Light bulb

[chip]

Yes folks, I have at last after ages of fiddling recorded 6 tracks. Bounced 4 tracks then recorded 2 more ( same song)  Then I just went for the master and everything became clear-ish. I must say the master tool kit does change the sound and I love it.. Anyway now I need to do the next bit.... The bit I am slightly confused about ( I have looked through the forum) I have the 4 tracks plus the other 2, bass, vocals, Do I need to bounce the lot again to  2 stereo tracks and if so where to? or do I just master the lot as they are and press export to wav?

Apoligies if this has been covered before ( which I am sure it has)  I know this sounds very simple but to me sorting the above out ( some of it anyway) was a major light bulb moment, one that has taken a considerable time to switch on...  I have sorted out using 4 tracks but now I find myself needing more and having read 64's,Geirs and everyone else's posts a million times on the subject I am nearly there, I just need the final push so to speak. Once I have the concept in hand I can then turn my hand to the drums.. Cheers for the help there Geir!.

Talking of drums for a moment... I can't quite get my head round,,, why I can't add the drums anyway I want after the song has been written and recorded rather than doing an arrangement before....Ok you can have a basic tempo but I want to put the fills etc in as the songs goes on, like , verse fill verse fill chorus fill verse fill etc very basic but making an arragement before the song has been created sounds like a problem

Cheers for now....

[Geir]

You're on the right track (pun intended)

you recorded 4 tracks ( T1V1 ... T4V1), then bounced these to T1V2 and T2V2 (or T3V2 and T4V2). and used the last two tracks on V2 to record two more tracks. Now you should bounce these 4 tracks (T1234V2) to two tracks (T12V3 or T34V3) then you can use the 2 free tracks on V3 to recod another two tracks .... and so on. you can of course overwrite the first tracks you bounced to when no longer needed, but I usually just keep bouncing to new tracks and if all 32 tracks are used I backup the song and delete some tracks to have room for more tracks.



Regarding the drums. I usually just make a simple arrangement (basic rhythm), and finish it with fills and start/end just before I add the bass.

[64Guitars]

An excellent description of bouncing on the Micro BR, Geir. However, if I understood the question, he wasn't asking about how to add more tracks. I think he said that he has recorded six tracks and the song is now finished. So what he's asking is whether he can go straight to mastering, or does he have to bounce first. The answer is that you can go straight to mastering. Bounce mode and mastering mode on the Micro BR do exactly the same thing except that mastering mode also allows you to add mastering effects. What both modes do is record the stereo output of the BR's built-in 4-channel mixer. So, if you've got the stereo mix from your first bounce on two of the playback tracks, plus bass and vocals on the other two playback tracks, then mastering mode will use as its input the stereo mix of those four playback tracks. No need to bounce first.

For the benefit of readers who do not have a Micro BR, I must point out that the above is not true for older BRs such as the BR-600/864/900. In those recorders, mastering mode doesn't use the output of the mixer as its input. Instead, you have to specify the two tracks to use as the mastering input and two more for the output. So, that means you always have to bounce before mastering. Bouncing creates the final 2-track mix. Then you master using those 2 tracks as input.

[chip]

Nice one lads... I thought that was the case..If I have say 8 tracks then that does need another bounce?. I like the live mix for electric guitar stuff and the dance compy thing last pre set for heavy disco bass beat stuff, not to keen on the others at the moment. The song I have finished (6 tracks) I have increased the bass ( disco type beat bass, heavy stuff) in the tool kit, I want real low thump bass... Are any of the others any use? the jangly one sounds harsh, flat sounds, well flat. I am not at all sure what the pre sets are supposed to replicate and what genre to use them for. One of these days I will get round to popping a song or three on here

[64Guitars]

Nice one lads... I thought that was the case..If I have say 8 tracks then that does need another bounce?

You'd need a second bounce before you could add tracks 7 and 8. But you still don't need a bounce immediately before mastering. Hopefully, these modifications of Geir's excellent graphic will make it clearer:


6 Tracks:

• Record tracks one through 4
• Bounce
• Add tracks 5 and 6
• Master

8 Tracks:

• Record tracks one through 4
• Bounce
• Add tracks 5 and 6
• Bounce
• Add tracks 7 and 8
• Master

[Geir]

Yes ! I misread the question. Good modifications and clarifications 64G !

And chip I too have the "Live" as my favourite and have also used "dance comp" or "dance mix" on some occations.

[chip]

 Cheers lads, great graphics... I have been upstairs playing and feel loads better about the silver one, It all, sort of came to me last night, after a smoke and a drink I took the plunge, after another smoke and another 3 drinks I was in master tool heaven. Before I knew it the time was 11 pm, never had so much fun with the MBR. I did the boucing before the nights other activities and thought I had blown it, but no it worked.

         All this would not have been possible had you people not been around, It is a credit to all that time is taken to explain all this in great detail for us old hippies. The future looks silver, I don't think I will be bothering with the new one just yet!!!   Cheers. Here is a photo of the band??? probably won't work??? or be to big.

[chip]

 Blimey it did work, so here are some more. One of my prize Possessions ' a roost session master 1973 hand built valve combo 'edit'' not for sale!!!, fully restored, re valved and cleaned up, apart from the pre amp valves( indian GEC mullard copies not bad either so we left them in, the amp was made in ' Southend On Sea UK') I'm the one on the left ( last photo) with ( for that night) the Danelectro.