Mad tracks! Should I track in stereo? Mono?

[epu]

Not exactly how I wanted to word the question, but - Everyone here seems bent on tracking one instrument per track. What happens if you have a bunch of stereo patches on your synth that you'd like to track? With an 001/6.1, you're limited to 32 tracks, so where do I go from there?

Imagine, I'm tracking a MIDI composition (using all available 16 MIDI channels) and within those tracks exists stereo patches. Could you imagine me just using all 32 audio tracks alone becuase my 16 MIDI tracks include stereo patches? This wouldn't make sense at all.

So after looking at a lot of the example files, it seems as if many choose to track guitars and bass in MONO.

I guess the appropriate question would be what should we track in MONO and what in stereo?. It's obvious that many stereo patches sound good ONLY in stereo. It should be pointed out that Vocals and Acoustic instruments are also in my compositions, but MIDI is the focus of this thread.

[where02190]

Track the Midi, not the audio. I believe you have something like 128 midi tracaks. Use an external mixer to mix the audio from the synths down to a stereo mix, and bring that back into PT on a stereo aux track, whcih do not count towards the 32 total audio tracks. Mix the synths using the Midi tracks.

[hookiefree]

i record all my sequences in MIDI into Pro Tools then record the individual tracks and mix. Then if I run out of tracks I'd just bounce all the drums or horns etc to a stereo track. If the tracks u bounced aren't working u can pull them from the sound files list into new tracks and bounce again or re-record them from the MIDI tracks.

[where02190]

Recording the midi and audio tracks is a waste, you're esentially recording it twice. Record the midi and simply route the audio back in via aux tracks, no need to record unles you have to further tweak the sounds, whcih you can do in the sound modules.

[epu]

Okay, this I've done before (use the Aux tracks for MIDI), but I notice that my mix sounds MUCH better when I record the MIDI to separate tracks rather than try to cram a whole mix into two inputs.

Where, you sound like an extremely knowledgeable person, but if I were to send my mix in for mastering, wouldn't they want my MIDI tracked as audio on individual tracks for tweaking if necessary (mixing on the post production side of things).

Thanks

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Your MIDI tracks would be mixed into your final 2 track mix via a stereo Aux track.. so you'd still be giving the mastering engineer a final stereo mix.

If you don't want to mix the MIDI tracks live externally.. you can still buss them via Aux tracks and record sub mixes inside Pro Tools.. you have 128 audio tracks which can be enabled or disabled.. use them and do sub mixes.

Rail

[where02190]

Where, you sound like an extremely knowledgeable person, but if I were to send my mix in for mastering, wouldn't they want my MIDI tracked as audio on individual tracks for tweaking if necessary (mixing on the post production side of things).

Nope. I'd ask for a 24 bit 44.1k stereo PT file. Mastering deals with the final stereo mix.

Submix to multiple aux's as rail suggests, or use an outboard mixer for your midi audio tracks.

[Vaphoron]

I guess the appropriate question would be what should we track in MONO and what in stereo?. It's obvious that many stereo patches sound good ONLY in stereo.

The problem is, if you have 5 really cool stereo sounds, when you record them and mix them all together, they usually don't sound as good. I very rarely actually take a stereo out of a synth and people may think I'm crazy but it really works better for everything I do. What I do is take the midi track, send it out to the synth and record the sound and pan it hard left. Then I go back and tweak the synth to find something I like and record another pass and then pan that hard right. I will only do that for the main sound or two and then everything else I usually do in mono and place in different places in the mix so the overall sound feels more "stereo."

[Cliffy_Boy]

This may have been mentioned but piling up midi tracks leads to built up latency from track to track. Since MIDI is serial, data is sent linearly so if you have more than 4 midi tracks, the last track will be noticeably delayed. This can easily be fixed with midi offset but this is an art. And as you add more midi tracks, they get progressively more out of time. I agree that for a couple of tracks, I would keep them thru an aux but as they build up, I just record them to an audio track.

[tele_player]

That's an oversimplification.

Yes, MIDI is serial. But the delay isn't caused by multiple tracks directly. Noticeable delays occur when you try to do too many things simulataneously, regardless of the number of tracks involved.

A 10 note piano chord, all played on one track, is actually a very fast stacatto, over a period of no less than about 10 ms.

This may have been mentioned but piling up midi tracks leads to built up latency from track to track. Since MIDI is serial, data is sent linearly so if you have more than 4 midi tracks, the last track will be noticeably delayed. This can easily be fixed with midi offset but this is an art. And as you add more midi tracks, they get progressively more out of time. I agree that for a couple of tracks, I would keep them thru an aux but as they build up, I just record them to an audio track.