tips...023.
A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.).
now we are going to do the second final lead guitar.
lets recap.
why two lead guitars ??
answer...listen to lots of records that have been done
by brilliant people.
an example might be...the first final lead trak
used one type of sound , while the second uses a different type of
guitar sound. useing different guitar pedals or different amp setting or different amp.
mebe one trak is cleaner than the other.
or one trak uses a different sounding recording area.
sometimes only one lead trak is needed.
cos it was a superb take by a session player for example and no other is needed.
sometimes the song might require "stacking " of various takes.
as the reader can see , its all judgement calls of
what the song calls for.
sometimes for example, a final lead might be done low down on the neck,
then a complimentary lead done an octave higher on the neck above the 12th fret.
it all depends what the song calls for.
and involves lots of experimentation.
but in this case the CEFE lead guitarist feels 2 final traks is enough and everyone concurs.
so on tr 17 while tr18 (with a likkle fx) (and the rest of the song traks are playing back.)
he lays down now a new complimentary lead guitar trak on tr17.
same procedure as before. except we now transfer the good parts to tr 20...the second final dry trak.
and then use tr17 once again for any punch ins, then transfer to final tr 20.
so we now have two good final guitar traks.

we now have the option of doing lots of things useing both ptw's built in fx, and eq's etc etc as well as any third party plug ins that we like.
if u look at ptw's fx suite , there are various settings related to guitar traks u can try.
and various eq options. its all judgement calls.
i'll lay out some basic examples.
for example copy tr 18 to tr 19 and tr 20 to tr 21.
then on tr 20 and tr 21 experiment with both real time and non real time fx, in conjunction with panning in the ptw mixer.
for example in ptw mixer pan tr 20 and tr 21 to 3 oclok n 9 oclok,
then add fx to each SUBTLY and see what that gets you.
you can even go bonkers and do things like run a subtle real time effect on tr 19 while running a non real time hard printed effect on tr 21.
one reason i like this approach is if an fx trak gets mucked up.
one can always re copy over the dry guitar trak and start again.
for example.
lets say we hard print an fx on tr 19, then next day we change our minds.
no problem. just overwrite with the original dry trak from tr 18,
and start again with fx experimentation.
what do i mean by "hard printing". ??
this relates to non real time fx.
how do u "hard print" ??
heres an example.
we want lets say, the ptw effect "guitar trails"
or "echoplex" on our fx trak tr 19 and see what that does for the song.
so what we do is call up the audio edit window for tr 19.
select whole. then call up EDIT>>>audio effects>>>echo..
and go to the drop down selector, and youll see various echo presets.
(you can even make your own.). which u can preview on a piece of the trak if u wish before finally commiting.
when u clik "process" youll see a bar go across the screen showing the
trak is being effected. this is HARD PRINTING THE EFFECT ON THE TRAK.
as you can see there are quite a few parameters to try out.
let me call your attention to one important aspect.
you solo tr 19 after hard effect printing....BUT u go...
"well i dunno." NOW..dont be too quick to hit undo.
(eg..EDIT>>>undo echo.)
bring the tr 19 fader under the the dry tr 18 fader and/or experiment with panning of tr 19 in relation to tr 18 and u might get a different perspective.
this is where the whole rubber hits the road , and where the black art of audio engineering occurs. ie..CHOICES AND DECISIONS.
by correct parameter choices on an effect in conjunction with smart setting of level and panning you can either achieve something thats pleasing or not.
it really depends on the choices u make in selecting the right fx, its parameters, and how the fx is mixed in and set for level and pan.
the method ive suggested..ie.....each lead guitar trak
haveing its own fx trak will let you experiment with fx in a myriad of ways in ptw.

heres another example,.......hard print on tr 19 a echo plex setting.
(non real time plug in echo.)...THEN...run a real time ptw echo/chorus plug in (clik fx button in mixer...!) on tr 21 !!.
in this situation we have our two dry guitar tracks mebe panned
center. then lets pan tr 19 to 8 o'clock and tr 21 to 4 o'clock !!
(in ptw mixer.). WHAT DOES THAT DO TO THE SOUND PICTURE ??
of course one can go to ridiculous extremes.
it all depends what the song calls for.
in some songs for example. mebe all thats needed is pan tr 18 thru 21 center with the faders of 19 and 21 (the fx traks)...lower than the faders of the dry traks. but in other tunes, we might want to go bonkers.

