VCAs Rec Button ?? Stems using VCAs

[Zak7]

Hi, can you please guys explain to me what is the use of the Rec Button on a VCA track?

I heard some people use VCAs to create multiple stems in 1 pass recording after a mix.

PLease, can you elaborate this Method?

Many Thanks!

[Zak7]

anyone??

[priorytools]

Unlike VCAs on traditional analog consoles, VCA Master tracks in Pro Tools directly affect their slave tracks, so that the controls on each slave track always show their actual values:
• The output level of each slave track is indicated by the position of its fader.
• The solo, mute, record enable, and TrackInput status of each slave track are indicated by the corresponding controls on the track.

[albee1952]

This is a place where the VCA drops the ball. Assuming you have, let's say, 8 drum tracks that are part of a group and connected to a VCA track. You would THINK that hitting the Record button on the VCA would enable all the drum tracks, but at the moment, that does NOT work(as I think it should). However, once you enable Record on the 8 drum tracks, from that moment on, the VCA Record button WILL toggle record on the 8 drum tracks(until you close the session and come back, at which point, you are back to the beginning)

Now, re the term "STEMS", that would be more appropriate to using AUX tracks and routing groups of tracks(like all the drums, or all the BGV's) VCA's are really just a way to control the overall level of a group of tracks(a "stem" is a recording of a group of tracks into their own "submix", which is also referred to as a "stem")

[JFreak]

Also worth mentioning that "for some ears" creating submixes deteriorates sound, so mixing with stems isnt a holy grail. But opinions do vary...

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Also worth mentioning that "for some ears" creating submixes deteriorates sound, so mixing with stems isnt a holy grail. But opinions do vary...

Curious - what's the thinking behind this - especially in the digital realm?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by cwsand

Curious - what's the thinking behind this - especially in the digital realm?

Some say extra summing (auxes/stems) makes the end result different and not in a good way. They say PT mixer only has real stereo image when all tracks go directly to output (only one summing).

I don't share that view but have heard it many times.