tips...021.
A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.).

ok..at this point we have basically built the skeleton of our song
in ptw. what i would suggest is , as a basic concept,
keeping tracks 1 to 16 for the song bed traks/skeleton.
and traks 17 onwards for the song up front/lead tracks and icings.
before starting the next major phase. recording the leads and icings for
the CEFE band , i would like to add some general tips to
think about. as follows.
(these i will be adding to over time, and updateing this post
as i think of more points.)
1. recording runs the whole gamut of emotions.
some days youll be ultra happy. other days frustrated as hell..lol.
just take it all i your stride.
some days the recording gods will be in your favor and other days not.
just dont burn yourself out.
2. a major piece of advice i can give is..
dont go overboard on effects. "everything in moderation".
its ok..lol....i fall into traps like get a new piece of gear i want to use EVERYWHERE..lol.
its called being human.
3. dont CONFUSE the listener. for example study the great engineers of the past on great records.
notice all the subtle things they do, and write them down.
for example,...think of this RULe (but break it if it makes sense on a song.).
largely ..ONE SPECIAL EFFECT AT ONE TIME.
for example notice ?? on some big record ??
how sometimes the drums are quite dry ?? and in certain places for the sound picture ,
some vocal effect is introduced at various times ??
notice also, while this one effect is occurring in its time slot ,
how everything else is supportive ??
this is all part of picture painting.
4. notice in ptw's various effects how pg have set up already patches for certain instruments ??
REALLY SPEND TIME, going thru all the various effects.
and their presets, .like.WOW...what will "hot plucked bass" do for me.
or "attack drums"..or.."ratty guitar"...(<<<once used that one to create an animal effect..
think outside the box !!.)..or "guitar slap"...or .WOW..
"guitar echo plex" or ."guitar trails"...or.."ambient double"...
or ...."wide slow sweep"...or ...some of the tremelo settings...
or...many of the others and the real time effects.
5. really go thru the various ptw tips of the days, the help files n pdf's and videos.
pg have provided a wealth of info as well as lots of FAQ's.
make sure also u understand all the different menus, and features and what they do.
(i'll be covering some triks with some of them in later posts.)
6. get into backing up your song project seq's religiously.
(a seq basically contains EVERYTHING relating to the song includeing all tracks and settings.)
if you religiously have all songs in their own unique song folder
within a parent folder called "songs". you can also religiously back
up "songs" to one or more dvd's at regular time points .
6. sometimes , like the custom CEFE band song we are doing in these posts.
you might not want to hear the metronome.
i typically turn it off if ive created a custom clik track as per this CEFE case.
(ie...OPTIONS>>>METRONOME>>>make sure recording and playback are unticked. )
7. notice for midi tracks u can achieve higher resolution.
(OPTIONS>>>RESOLUTION and select a higher number.)
8. if your a newbie to midi. do yourself a favor and get a book explaining midi
and also soak up all the midi info.
one COMMON PROBLEM that baffles people is they see midi data on
a track. they have an external midi module hooked up to the pc,
for example via some midi usb or other protocol device but get no sound
out of the midi module. often this is simply resolved by ensureing
the midi receive channel on the external device matches the
midi channel that shows on the track in ptw.
some fancy midi gear requires various parameters to be set up also.
(thus u must consult the manual for the gear in question.)
a simple example of a possible problem.
a track in ptw shows a midi channel setting (CH in classics view of 3 lets say. ).
but the external midi module isnt set to CH 3 receive.
these are common issues to be aware of.
9. notice ADDITIONAL WINDOWS IN PTW.
like the guitar tuner plug in, and the MIDI MONITOR.
for example. i bet lots of people havent spent some time with midi mon.
but it can be USEFULL. also in tracking down midi problems.
(click on its help and learn all about it !!.highly usefull.)
10. you have a singer that has problem staying in tune.
heres a solution to try. after his/her first take when u realise u have a problem.
to help the singer stay in tune.
record the singers notes note for note on a seperate track , from a
synth into sound card line input mimicking the vocal notes.
then play this track back to the singer in the singers phones,
while the singer re does the vocal track. it might just help staying in tune.
use a distinct patch , mebe simple piano notes for example.
ie.a patch where the notes are quite "pure".
11. dont be too ready to put yourself into a heavy bank loans position.
for gear..this COULD stress you out. been there done that.
and REALLY EXPLORE all possibilities with your current gear.
in countries like mine consider diy to overcome high retail prices n taxes on gear
n also buying used gear. its wonderfull what 5k will buy u these days.
get CRAFTY with your purchases. for example on the net youll see lots of diy schematics.
for example a mic u can build for a few buks outta a panasonic capsule.
12. as your adding recorded tracks and mixing useing ptw's mixer keep your eyes
like a HAWK on PTW's output led's. n bring your faders down accordingly.
aim for a mix no higher than -3db.
also .if useing a fancy sound card with its own metering.
monitor it ALSO.
13. if your starting out try and record as much different variety and instruments as possible.
this is what i did years ago. this experience is invaluable and imho
is better than takeing theory lessons.
hands on is a very good teacher. record everything and anything u can.
14. really spend lots of time learning mic positioning.
for example , the venerable guitar amp. try micing it close up.
try putting the amp on a chair and micing it.
face the amp into a corner of a room...and mic the wall reflections.
when the amp is blasting. ie..EXPERIMENT with everything and anything.
15. try "re amping". (but watch for feedback probs.).
solo a guitar track and send it out to a different guitar amp ,
and get a friend to twiddle with settings on the amp while u listen over monitors in your
control room. mebe for something "grungy" try sending a vocal track
or a keyboard track out to a guitar amp with a touch of distn for a different "flavor".
just think of all the variable possibilities in conjunction with ptw's built in fx.
mebe u have a reverby bathroom somewhere.
send a track out to it via a speaker, then experiment with
a mic in the reverby bathroom (or stairwell ) or whatever.
(i'm just trying to get you to think about possibilities for extending your fx palette.
the speaker in a reverby space is an old trick...lol,.)
16. be leery of midi THRU on devices.
it can cause a problem.
lets say for example, you have a few external midi modules being driven from ptw.
instead of daisy chaining them useing midi thru's.
consider getting a midi splitter box with a number of midi outs on it.
so each out goes to midi in of a module.
(more to come).