it still doesnt seem to be applying to more than one track at once