Grouping tracks affect the sound

[Christian_R]

Hello!

Every once in a while when I group two or more tracks together, it seems like the sound changes a bit. Like it's getting a little more flat or something. Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know why it happens?

I don't use return tracks or anything else fancy, so I really don't know what the reason is. And most of the time I have no trouble with grouping tracks.

[Tarekith]

Can you share a project where this happens 100% of the time?

[jestermgee]

it seems like the sound changes a bit. Like it's getting a little more flat or something.

Yeah "seems like" is not real scientific. Never noticed a difference and it's one of these things that would be easy to A/B test by duplicating the tracks, grouping one set and not grouping another then switch the solo on them.

[wearemindflux]

This could be the way the 2 are summed together. Or any processing you are adding.

Maybe there are headroom issues with the two tracks when they are summed.

Maybe it's a frequency based issue.

To better help, it would be worthwhile sharing the project.

[Stromkraft]

Hello!

Every once in a while when I group two or more tracks together, it seems like the sound changes a bit. Like it's getting a little more flat or something. Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know why it happens?

I don't use return tracks or anything else fancy, so I really don't know what the reason is. And most of the time I have no trouble with grouping tracks.

Is the group track at 0dB fader position? Are sends active on the group track? Do all grouped tracks send the audio to the group track?

When this happens, I'd suggest you make copies of the grouped tracks and place them side by side and put Utility with the "Reverse Phase"* preset on the group track. Then solo this and the copied tracks as well as inactivating all returns, so only those other tracks are getting to the Master.

Properly set up, this way if you get anything but silence you'll know there is a problem that you can troubleshoot. If there is silence, nothing is different in the grouped tracks.


*something like that.

[Stace30]

Never noticed it myself, I use the group tracks function frequently. Could it be the sounds that you are using? (overlapping frequency's etc?)