ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

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Anthony Alves
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ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Anthony Alves » Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:27 am

Ask any recording question that relates to Auria and an expert in audio recording will answer you. Try to ask one question at a time so that you get a clear answer. Eg. When asking how to use the EQ, specify what your using the EQ on and what sound your trying to achieve. For the experts replying, try to follow up on any advice you've given as you may be needed again.
Cheers
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Guilleonline
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Guilleonline » Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:13 pm

I guess I'll be the first to ask. So yesterday I came back hard at recording. And it's been a little tricky to make my way in Auria although I was almost able to find everythhing. The one thing I could find was the abilty to sync my mpc1000 to the app. See in the past I have done this to mo import track by track into The DAW to make sure everything lines up perfectly once all the trancks have been imported. This time around I couldn't find a way to do it with Auria and so I only recorded main outputs from the mpc into Auria for left and right. Needless to say I can't eq anything without affecting everything that is drums.

Any help?

Phil999
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Phil999 » Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:14 pm

Guilleonline wrote:The one thing I could find was the abilty to sync my mpc1000 to the app.
I assume you meant "couldn't". At the moment there is no sync option in Auria except WIST and Auria-Auria. What you can do however is to record with a known tempo (BPM) and line up the different tracks manually. You'll have to record each single instrument to a single Auria track.

Guilleonline
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Guilleonline » Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:33 am

Thank you for the response. That's what I figured I would have to do for now.

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Anthony Alves
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Anthony Alves » Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:31 am

The one thing I could find was the abilty to sync

If you have a multi input audio box like the presonus 1818vls or the Focusrite 8i6 then you could assign the different instruments out the 4 separate outs of the MPC1000 and another 2 out the stereo outs with each signal going to the stereo out panned hard left and the other hard right and then record them simultainiosly into Auria. You may have to do some small aligning od the audio tracks. Set Auria to the same tempo so that its ready for the lining up. Essentially that's 6 individual outs that you have on the MPC1000. If you don't have one of these boxes then just record 2 tracks at a time into Auria from 2 of your 4 direct outputs, panning here in this methods is not needed as the individual outs don't mix with other instruments unless you assign it to. Cheers.

Check out Akai's new iMPC app it's great and soon to be audiobus compatible so integration into Auria will be soon.

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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by andyxr » Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:09 am

OK here's a fairly simple question:
Can any experts out there recommend a good mixing/mastering workflow?
I'm at the point where I have my tracks all laid down in Auria and I'm wondering how people start their mixing process? For example, do you first go through each track getting their relative volumes right, then followed by adjusting EQ of each track, followed by pan etc.?

Hope you can help.
Andy

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Anthony Alves
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Anthony Alves » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:33 am

Well Andy it's actually not a simple question as there are as many approaches to mixing and mastering and they all work if in the end you get the mix and sound you were looking for. So here is the approach that has worked for me. First I like to get a quick mix up so that I get the ball rolling. I eq all the individual tracks first so that I can iliminate any frequency masking. Eg. Bass and kick drum can often mask onanother so seperating those frequencies so they both are strong in the mix. I use ProQ for all of that.
Light compression next but not much just enough to glue the track together. FX are more part of the track than the mixing so I like to have all my FX set in before the final mastering. Once I like the overall mix and every track stands on it's own I then mixdown to a stereo file where I then begin the mastering stage. This includes but is not limited to; More EQ, Very light compression, Limiter, MicroWarmer, Stereo widening, ect. Also try to use a track from your favorite artist that you would like your track to sound like and use that side by side to guide you along your mix. Try to duplicate the tone and level balance and just shoot for close. And this is just the tip of the mastering iceberg as it is song dependant and depends on the engineers taste and ears. Mostly if it sounds good to you then your there. Also try to listen to your master on as many listening devices that you can.q ie. ipod, home stereo, car stereo, earbuds, headphones, high end speakers, computer speakers ect. Hope this helps.
Cheers and happy holidays.
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andyxr
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by andyxr » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:59 am

@Anthony: many thanks for sharing that. Has given me food for thought. I know what you mean about bass and kick, especially in electronic music. I'm constantly trying to get my bass and kick parts to complement each other, without either one losing all of its bass frequencies. So tricky!

Regards,
Andy

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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by dominicperry » Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:39 am

There are a lot of videos on YouTube which can guide you through this. There's nothing special or deficient about Auria which makes it different from any other DAW. Unless you're really lucky and have an innate talent for mixing, then you're going to have to learn by doing. In the same way that reading 25 books on riding a bike won't stop you falling off when you finally try it, don't be tempted to study too much - just have a go.

There are various 'rules' of mixing, which, like most rules, make sense but can be broken if you know why. Things like - give everything some unique space in the frequency mix, compress the bass guitar, gate the drums, make the vocals louder than everything else, etc etc.

