If the prospect of converting a MIDI track to audio makes me nervous, I reassure myself by saving the current project with the MIDI track and working with audio in the next version, just in case I need to go back and edit it. While I rarely actually return to it, having that backup is important—and not just for psychological reasons.
Interesting and helpful thanks. A question… say you’re creating / recording vst drums. Ie as midi. Would you split tracks out similarly say to of old (& still I imagine) where mic’s were placed in / at kick drum, over snare etc (to both get a truer sound and reduce spill). And then bounce each track ie kick track, snare track etc to its own audio? And/or would you group drums into sets? Ie kick on own. Toms say as a group? Curious really.
The drum software instruments are pretty great these days, but yes, when I use them I still prefer to set up multiple outputs so they come out of the software instrument and go to separate mono auxiliary channels (stereo for overheads & stereo room mics). When I'm done composing, I also often still bounce all of those to audio so I can mix them like a real drum kit. It might take a bit of time, but I find I get much better results being able to use the full capabilities of my DAW rather than being restricted to the mixing & effect capabilities that the software instrument might have, which ends up making some of that time back as I get results quicker once I'm mixing like that.
If the prospect of converting a MIDI track to audio makes me nervous, I reassure myself by saving the current project with the MIDI track and working with audio in the next version, just in case I need to go back and edit it. While I rarely actually return to it, having that backup is important—and not just for psychological reasons.
Absolutely. What DAW do you use, Dmytro? Does it have a 'Hide and Make Inactive' type function like Pro Tools has?
Usually I use Mixcraft for arranging and editing and Ableton for mixing. They haven't such direct button, but allow to freeze and fold the tracks.
Oh nice, sounds like you've got a good system for working around it!
Interesting and helpful thanks. A question… say you’re creating / recording vst drums. Ie as midi. Would you split tracks out similarly say to of old (& still I imagine) where mic’s were placed in / at kick drum, over snare etc (to both get a truer sound and reduce spill). And then bounce each track ie kick track, snare track etc to its own audio? And/or would you group drums into sets? Ie kick on own. Toms say as a group? Curious really.
Hey there Mark! Great question.
The drum software instruments are pretty great these days, but yes, when I use them I still prefer to set up multiple outputs so they come out of the software instrument and go to separate mono auxiliary channels (stereo for overheads & stereo room mics). When I'm done composing, I also often still bounce all of those to audio so I can mix them like a real drum kit. It might take a bit of time, but I find I get much better results being able to use the full capabilities of my DAW rather than being restricted to the mixing & effect capabilities that the software instrument might have, which ends up making some of that time back as I get results quicker once I'm mixing like that.
This is just my preference, of course!
I'll keep revisiting, I'd love to learn more. It's detailed and I appreciate that.
Thanks Maki!
Great information as always, thanks!