uneven L/R waveforms on my mixes lately

Beginning this past week, the mixes I’ve recorded from my Traktor Kontrol S4 (using Traktor Pro 2 software) have a section or two where the L&R waveforms are significantly uneven.

I’m wondering if anyone here can advise me on this situation. I bought the S4 almost a half year ago, and then with my son’s tech help, we got everything up and running.

I discovered Audacity a few months ago, and again with my son’s help, we incorporated it into the process. As stated above, I’ve had a few mixes this past week that, after importing them to Audacity, showed uneven L/R waveforms before and after normalization … listening to those sections revealed the imbalance as well.

In the last few months, using Audacity, the L/R waveforms were basically even on a few dozen mixes … my last four mixes have had this issue, including:

Yesterday, I made a mix and the first track “turned out” uneven … today, I began another mix with the same track and it appeared fine, although later in the mix this situation occurred.

Might the problem be the …
Traktor S4 (hardware) ?
USB cable ?
Mac Mini ?
Audacity ?

I’m having trouble uploading my screen shots … hopefully next post

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If the tracks appear asymmetrical when opened in Audacity, then the problem is pre-Audacity.
( I also think you can rule out USB cables).

Normalize in Audacity could correct the problem …

RMS-normalize is even better, but it’s not shipped with Audacity: it’s a plug-in you have to install.

If the quiet regions on the left channel correspond with changes in the content, (e.g. with a change in the music), rather than just randomly, then it could be phase-cancellation problem which is responsible for reducing the volume.

It could just be you’re mixing from multiple sources, (e.g. DJ’ing), and the panning on one of the sources is (accidentally) asymmetrical.

[ If you want to normalize those quiet sections you need to select them individually, rather than select the entire track ]

Thanks Trebor

It may turn out to be “operator error” on my part … a reply on djforums.com suggested I check the ‘pan knob’ on the Traktor Pro 2 software, and it was turned to about 9 O’clock.

Here’s hoping that this is the problem. I just sent the S4 controller to Native Instruments for repair/replace due to the “Deck C” button sticking … so, in two or three weeks time, I’ll be able to find out.

Thank you for taking the time to respond, and for the heads up about the RMS-normalize plug-in.