Auria Pro tips and tricks

richardyot · June 2017

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

JohnnyGoodyear · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

seems to be working good in IOS 11

JRSIV · June 2017

@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 · June 2017

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 · June 2017

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 ;-)

[Deleted User] · June 2017