I've learned now how to create "multiriffs" for a complete track. I've not yet learned how to create and/or choose riffs for a smaller passage. That will come later, though pointers are welcome.
What I'm asking about here is if anybody has a "way of working" with them that works for you in a real-life mixing situation. It can seem like a lot of tracks to choose from/edit between and (while that's a good thing) it's daunting when I get to work.
Are you working on one track at a time? What else is "playing" while you make your selections? Do you keep the riffs on separate tracks, or edit and bounce?
Anything else that you struggled with at the beginning you think might be useful for a multiriffs beginner?
to generate for just part of a track use the 'from' and 'to' fields. i use multiriffs to generate solos in songs - say a verse as an instrumental break.
its quite easy to deal with a shorter section than a complete track. the program looks after making it sound good starting and ending rather than have phrases overlap and not finish properly.
when the multiriffs are generated, audition each one separately - the program will play the section of the song where you want the riff and the chosen riff itself and you can see how each 'fits'. you might like one or more version. you can choose several and edit them together - intro from one, ending from another etc later when you've imported them into separate tracks.
that's how I work. just be careful - when you are auditioning riffs don't hit the ok button which is a little too natural for my liking - you'll select the last riff you played and insert it without listening to the others! only hit ok when you've chosen the riff or riffs you want.
1st tip: Go to Options > Resolution. Change the resolution from the 120 default to the highest setting. This makes your highlight selections more precise. See top screen shot. User rharv first shared this tip.
2nd tip: When you open the Multi-riff window, check all the boxes. You're likely replacing a passage you don't care for so don't limit your options. You want seven multi-riffs. You want to hear each multi-riff separately. You want to send each multi-riff to an empty track so you can mute, compare and choose. If you find two multi-riffs you like you can easily copy and paste the second multi-riff to a different part of the song timeline.
Normally I use MultiRiffs by highlighting the section I want to work on, generating the MultiRiffs, then listen to each generated track along with the mix one at a time. (Mute the others so you can listen to one at a time with the rest of the backing tracks)
Note what you like about each one.
Copy/Paste the sections you like to a new track to build a brand new 'comp' track. Remember you can copy measures 34 & 35 and paste them to 38 & 39 if you want .. it doesn't have to be used where it was generated; you can use any part wherever you think it would fit.
Sometimes I hear a lick at the 3rd generated bar that I think would work at the 8th bar (or whatever) .. guess my point is you need to listen (audition) them and then use what you like. If you want, you can do another multiriff generation after assembling your first comp'd track to see if you get anything better you can add/replace.
This method is also used with live tracks here; get a bunch of takes and assemble what you like. As Jim mentioned; the Resolution setting can make a difference in the results when editing like this. Better precision when cutting, pasting etc.
Make your sound your own! .. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Thanks so much, Gentlemen. I'll get the "selection" down eventually.
Yes it is a lot like cutting between different live takes.
Some issues/questions:
1. When I select "all" riffs, it seems that one appears below the track I'm working on and the remainder get pushed to the bottom of the board.
2. At least when multi-riffing the entire track, there's a lot of duplication in bars. I understand why, and I'm guessing honing in on a selection will eliminate that and deliver 2-7 completely different riffs?
3. Does using the "bar" or "chord" view (as opposed to the track view) change anything about multi-riffing? Make it easier, more difficult, impossible?
I think I might be well served to eliminate some tracks when I'm doing this to avoid track clutter. Then work on one track at a time as needed and save it when ready, repeat and rinse with other tracks, then load up what I have in DAW of choice. Like most things I do, that may be the hard way.
I think I might be well served to eliminate some tracks when I'm doing this to avoid track clutter. Then work on one track at a time as needed and save it when ready, repeat and rinse with other tracks, then load up what I have in DAW of choice.
Yeah, I try to focus on one at a time. Anything more would be too confusing for my simple mind.
Make your sound your own! .. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
You're getting some good tips. I've found that multi riff is best for small chunks or phrases of audio. Generation time for creating the seven riffs is much faster and you get a more realistic and unique phrasing. It's great for solos, but also works marvously with creating alternate rhythms and eliminating repetitious and common rhythms that are duplicating too often. Multi riffs take daunting tasks down to simple and quick editing. An example, consider you have worked on a particular fiddle solo part and nothing is working. You've spent more than a few minutes multi riffing the section without any success. Select multi riff again and this time replace the fiddle instrument with a mandolin. Multi riff will dutifully generate seven mandolin parts and may solve your issue with one pass. No need to generate an entire mandolin part.
Another way to quickly edit a section is to complete a search by artist and locate other similar instruments the artist is playing. You may find the artist playing the same guitar with a different strumming or fingerpicking pattern and you can generate multi riffs of those instruments creating a seamless and completely unique part for your song without having to load and generate entire tracks.
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