[ddots-l] midi sequencing with sonar and caketalking

From: "Damon Fibraio" <dfibraio@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:25:55 -0400
OH boy.

 

So, for as long as I've been using Sonar, I've been using audio tracks and
soft synths, mostly. My band is recording its next CD and due to the studio
being over an hour away from my home and not having the transportation, I am
going to do my keyboard tracks in my studio and send them off to the guys in
my band. They are using Presonus studio 1 as their recording solution, I am
using Sonar producer 8.5. I am not stupid, so I know enough about audio and
stuff to understand the concepts, however, my guitar player who is our
engineer wants me to do midi tracks along with audio ones in case we want to
swap out sounds. Plus, he wants me to do things like strip reverb off my
sounds and stuff like that. I can post some of the email exchange we've had
here, but let me give you guys a quick rundown of my setup.

 

There's the computer, of course, with sonar and all kinds of toys on it.
Connected to that is a tascam fw1884. The keyboards will be connected to the
inputs on that using short shielded cables. The motif xs7 and Kurzweil pc3
are my main weapons, connected to the computer through usb. I also have a
nord rack 2x and roland vk8m and a few other modules which would need direct
midi connections to the tascam. I think I can cover that.

 

I know there are instrument definitions files I should install for my gear
to make patch names come up properly. I'm not so worried about that. I guess
my biggest issue is how to bundle up midi tracks and audio tracks
individually or would I even need to do that? Here are some pertinent quotes
from my guitar player's emails.

 

--- begin quote ---

 

MIDI files preferred, but for the audio stuff which will probably be most of
it... please use short cables straight into your interface, and save them as
44.1k, 24-bit WAV files. For best results, I need to give you full-length
audio files that have all the dead space at the start so we can easily line
things up to the click. I will do that for you shortly.

 

Be sure to record on stereo tracks for most stuff, but I would suggest going
mono if you're recording a monophonic synth lead, as that's more realistic.
I would also suggest turning off reverbs in your sounds unless it
specifically creates the quality of the sound. It's better for me to create
the room space separately.

 

There is no issue with playing MIDI files. The reason for MIDI files is if
we don't like the sound you recorded with on the audio tracks, we can change
them with or without you... it lets us use any other synth, sound, plug-in,
etc... while still preserving your performance. But I don't expect any real
surprises... 90% of your parts are already pretty finished sounding. So
forget about sys-ex stuff... just a MIDI file along with the audio file(s).

 

You need to learn how to track a MIDI track concurrently with an audio file.
Should be very straightforward.

 

Do not double-up the low octaves on any parts that are "in the mix" with
bass and guitars. 

 

Have the volume on your keyboard up to at least 75-80% and get good signal
levels. But don't use a compressor while tracking unless you're confident
you've got it set right.

 

--- end quote ---

OK, so basically you see where we're coming from here. If you all have any
pointers on this kind of thing, I could use all the help I can get. Will be
consulting the ct documentation for a lot of this, but any additional
assistance would be invaluable to me. Thanks again.

 

 

--

Damon Fibraio

personal site: http://www.keyboardguy.com

band site: Days Before Tomorrow http://www.daysbeforetomorrow.com

Find me on facebook as Damon fibraio or twitter as dfibraio
[ddots-l] midi sequencing with sonar and caketalking

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