emusonacid!

i have my song just about completed, with sequencing... all i have to do is mess around and fine tune the ending and the vocal sample that i am using. but once that is done then it is off to master. now this is were i am curious on what you guys do, and what you suggest. the entire choon is done on the emu.

should i:

a.) automate all the levels in midi, and then record the entire song, going through a stereo compressor, over to audio to two channels (stereo) and then do my eqing and then through a compressor again to cd?

b.) record each track of the emu, drums, bass, and so on one at a time, through a compressor, into audio, (meaning that each track will go through the compressor) then automate the mixer with audio, then eq, then perhaps autamate again, (to compensate and level loss or gain) and then bounce down the entire song to just two stereo tracks (maybe running it through a compressor again) and then eq and compress again to cd?

what do you guys think? what is the best way? is there even a better way to do this that i haven't thought of? is choice "b" over kill? what would give the best results? what do you guys typically do when you get done sequencing and going for the record?

any suggestions and advice would be good. oh and typically when i write a song i am always changing levels and adjusting things, kind of like i am mixing things down as i go. because of this, if i choose to go with "b" or a variation of "b", should i take all my tracks and put them up at 127 on the emu's internal mixer, or do you guys think that would matter?

thanks for the help.

sup S&H. Best way to do it is record it one stereo track at a time. You may find that if you can record things mono (like the bass or certain drums) you can pan hard left the bass and pan hard right one break etc. Definately take all your tracks and put em at 127 when recording in to get the loudest signal without clipping then mix the levels on you computer. This will take a lot more time, but you will notice a huge difference.

I'm getting a 8 i/0 sound card to curb this problem. Even though I only have 4 outputs on the emu, I also have a couple synths too. check it out, really good price here. http://www.newsoundcard.com/g/garvin/de ... chlal242|0

If you can afford a new soundcard you may want to also look into a delta 44 which would cut your workload in half. I found it pretty time consuming a boring recording one track at a time. I wish the e5000 came with an optical out. Anyone know if that is an available upgrade? That be nice! Make sure to post a link to the tune once your finished.

Okay, I don't know whether this would be better answered at the Grid but I would say option (A) if you've got all the inputs - everything running through seperately and you can EQ it seperately. It just makes it easy to get what you hear mastered down. All depends on your hardware setup though.

i posted here because i figured that most poeple on the grind do there software thing. most don't even own a hardware sampler, so i figured i wouldn't get much response, or accurate advice.

thanks for all the input.

If your computer can handle it, the best option of those two would be option b. Compressing each track individually is an important part of the process. The control of bouncing everything to audio is desireable as well. I wish that my computer could handle it or I'd def do that. Being able to tweak the EQ so easily and add reverb in audio are both appealing luxuries. Also, I don't know what compressor you have but I wouldn't run your entire track through a poo-box. Each track, yes, but the entire track, unless you have a tube compressor or TCEFinalizor or something, run through a lower end compressor will sound shite. I'd say do your all your mastering with software unless you have a tube or highend multiband.

I've heard that some of the bigger names will run each track out of the EMU and into audio and then do final EQing and reverb to the individual tracks in via sofware - just like you were saying. I would do this but my computer can't really handle more than a couple of tracks of audio. By putting each sound through the EMU and then resampling into audio through the same compressor you homoginize your sounds as well. Each will take on the same set of characteristics and sound like they "fit together."

i have a behringer compressor... it is a stereo one, with peak limiter and downward expander on it.. if that makes a difference. seems to sound alright to me. all i have to do is figure out what kind of compression i should use for each sound. i guess i am wondering if i am going for peak limiting or whatever.. i will look on the grid.

my computer should be able to handle 18 tracks of audio at once. i did fourty one time.. and it worked... sort of... i actualy thought i locked up my pc, but it just delayed for like a second or two before it started to play. i can also do mix stuff down to two tracks to make more "room" for other channels if i need to.

thanks for all the input on this.. i am going to go for the b choice. and hopefully four to 8 hours later i will have a good sounding mix..

now, how do you get those loud cd recordings, like the music you buy from a record store...

you have quite a few options here, either the multitrack method or the single shot. I take the latter option, run 8 outputs to the mixer, mix them seperately, eq, fx etc. Then mix it all down in one shot and record. The other method would be to record one track at a time (as previously mentioned) this is more versatile in the long run but time consuming and fiddly. I don't personally bother with that, prefering to mix it again by hand (this is just a preference thing, and also saves me time)

The important thing here is that you get a good clean mixdown thats not clipping and nice levels etc.

Once you have a nice clean untouched mixdown, take that to your favourite editing program (soundforge/wavelab etc) and master it there with something like waves mastering bundle (or equivalent) set up a chain and tweek away till its pumping like you want it. A typical basic mastering chain for me looks like this,

lowband eq (for rolling off under 20hz)
eq (for those last min adjustments)
c4 multiband compression
l2 limiting

some people prefer to limit before compressing, this is just a preference thing.

Just play around and soon enough you will get an idea of what you need to do to make it big and loud like on professional recordings.

The best thing to remember is to get your untouched mixdown perfect, all the pump, boom, loudness etc etc is almost always done post production (ie. after its recorded)

thanks for all your help.. i will start the final production i would say next week. i hope to have to sound good enough to post... but remember, this song is a first for me in alot of ways. it's the first song i have in a year... it is the first song that i have done with out any synthesizers... i am using the tone generating tech that i posted on here. and so because of that it may sound really electo... i have had people tell it sounds like a video game, i don't know if that is a bad thing or not... but i think this song has given me alot of different ideas, and some really successful experiments too. stuff that i will carry on for other choons that i make. so even if no one really likes it, it is still a success to me. but i hope you guys do like it.

the last thing, other than minor tweaks in sequencing is to add my vocal sample... i am kind of terrorfide of that.. never made a vocal track sound cool, you know like how rock the funky beat hits... hopefully i will have something in the next couple of weeks....

maybe i wil call it "atari music"