How Many 'Tracks' Will I Need?

[montydad5000]

OK, I'm getting there.  I'm still a little puzzled by how the whole 'virtual track' thing works.  It seems like I can't play back more than 4 tracks at a time so I will have to do this in steps.

I have an original song that I want to try out on this thing.  How many overall tracks will I need for this?...

Rhythm guitar - clean (ideally in stereo)

Rhythm guitar - fuzz (ideally in stereo)

Bass - played on my Roland XP-50 keyboard...plugged into the 'guitar' jack

Vocals - my mic is also plugged into the 'guitar' jack because it's the only one that fits...and I like that first effect!  I want to get this into stereo, however.

Keyboard - Roland XP-50 plugged into...you guessed it...the 'guitar' jack.

Drums - I was going to play these on the Roland but I think I might try to arrange the drums on-board now that I have read the article here on how to do that.

I guess I'm looking for the 'idiot's guide' on how to do this many tracks.  The guy at Guitar Center told me I was trying to do too much with it, but after hearing the 'demo' song, I don't think so.

Any input would be appreciated.

Oh, and my recording area is in the basement.  The computer is upstairs, so this will all have to be on-board until I'm ready to transfer the whole thing onto the PC.

Thanks!

- M

[64Guitars]

The Micro BR has 4 tracks. Each of these are comprised of 8 v-tracks, of which only one can be selected at a time. When you create a new song, v-track 1 is selected on each track by default.

In the following, I'll use the convention of Tr3v2 to mean Track 3 with v-track 2 selected.

• Record your clean rhythm guitar to Tr1v1 and Tr2v1.
• Record your fuzz rhythm guitar to Tr3v1 and Tr4v1.
• Bounce Tr1v1, Tr2v1, Tr3v1, and Tr4v1 to Tr3v2 and Tr4v2 (see page 50 and 51 of the Micro BR manual). After the bounce, Tr3v2 and Tr4v2 will contain a stereo mix of your first four tracks and v2 will be selected as the current v-track for tracks 3 and 4 so that the stereo mix is ready for playback. Also, the current v-track for tracks 1 and 2 will be incremented to v2 so that you're ready to record on those tracks.
• Record your bass to Tr1v2. I would imagine that the XP-50's output is stereo and you'll want to record the keyboard parts in stereo (except the bass - stereo would be pointless for bass). You also want your vocals in stereo, but there's only one track available (Tr2v2). So...
• Bounce Tr1v2, Tr3v2, and Tr4v2 to Tr3v3 and Tr4v3.
• Record stereo vocals to Tr1v3 and Tr2v2 (the v-tracks don't have to be the same on each track).
• Bounce Tr1v3, Tr2v2, Tr3v3 and Tr4v3 to Tr3v4 and Tr4v4.
• Record stereo keyboard to Tr1v4 and Tr2v3.
• Bounce Tr1v4, Tr2v3, Tr3v4, Tr4v4, and the drum arrangement to Tr3v8 and Tr4v8. This is your final stereo mix.
• Optionally, master from Tr3v8 and Tr4v8 to Tr3v7 and Tr4v7 to apply Mastering Tool Kit effects.

If this isn't clear, read this page:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/V-Tracks_and_Bouncing.html

It's written for the BR-864 but the same principals apply on the Micro BR. It just has half as many tracks (the BR-864 has 8 tracks).

[montydad5000]

Hey, thanks for the great explanation!  I will take a look at all of this tonight and see if I can figure it out.

Thank you.

M

[Pedro]

Welcome to the forum M!

If you follow 64Guitars great post you will get a great sounding recording. Just a few notes:

The guitars, vocals or bass tracks don't get any real improvement by being recorded stereo, unless you are using a flanger or other weird stereo effect. If you are not, save some track space and record mono. I assure you they will sound great. Keyboard and drums may benefit from stereo though.

The key factor for making complex recordings is bouncing. Once you figured it out you can do everything. 30 tracks of vocals if you want! And there is no sound loss which is the great benefit of the Digital era.

I sometimes get a bit frustrated when I look at Micro BR's thinking that I may never fully use it.

Good luck with your recording! Any doubt or question you have don't hesitate to post it.

[64Guitars]

The guitars, vocals or bass tracks don't get any real improvement by being recorded stereo, unless you are using a flanger or other weird stereo effect. If you are not, save some track space and record mono. I assure you they will sound great. Keyboard and drums may benefit from stereo though.

Actually, it depends on whether you're using the Delay effect or not. Take a look at page 66 of the Micro BR manual. Any effect that has Delay turned on will sound much better in stereo if the Type is set to TAP (see page 67). And any time you connect a stereo source such as a keyboard into the Line In/Mic input, you'll probably want to record to two tracks to maintain the stereo. A lot of keyboards are stereo and sound better recorded to two tracks.

The flanger and other effects don't seem to matter on the Micro BR. They're mono anyway. This surprises me because many such effects are stereo in the other BR models. Chorus, flanger, doubling, harmonist, pitch shifter, tremolo/pan, delay, and acoustic processor are all stereo in my BR-864.

But you're right. Because of the limited number of tracks on the Micro BR, you shouldn't record in stereo when it's not necessary. So, if a guitar or anything else is plugged into the guitar input and the Delay is turned off, just use one track.

I assume the Roland MX-50 keyboard is stereo, so it would probably be best to connect it to the Line In jack using a suitable adapter and record to two tracks.

[Pedro]

Actually, it depends on whether you're using the Delay effect or not. Take a look at page 66 of the Micro BR manual. Any effect that has Delay turned on will sound much better in stereo if the Type is set to TAP (see page 67).

Cool! Didn't knew that. Thanks for clearing that out. From now on stereo guitar only when using Delay.