MC-808: Multitracking, Muting, etc...

7 Apr 2007, 10:05

Well I am working on tracking drums into my Yamaha AW2816 Hard Disk recorder. As I was advised on the Yamaha group I set the AW as the MIDI Time Code Master and the MIDI Machine Code Slave, Synch output on the 808 set to Slave. It works like a dream.

Here's the thing. I have a dozen or so 'songs' sequenced into the 808.
My desire was to record individual parts or (groups of parts) to their own tracks on the recorder. Since the 808 only has the 4 outputs (Direct and Mix) the only way I can see to achieve this is to synch the two devices in MIDI. Then play back only the parts I want recorded on the tracks armed on the recorder. While the dry output gives me some flexibility, getting things NOT to play is a bit problematic. Here's why. If I have a 12 Step song, everytime it changes from one pattern to the next any mute settings are lost. The Tempo/Mute Recording procedures on p69 of the manual are not exactly clear if there is a way to do this. I COPIED the song I am working on to another location to experiment on it because if I much something up here I don't want to have to start over.

Advice?

-Eric

http://mog.com/doombilly

Mog

Re: MC-808: Multitracking, Muting, etc...

8 Apr 2007, 07:24

Hi doombilly,

what about building a patch called "silence" which will produce no audio and the set this patch in all patterns excluding only the tracks you want to record?

Hope this helps!

Ciao, Dirk.

?

9 Apr 2007, 09:02

I'm not sure if I follow you there Dr?

What I did figure out is that I could REC the mutes with the TEMPO/MUTE button. So my projected work path is kind of like:
Analyze the songs, patterns, parts. I can see that Part 10 in all the patterns is where I recorded the bulk of the drums. So if I record all the other parts Muted on each of the patterns, and record into two tracks on my recorder I get just the stereo output from part 10.
Then it is just a matter of going back on the patterns and muting 10 and unmuting another selection, and recording to different tracks on the recorder.

For the demos I am not as likely to do this. This has given me a better appreciation of how I should write on this box in the future and the need to organize my parts, patterns, and songs.

I learned fairly early on how to get a good Kick, snare combo going on one kit and record that in RealTime. However in most cases I would have been better to record just the kick on 10 and put the snare on 11, snare rolls on 12 etc.... I have pretty good separation, but if you want to do different things with the same kit it is just better to break it up into individual parts. Otherwise you run into the problem of not being able to turn up the kick without turning up the snare, etc...

I suppose in a lot of ways though I am going to follow the best practices I used in recording live drums. Basically, Mic the kick, mic the snare, and use two overheads for the rest. Except in this case I am using Parts instead of mic'd tracks.

http://mog.com/doombilly

Mog

Re: MC-808: Multitracking, Muting, etc...

9 Apr 2007, 13:31

Some notes:

The EASIEST way to mute and unmute parts is in a song. You can do it on a pattern by pattern basis. In other words, for each pattern in the song, you can select the muted parts (obviously you can repeat the same pattern over and over and...)

There is less flexibility with the song method, but it's way easier than real time muting/unmuting and avoids issues with making sure you generate a mute or unmute event at the start of the pattern.

Another technique is to record fader movement. You simply drop the fader to the bottom where you want it muted and bring it back up. That also allows for some "expression." It does eat up some memory (for all those events.) I try to avoid unecessary fader movements, mostly because all those fader movements are distracting

Sorry if none of this helped.