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RealBand
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41 |
Hi to all,
First, a bit of context:
I'm a sax player (tenor and alto), 30 years' worth; been using Biab for about 5 years and RB for 8 months. I'm in the middle of my first recording project (no previous experience with other music software, MIDI or audio). I can do some basic recording and mixing but there's still enormous amounts for me to learn.
My current puzzle (and there have been many) is about how to EQ MIDI tracks independently: I can't figure out how to route individual tracks in order to treat them with desired effects - in this case, making the piano a little brighter.
Any tips/help/references to appropriate sections of the RB manual would be greatly appreciated.
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RealBand
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,731
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First start with a superior synth to reproduce the midi better. You should never polish a turd. A bad sounding synth will remain so for the most part. Next try placing a multiband EQ on the FX bin for the track place a spectrum anaylizer in the second slot something like Span http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/ and take a look at offending freqs and ones that are diminsihed. make the adjustments in the EQ and then bounce or render that track to a wave track and it is locked in. This has worked well for me. I also will take the same effects and give the master output a last look and try to even out the frequencies.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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RealBand
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Joined: May 2000
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T get the FX to affect only one track (instead of all tracks running off the synth) you need to initiate another instance of the synth for the track you want add the FX too.
If you are using 'reroute all MIDI to DXi' you go to the tracks DXi area and open another instance of the synth.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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RealBand
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41 |
Many thanks to both of you - Robh and rharv - for your prompt replies, the first being food for further thought and possibly action down the track a bit and the second being pertinent to my immediate problem. It'll all have to wait till tomorrow, however, 'cos it's very, very late now in Melbourne, Australia.
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RealBand
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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Clinton: What synth are you using for the various tracks? As rharv points out, you need to use a unique instance of the synth on each track (and I would assign unique midi channels to them as well) where you have a MIDI part.
Also, as robh points out, as soon as you are happy with a midi track, record it's output to a stereo .wav track and use that .wav track as where you apply effects. Turn off the corresponding midi track, of course.
Also, as a mixing tip: If you have lots of instrumentation going on including the piano, sometimes it's best to subtract out the low frequencies of the piano rather than to try to add to mids/highs for the piano. Apply a little panning to that track and that might be just the trick to get it to stand out in the mix.
The problem with an 'all hands on deck' piano part, when mixed with a band, is that the piano covers frequency content across most of the spectrum that the rest of the band is playing in. Let each part do it's part. Acoustic guitars are also guilty of this; sometimes the best thing to do is simply cut the lows on an acoustic track that's in a mix and voila, it becomes 'brighter' without boosting anything. The mud gets removed from the mix.
-Scott
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RealBand
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 41 |
Scott (or is it rockstar_not - I'm not familiar with forum etiquette),
Your mixing tip re backing off the lows makes good sense and it is not something that had occurred to me thus far - thankyou.
As to your question, my synth is the plug-in version of the one that gets bundled with Biab: VSC DXi. It seemed (and still seems) sensible to follow the path of least resistance with regard to technical stuff I know little or nothing about, and the sounds of the basic rhythm section instruments are OK for my present purposes.
Which is not to say that I intend to remain technically ignorant and unaware of alternatives, more a question of first things first. Suggestions and pointers-in-the-right-direction are welcome.
Language like "a unique instance of the synth" is a bit daunting to me but rharv's correct assumption about using 'reroute all MIDI to DXi' and directions about where to look (thanks again rharv) got me over the line, and the job got done.
Curious though, now that I can apply effects to MIDI output, why would I be wanting to convert to WAV and treating the resulting audio track instead? I'm thinking that keeping things flexible for as long as possible is, generally speaking, a good thing.
As for distinct channels for each MIDI track, I'm in the habit of doing that on account of having had a really terrible time with MIDI channels left set to 0 when I first started with RB. All sorts of unpredictable and wildly frustrating behaviour was going on which diminished greatly when I decided on "every track different, NO zero". Is this typical, or possibly just to do with the particular way I was going about things?
Clinton
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RealBand
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Joined: May 2000
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You asked "Curious though, now that I can apply effects to MIDI output, why would I be wanting to convert to WAV and treating the resulting audio track instead? "
Using too many 'unique instances' of synths will eventually put quite a load on the system.
Every time you use a unique instance you are literally running another synthesizer inside your computer.
Just be aware of how many you have running, and if you do start to get glitches, converting these to audio will lessen the load a little for the system.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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