In REAPER:
• Generate a 997 Hz sine wave
• Insert REAPER's own Frequency Spectrum Analyzer Meter on the master
• Change the analyzer's floor to -180dBFS
• Hit play
• You should see a pure sine wave with no distortion
Now (while the sine wave is still playing) simply boost or cut the track's volume by moving the track's own fader, and look at the analyzer again while boosting/cutting, and you'll see* so much distortion happening.
* Now I understand seeing distortion in an analyzer does not necessarily mean that it's audible, but still I'm curious as to why this is happening. And if I had a choice between automation without any distortion and automation that caused distortion, I'd choose the former every time, regardless of the audibility of said distortion.
This also happens if you use third-party gain plug-ins such as Kilohearts Gain, or any other plug-in that has an output gain functionality. I tested many plug-ins from different companies such as Kilohearts, Voxengo, ToneBoosters, TDR, FabFilter, DMG, and they all behaved the same way.
But if you use REAPER's own FADE functionality at the end of your sine wave track, you'll see that your analyzer shows very smooth attenuation without any distortion whatsoever.
Now I admit, I though maybe it had to do with the windowing functionality of the analyzer, so I changed the windowing from Blackman-harris to other options, and when Rectangular was chosen, the result of the volume boosting/cutting had less distortion depending on which company's plug-ins I was testing.
But the question remains, why is it that the FADE feature of REAPER introduces NO distortion at all, regardless of what windowing you choose in the analyzer (even when Blackman-harris is used), but simply moving a volume fader or a gain plug-in introduces so much distortion when automated?
The bigger question for me is:
Is automation inherently flawed in digital? Or is there a DAW out there whose automation behaves the same way REAPER's fade in/out functionality does? In other words: Is there a DAW out there that does not introduce any distortion at all when automating its parameters?
I would also love to know how Bitwig fares in this regard, since its whole claim to fame is its ability to automate/LFO everything.
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• Generate a 997 Hz sine wave
• Insert REAPER's own Frequency Spectrum Analyzer Meter on the master
• Change the analyzer's floor to -180dBFS
• Hit play
• You should see a pure sine wave with no distortion
Now (while the sine wave is still playing) simply boost or cut the track's volume by moving the track's own fader, and look at the analyzer again while boosting/cutting, and you'll see* so much distortion happening.
* Now I understand seeing distortion in an analyzer does not necessarily mean that it's audible, but still I'm curious as to why this is happening. And if I had a choice between automation without any distortion and automation that caused distortion, I'd choose the former every time, regardless of the audibility of said distortion.
This also happens if you use third-party gain plug-ins such as Kilohearts Gain, or any other plug-in that has an output gain functionality. I tested many plug-ins from different companies such as Kilohearts, Voxengo, ToneBoosters, TDR, FabFilter, DMG, and they all behaved the same way.
But if you use REAPER's own FADE functionality at the end of your sine wave track, you'll see that your analyzer shows very smooth attenuation without any distortion whatsoever.
Now I admit, I though maybe it had to do with the windowing functionality of the analyzer, so I changed the windowing from Blackman-harris to other options, and when Rectangular was chosen, the result of the volume boosting/cutting had less distortion depending on which company's plug-ins I was testing.
But the question remains, why is it that the FADE feature of REAPER introduces NO distortion at all, regardless of what windowing you choose in the analyzer (even when Blackman-harris is used), but simply moving a volume fader or a gain plug-in introduces so much distortion when automated?
The bigger question for me is:
Is automation inherently flawed in digital? Or is there a DAW out there whose automation behaves the same way REAPER's fade in/out functionality does? In other words: Is there a DAW out there that does not introduce any distortion at all when automating its parameters?
I would also love to know how Bitwig fares in this regard, since its whole claim to fame is its ability to automate/LFO everything.
Statistics: Posted by limitlesssss — Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:07 am