for example.think of this scenario.
we want an effected lead guitar break to move from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock,.then back to 3 o'clock as tho it is travelling around the stereo image.
OR another example. and ...it neednt necessarily be a lead guitar break, at one point while the lead guitar break is playing.
you wish this spaceship sound to zoom across the stereo image from left to right. how would u do that ?? OR..even fancier...while the lead guitar break is flying around the stereo image, a space ship is chaseing it..how would u do that ??
i'll cover this type of technique in later posts and the solution in some
interesting techniques.
but i'll give you some clues. you will need to have a spaceship sound of course.
and youll need two tracks with the spaceship sound on.
then its a question of clever manipulation of ptw's fade in/out settings in ptw's gain change plug in. as well a panning settings...to create the illusion.

i dont want to confuse you right now.
i just want to get u thinking of how the brilliant engineers create all those wondefull sound illusions in various films you might see.
a lot of it is audio editing triks done on audio traks.
in the interim....experiment with gain change fade in/out and panning useing two tracks with the same audio on them as a starting point.

now back to our lead guitar traks.
as you can see from the foregoing, and to recap there are an infinite variety of things we can do to those two final guitar tracks on tr 18 and tr 20 , once copied to their own fx traks 19 and 21.
in fact the options are endless. we can combine lots of different ways various ptw real time and non real time plug ins.
(aswell as third party plug ins.)
if u have a powerfull pc for example you could lay a hard effect down on tr 21 followed by plugging in
a real time plug in or two on tr 21. thus chaining together fx.
just be carefull not to go to ridiculous extremes.
and wash the whole song out with effects.
what you might like to think about is "carefull" useage of fx
like "sprinkles" here and there . and how "sprinkles"/"icings"
might garner listener interest. and improve the "sound picture".
believe me its not easy, and require lots of work and passion ,
and time to find that "just right" effects sound picture.
and dont think for a moment just cos you found a magic combo of fx
useing the ptw fx (or external plug ins.) that it will work on any trak.
cos every situation is different.

in CEFE's case we decided to keep it simple.
we panned tr 18 and 20 center. and sprinkled some fx on 19 and 21 ,
and put their faders just under the dry trak faders to give a hint of fx.
and we panned 19 and 21 center. cos thats what the tune called for.

now let me cover one last mundane , but important point.
we were so excited to try out effects on the two dry guitar tracks,
that we we forgot actually to clean up the guitar traks amp noise !!
on closer soloing of the two lead guitar final tracks , we realise ..
in the spaces when the lead guitarist isnt playing that...low down..
we can hear some guitar amp noise. cos we close mic'd the lead guitarists guitar amp.
so how do we address that ?? we need to lower that noise somehow.
by now u obviously realise how we do that.
(i posted before in previous posts.)
YES..the ptw noise gate..plus in the spaces where the lead guitarist isnt playing...
hiliting those spaces.and CUT (keep gap.).
in summary..before starting applying fx, make sure youve cleaned up
the two final lead guitar tracks as per my earlier posts.
cos ideally we want the two final lead guitar tracks to be as clean as possible prior to applying fx.

now i want to talk about COMPRESSION briefly.
be judicious in its use. imho..some folks over use it and it can lead to some artifacts in some circumstances.
sometimes i prefer to hand edit the audio track instead in the audio edit window.
gain changeing a section here or there to even out a track.
(useing ptw gain change...but NOT normalising.)
i do this to bring out any notes that might be too low or too high.
ie...levelling out the trak.
another option is to use compression.

