First real song record effects

[Peter Bailey]

Ive cooked up 9 tracks in Ableton ive mapped the 8 outputs to the dp32. as a newbie would you record dry and then add compression and effects after? or just put compression on those 8 inputs.

the 9th i thought i would play after and record but not sure how i could sync that into the right position after it was recorded.

hints would be appreciated.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Depends how confident you are with compression & FX. Once it's recorded with those added, you won't be able to remove them. Some people say it can be better to do it while recording as it forces you to makes decisions as you go and not leave everything till 'the mix', but others prefer to keep their options open.
You can move tracks time-wise after recording using TrackEdit, but not tried it. You'd need to be fairly precise with the source & destination markers, and if it does it by processing the whole track, it may be time-consuming if you need several attempts. I would have added a count-in to the tracks in Ableton before transferring. You could then either delete this 'intro' afterwards using track edit, or simply set the 'In' marker to skip it, asssuming you're going to mix/master it on the dp32.

 

[Peter Bailey]

I think I am suffering from the confidence, I tried to edit the track as you suggested but what i hadnt worked out was how to set the timings i set the in and out points of the bit i wanted to move went track edit and although i could select the to part it wouldnt let me set the time part the cursor had no effect. I did read the instructions on track edit but it or i hadnt seen how to tell it the time position to paste TO.

In the end I went with compression, some EQ and normalised (not sure why i did that) on mastering.

i dont think it sounded too bad the link is here maybe you can advise if there is anything blazingly obvious wrong from the sound. https://soundcloud.com/pb21uk/jmj-1

I think the answer is to practice with the tascam more and more till i am better with it. in the end i had to send to tracks in ableton to one external tascam input to avoid the editing and shifting of the 9th track. it wasnt ideal but got it part way there.

i will try that lead in technique but not sure how to do that in ableton. I think without sync start i will always have a minor discrepancy between pushing the push to start ableton with right hand and pushing record on the tascam. I am sure its down to being able to edit properly in the tascam.

I wish there were more videos on that technique havnt found anything so far on it.

 

[Phil Tipping]

The To position is the current position, so set this before you enter TrackEdit. I had to look it up and try it, so I'm still learning Just tried moving tracks on the dp32 and it appears to be instantaneous so it must just use pointers instead of physically moving the data, so makes it easier to retry the operation.
Haven't used Ableton, but a couple of options would be to record you saying "1,2,3,4" then insert it into the start of one of the tracks. Shift the others in Ableton to line up (or insert it into all tracks then they're bound to line up), then transfer the whole 8 tracks to the dp32. Alternatively, if there's a suitable line or intro part in your music (not heard it yet), you could simply copy that slice from one track and insert that at the start of all tracks. Will report back later when I've listened to your track....
Update: the track sounds great to my amateur ears - definitely recommend good speakers There seemed to be a slight start delay on one of the sounds which has delayed echo, but this might be intentional - you've played tricks with my mind by talking about sync issues! There's tons of tracks on your soundcloud channel; presume they were made before you got the dp32? Either way, excellent work.
Update2: Your comment re. pressing play on Ableton and record on the dp32 suggests I may have misunderstood your 9th track sync issue. I assumed you wanted to play the 8 tracks from the dp32 and record the 9th live onto the dp32 (i.e. Ableton is out of the picture). If so, then the count-in will allow you start recording the 9th in sync. But now realise from your op you've already recorded the 9th in Ableton and want to transfer it to the dp32 in sync with the others, in which case the count-in is irrelevant.
The solution is to transfer all 9 tracks by copying (i.e. not re-recording) the individual wave files to the sd card (presume Ableton can save each track as a wave file) and using the Import function on the dp32. They will all be synced. Can do this for as many tracks as you want.

 

[Peter Bailey]

Yes you've worked most of the physical stuff out, all the previous tracks on soundcloud were with ableton. The DP32 came into being as I wanted a way of having tracks backed up separately and for fun and to maybe take it away and use it instead of a laptop but i think its a little too big to use as a portable solution. Its also fun too and aids learning. Today I will try a vocal but never done that before but with the tascam i can listen to the drum track or maybe a mix to sing too and record without the mic picking anything up like the pc whirring etc.

in fact yes you've solved the sync issue , i shall import that although that sound presents itself 8 bars in so i might have fun with it but i will have a play with the time editing in the manner that you said as you've understood well.

I am just a hobbyist not a true musician in the sense but thank you for the kind comments on my works.

I will have another listen i think there is some echo set on the aira tr8 and one synth track deliberately starts late in another section but i can always add a starting note if it sounds odd.

thank you for replying and giving kind but constructive criticism it helps with my hobby and learning.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Ok Peter, glad it's been helpful. I'm a beginner as far as music composition goes, so kudos to your soundcloud collection. Have dabbled with analogue gear for years so have some experience with mixers & fx etc. I avoid computers for music creation as I used to have a 9-5 job working with them! I use it for top & tailing tracks and burning CDs, but everything else is done with external gear - real knobs I use a very old version of Samplitude for this, and it can export wave files using a highlighted region, so if you use the same region for each track, it will encompass any silence at the beginning and all files are in sync regardless of where the sound actually starts.

 

[Peter Bailey]

I am much the same use pc for work and music too but more recently been investing in hardware rather than softsynths and also an octatrack to sequence my hardware synths and now the motu midi xt express and the tascam with the idea to try recording without Ableton or the pc at all.

I like using either way, ableton is great for punching out ideas.

I like the idea of hardware as once its purchased i dont have to pay for upgrade paths all the time.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Good point re. upgrade paths - in theory the computer is a tool, but you're at the mercy of the hardware & OS designers. I've stayed on Windows XP, with dual-boot into Linux for web access. If you take out networking and anti-this-that-and-the-other software and auto-updates, XP runs sweet as a nut (for me at least!). If you want a 'non-PC' sequencer and excuse the shameless plug, check out Sequetron. It was designed specifically for musicians fed up with computers - although it runs on one, if you see what I mean