do you leave 1 beat/1 second gap

[for]

do you leave 1 beat/1 second gap or something like this in front of your song to avoid the very first note being cut off by media players or mobile or anything like that? or its not common practice to do this?

thanks

[Nounverber]

Yep. I had that happen a few times, so I got into the habit of leaving an entire empty measure in front of the song. Then when I render it to a WAV to master it, I trim the front down to a second or two.

[The Frown]

Originally Posted by for

do you leave 1 beat/1 second gap or something like this in front of your song to avoid the very first note being cut off by media players or mobile or anything like that? or its not common practice to do this?

thanks

It is common practice to leave a measure/bar empty at the start of a project, for several reasons.

[for]

Originally Posted by The Frown

It is common practice to leave a measure/bar empty at the start of a project, for several reasons.

i think a bar is too long ..but good to know

[Yellowsnow]

You can make your session start on bar 0 or even minus bars which is something I love about reaper for this very exact reason.

[serr]

The old CD format required a 2 second pause space before the first track.

Digital files now are more matter of fact. It's not like an old Victrola player that needs to ramp up to speed first! Audio file data plays back in it's entirety when you hit play. Just like you don't need to put a border around an image in case your photo app "starts late" or something. That's not a thing.

I go by my ear and respond to what I want to hear with sequencing tracks for an album. Sometimes I want to hear a bar of space before the next song. Sometimes I want to hear a cross-fade. Some tracks should start right on the one. Others feel more correct with a moment of silence. Go with what sounds right to you. There's no formula and the digital consumer formats have no weird caveats.

[ashcat_lt]

Yeah I usually like it to go like “Push Play, Inhale, Start” which is usually like a beat or two. In sequencing an album, most of the gap between tracks will be at the end of the last song with again just a beat or so at the beginning of the next.

[Cosmic Pig]

U used to trim it down to milliseconds until I found my tunes missing the initial transient in the car and on the phone player, so now I give it a full half second or more.

Dunno why you'd put a full measure of silence, but I don't know a lot more than I do know.

[The Frown]

Originally Posted by for

i think a bar is too long ..but good to know

Well that depends how long a bar is. Your bar can be 1 beat if you like, or 4, it depends on the time signature of the bar. A bar is simply the correct length to not fuck up your project. It's academic though because obviously you eventually trim out most of the silence after you've rendered the project for mastering (this is the topping part of 'topping and tailing').

Originally Posted by Cosmic Pig

Dunno why you'd put a full measure of silence, but I don't know a lot more than I do know.

Only in the project (as I clearly stated), you'll trim most of this out (to taste) during mastering.

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Pig

Dunno why you'd put a full measure of silence, but I don't know a lot more than I do know.

Probably so the song still starts at the beginning of a measure.

[ashcat_lt]

Back in the day I used to leave four measures at the beginning of the project because sync from tape and/or to hardware sequencers could be weird for the first little bit after hitting play. Nowadays it’s because I don’t use the metronome or Reaper’s count-in thing plus it leaves room for a pickup beat or other shennanigans before the downbeat. Yes most of that gets trimmed out of the final render.

[nicholas]

Yes.

I also place a start marker (=START) and an end marker (=END) at the start and end of the actual song, for convenience when mixing and rendering, and also set the project start time in Project Settings.

[uksnowy]

Originally Posted by nicholas

Yes.

I also place a start marker (=START) and an end marker (=END) at the start and end of the actual song, for convenience when mixing, and indeed when rendering.

I understand these tags in the context of sub-projects.. but what do they do in this scenario, Nicholas.?

[heda]

If audio is cut by the media player, I would say it is a problem with the media player, so it shouldn't be necessary to leave that gap in the audio. But leaving a small gap doesn't hurt. 1 measure may be too much.

The =START and =END markers are always good to have. Then you can render with the option "entire project" easily. Not just for sub projects.

[The Frown]

Originally Posted by heda

If audio is cut by the media player, I would say it is a problem with the media player, so it shouldn't be necessary to leave that gap in the audio. But leaving a small gap doesn't hurt. 1 measure may be too much.

A measure for projects, not masters. Important to read clarifying replies.

[nicholas]

Originally Posted by uksnowy

I understand these tags in the context of sub-projects.. but what do they do in this scenario, Nicholas.?

They define the start and end of area to be rendered when selecting Entire Project in File, Render dialog.

Of course they are also numbered. Assuming the Start marker is the first, pressing 1 will take you there.

[uksnowy]

Originally Posted by nicholas

They define the start and end of area to be rendered when selecting Entire Project in File, Render dialog.

Of course they are also numbered. Assuming the Start marker is the first, pressing 1 will take you there.

ah, I did not know this. So this could replace rendering by region, which is the way I do it now. Thank you for that.

[spantini]

I use a basic drum track as a click. When tracking, I place an empty region at the beginning, 1-4 bars.. long enough to let me get from hitting Record to positioning my hands on guitar with 1 bar left for a silent count-in. When I do my vocal, I have the mic about 6 ft. away, so I give it at least 8 bars of empty as I quickly position myself and catch my breath. I move everything to 0 when rendering.