Quote:

Thanks, Mac. That's kind of what I expected about the separate input plugs (still can only record to a single stereo track). I think, taking it all into consideration, that this Fast Track Pro may be the choice for me. Mac, do you know about midi keyboard input on this unit - would that be able to record to a seperate track in Real Band? For instance, if I had a guitarist, a singer, and a keyboardist playing at the same time, would I be able to record the guitarist to the L on an audio channel, the singer to the R on the same audio channel, and the midi keyboard to a separate midi channel simultaneously?, or would this be either audio OR midi, but not both at the same time?

thanks,

Bruce




Yes, you can quite easily do that. MIDI is a separate entity, being only data such as note-on, note-off, etc. As a result, MIDI is very small in size as compared to audio data, matter of fact, you could hook up to 16 separate MIDI controllers at the same time as the two Audio Inputs, programming each controller to send on only one of the 16 MIDI channels apiece, resulting in 16 separate simultaneous tracks of MIDI along with those two tracks of Audio. But there may be throughput problems with that many MIDI devices "daisy-chained" into the one MIDI input. You could easily record two MIDI instruments at the same time as two Audio inputs, though, and even add a set of MIDI drums in there via the USB, I should think. I do that all the time here and have done so since around '95. But my sound devices are not USB input. Not yet, anyway.

Just recently completed a project for a young jazz singer in which we used all MIDI instruments, my keyboard as piano, along with MIDI guitar playing Acoustic Bass patch and a drummer playing a Roland MIDI drumset. Her singing was the only audio channel. We intentionally recorded it realtime live without separate multitracking or punchins, to get that live jazz trio feel. People who have heard the pre-release tell us that they are surprised to find out it is MIDI backing. It also allowed me to change the synths and patches after the initial tracks were recorded, looking for better sound and matches, things like that. For example, the sound of the Roland MIDI hardware box was good, but when I dropped some other drum samples in there instead using Gigasamples, it really lit up, what with all those more velocity layers and such being available. Now the drummer is not satisfied with the sound of his kit anymorem especially the brushes (grin).

--Mac