sometimes this can be achived with subtle application of eq,
relative to the rest of the song and / or with a bit of compression.
there are compressor options in ptw.
to save me lots of typing,...
please read up on pg dynamics plug in in help and if u notice the non real time compressor under audio
effects.
lets take an example. EDIT>>>audio effects>>>compressor.
notice the drop down arrow ?? there are various settings.
as there are in various ptw fx. youll also notice PREVIEW.
without commiting compression to a trak.
simply hilite a pice of the lead trak (eg..tr 18.)
in the audio edit window. and bring up the compressor.
(i prefer to untick gate when useing compressor alone.)
notice when u clik a different preset how the knobs settings change ??
(if u clik on help in the compressor dialog...it will help u get
an understanding of how it works.).
simply put, each audio trak is different, u must be willing to
preview different settings and how they impact the hilited selection.
and dont rush to apply the compressor to the whole track !!.
maybe the track is fine except for a few notes that need
some compression applied.
once again its all judgement calls on your part and useing your ears.
(more black art of audio enginmeering..lol.)
be very carefull reading the help and the hints provided regarding different situations.
mebe try just some gentle subtle compression.
it all depends what the trak calls for.
by being willing to experiment with settings , and listening back..
overtime youll get a "feel" for what works.

if your nervous just starting out.
theres nothing to stop you, if your worried about doing something in error, copying say tr 18 for example to a spare ptw blank trak and naming the trak something like "compressor test".
and doing some dry runs before the CEFE band comes in next day.
you never know. you might end up a hero next day when they come in , and youve taken a trak and made it sound better.
either via hand editing or hand editing in conjunction with
useing a compressor option. and other triks.
(mebe even "re amping ".)

in summary....be willing to experiment.
and if your new to all this....as u can see, ptw features are extensive.
thus....set aside time each week to experiment with ptw's various plug ins and features.
includeing lots of experimentation on lots of different audio traks.
for example..what will ptw's hum filter or exciter or other plug ins like tremelo or auto wah do for the lead guitar ??
by intimately working with the various fx, over time youll develope
your own techniques for dealing with various situations.

heres one final trik to think about.
try this sometime. put a real time plug in on tr 19 and a different
real time plug in on tr 21, and pan them differently to the dry tracks.
(dont do this in a real session..just for your own experimentation.)
now start shifting tr 19 and tr 21 forward in time.
between 5 millisecs to 10 millisecs offset from zero.
you can shift by hiliting the whole track in audio edit window for example.
and cut the whole trak then use 1 track paste and in the FROM box add a few millisecs to the from time. then do the paste.
(MAKE SURE YOUR PASTEING TO THE RIGHT TRAK !!)
thus the track will be shifted forward in time.
(once u get experience with this u will get a feel for it.).
thus we have shifted the trak forward in time.
essentially adding a pre delay of the trak.
depending how youve done it and how many millisecs have been used u might find on playback that the texture of the effect has subtly changed. or in conjunction with a real time plug in.
there are lots of other triks too to discover by playing around with combos of real time plug ins and hard printed fx and shifting tracks
forward in time relative to zero marker, as well as different panning
of effected traks versus originals.
its just a question of spending time in experimentation.

as an aside. remember earlier when i talked about testing a pc's performance prior to purchaseing ??
one of the many things that will help you in assessing a pc's performance is ,
to watch that horizontal bar when u process a track.

on most of todays new pc's ..when you ACTION>>>test audio performance, ptw.... contrary to past years will prolly show
a full 48 track capabilty.
thus...other finer points of assessment of a pc come into play.
one of the things you can do is..for example.as a test of a pc...
(one of many tests.) is hilite a 3 minute audio trak and then
time how long a particular pc takes to hard print a ptw fx.
then repeat with different pc's your looking at.
some retailers WILL let u do this. just use a stopwatch ,
once you clik PROCESS in the effect dialog and time on the watch how long that horizontal bar takes, and the fx process.
(then undo.and try another fx.).
mebe even make up a little chart handwritten with make of pc vertically and a number of ptw dsp tests along the top as column headings. frankly its an interesting little project in itself.
some retailers are leery of this kind of test...for good reason..lol.
but prior to purchaseing my new dual core pc , this is exactly the sort of rigorous testing i did. if u do a lot of this testing on various pc's,
it will give u a feel for their performance.
another test is to time on various pc's how long they take to mix say 30 audio tracks to stereo for example. (just an idea. )
because your going to be doing a LOT of test mixdowns.
when testing out various mix approaches.
when testing song mixes.
i will be covering final mixing later on.


(more to come.)