There's a great thread on the Reaper forum called "Why do your recordings sound like ass?" by a very experienced guy, trying to help people through this process. It's worth a read - it's very well written, often funny, and very informative.

I will echo one of his pieces of advice, and add just one of my own.

Firstly, you need to monitor on the best monitors you can afford. And if you are at all serious about what you're doing, some kind of acoustic treatment of your room is very desirable. You don't need to go nuts, just a couple of bass traps and a few wall panels, combined with sensible stands and placement of the speakers. Headphones won't cut it.

Secondly, don't obsess about mastering. In fact, my advice would be, don't worry about mastering at all. It's a money pit - you can easily spend loads on multi-band compressors, limiters, normalizers, analog summing, blah blah blah. If you've got a good mix, and you want a professional product - one which will stand up to the loudness of commercial releases - then pay someone with a proper room and masses of expensive kit and the years of experience to do it for you. It can be done for a few hundred dollars for a whole album. If you don't need that, don't worry. Auria has enough tools in it to get a balanced, moderately loud mix, without buying anything else. But, concentrate on mixing first.

Dominic

andyxr
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by andyxr » Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:46 am

@Dominic. Thanks for that. Monitors are a big issue for me right now (as in I can't afford any at the moment!), so I've had to make do with either headphones or non-monitor speakers. This is a nightmare because my headphones make things sound a little too bassy so it's hard to tell exactly if things are right. And of course the stereo impression you get from headphones is nothing like it sounds through speakers.

Luckily, I'm going to be practising mixing soon at a friend's studio in January and he does have quality monitors as he writes music and soundtracks professionally. And I agree with what you said: nothing beats just doing it. I guess I was just looking for ideas of sort of the process people go through. I get your point about mastering. Gotta walk before I can run!!

Regards,
Andy
PS - Loving Auria!

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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Penguino » Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:13 pm

There's many paths in mixing, to many results.

The keys are still very simple :
- your ears...
- good monitoring (if you trick your ears, it'll be hard).
- time to learn how sound works.
- starting with good recordings (garbage in, garbage out, no time to loose with bad recordings).

It all starts when you write the song, and when choosing the sounds to use.
Then is the recording session - need of time, instruments, soundcard, mike, hardware, ...

It's crazy how many problems you can avoid at mixing if you think about it first.

Many people shout in forum trying to get mixing miracles. Nothing like this here. No "+5dB at 150Hz" stuff is ok in every mix.
And a recording with 50$ will have a real hard time going against a big production.

The big interesting point is time. If you have time, you'll learn and it will soudn good. But not tomorrow.
Learning is long, but fun.

Have a nice music !

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Anthony Alves
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Anthony Alves » Mon Dec 17, 2012 3:27 pm

Wanna buy a plugin for Auria as soon as audiobus becomes part of Auria. How about Cubase for iPad just released today. I got it and it very cool. And since the midi in it is amazing it makes a good plugin in audiobus. Cheers. And no this isn't to introduce competion on this forum just suggesting an add on cause in mixing and mastering it doesn't yet compare or even come close. But for its sounds alone its worth it.

Hardcore Troubadour
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Hardcore Troubadour » Thu Dec 20, 2012 7:55 pm

Hi,
due to an accident, I have been out of the loop for a little bit.

tonight I tried to do a live 2 track recording straight from a mixing console using the Alesis I/O dock and Auria. This was the first time I have tried to use the program in this manner since the last update and with the new input matrix.

It would not allow me to initiate two tracks of recording simultaneously. I could do channel 1 or channel 2 but not both.

I did look around here a little to see if there was anyone else that had been having the same problem but in a quick glance, did not see anything.

I would greatly appreciate any help as when I posted here with a problem (channel 1 and 2 being switched) I never got a reply other than it was fixed in the update (but was not).

thanks again,

Lee

Rim
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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Rim » Thu Dec 20, 2012 8:13 pm

Lee,

The situation you describe could happen when you try to record enable a stereo track. If you want to record one input per track, just make sure they are mono tracks.

The problem with the ioDock switching channels sometimes is not an Auria or iPad problem, but a problem with the ioDock itself. Many people have reported this in other forums. Alesis claims to have fixed it, but there are conflicting reports about whether it's actually fixed.

Rim

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Re: ASK THE RECORDING EXPERTS

Post by Hardcore Troubadour » Thu Dec 20, 2012 8:53 pm

Jeeeezzzzzzz, what a rookie mistake!! :roll: thank you for the response....

I think most of us know a little about Alesis saying things...should have know that also.

I will say this, I have flown in several projects that existed on my Korg DAW and it has really been fun working in Auria!!

I think I am going to buy a plug-in or two......

i am still getting the crash report every-time though....just info.

thank you Rim!!

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