Basic recording techniques

[macsetup]

Greetings to All, My setup:G4 Dual500, 1GB RAM, DP 3.02, O1W Pro, external Tascam 16 channel mixer with left/right from O1W going into a stereo channel then out of Tascam into Mac's stereo in. My BIG dumb questions: When turning a multi track MIDI sequence in DP into individual audio tracks - should each MIDI track be recorded as Mono or Stereo, does it depend on the type of patch, ie. piano, bass, flute, with the O1w's internal effects on or off, panned left, right or center in the DP MIDI/Audio track, with or without DP effects/compression, etc? I would greatly appreciate any info on these basic questions or pointers to where the answers may be found. Thanks in advance for your time, Terry

[Danny M]

[quote]My BIG dumb questions: When turning a multi track MIDI sequence in DP into individual audio tracks - should each MIDI track be recorded as Mono or Stereo, does it depend on the type of patch, ie. piano, bass, flute, with the O1w's internal effects on or off, panned left, right or center in the DP MIDI/Audio track, with or without DP effects/compression, etc?[/quote]You are going to hate me for this, but... In my opinion, it all depends on the functionality and effect you want. For example, if you have a sweeping pad that does all kinds of nifty things in the stereo field that you would like to keep, then go stereo.. If you want more "control" over the exact panning of a track, you can use mono. If you like the sound of a stereo reverb on a track, then go ahead with stereo. If a track is mono to start with, and you only apply mono effects, then you won't gain anything by bouncing the track down to stereo. (You will chew up more hard drive space, of course.) I don't think that there's a definitive answer, just a whole bunch of different options. -Danny

[MusicWorkz]

Record monophonic sounds that can be placed anywhere in the mix on single tracks (bass, bass/snare/hi-hat, sax, flute, violin, etc.) and sounds that are a bit more involved (synth sounds with sweeps or movement, drum overheads, and sounds that use effects like tap delay, auto-pan, doppler etc.) on stereo tracks. You also should determine, if you are fortunate enough, whether you want to use on-board FX or outboard gear, which changes the entire thought process when laying tracks down. You may have to make several passes to do so, but ideally, you want to preserve your soundscape as much as possible. Decide what you want to do and go for it.

[Tinen]

A key factor in making the decision is whether the sample of the instrument inside your 01W is a stereo sample, i.e. two microphones were used to record each sample binaurally. You'd have to dive into it to know which ones. If you get down to the sample level of your keyboard and see the wave itself listed as "Piano L" and "Piano R" or something like that, you have a stereo sample. In the case of drum sets, they're usually mono samples that are pre-panned across the field to mimic a stereo spread. However, in most cases, the raw samples of a keyboard are mono to save ROM space. Effects devices (whether in the 01W or in DP) synthesize an artificial stereo field, and often that's the only real "stereo" aspect of a keyboard. Given that you could send MIDI volume (and I think Pan as well) to the 01W to control the level of each MIDI channel, what's the advantage you're looking for by recording the audio outputs of each MIDI channel individually into DP? To use different effects or plug-ins on different instruments? To make sure the sound is consistent in the future if you sell the 01W? If not, why not just send controller messages instead of using up hard disk space?

[Danny M]

Macsetup, I sent you a private message response. -Danny