Few track copy/save questions...

[dragonshade]

64.....

Again, thank you so much. The time you took, and detail to clarify this is much appreciated. I have absolutely NO recording/mixing experience.... now I understand much better.

I did do a search for Boss Micro BR tutorial... and within the first 3 responses was your site. So I had already checked out some of it.
You know you could write "Idiots guide to the Micro BR" 

One last thing if I may....in this example.....

.............. I have a stereo backing track. It is on track 1/2. I want to record a guitar intro solo, so I record it on track 3. Now I want to bounce these to 1/2v2. Only thing is the backing track is a whole song... 6 minutes, the intro solo is 40 seconds. When I do the bounce after the solo can I stop the bounce at that time? ...or do I have to bounce the whole 6 min song?

[64Guitars]

I have a stereo backing track. It is on track 1/2. I want to record a guitar intro solo, so I record it on track 3. Now I want to bounce these to 1/2v2. Only thing is the backing track is a whole song... 6 minutes, the intro solo is 40 seconds. When I do the bounce after the solo can I stop the bounce at that time? ...or do I have to bounce the whole 6 min song?

You can press Stop at any time while bouncing. But, of course, it will stop all of the tracks, so the result of the bounce will be only the first 40 seconds of the backing track mixed with the guitar solo. If you want the entire 6-minute backing track with the guitar solo mixed in for the first 40 seconds, then you'll have to let the song play for the full 6 minutes in bounce mode before you press Stop.

[Dmann]

 IMO your best bet would be to use the 3rd (solo) track as much as possible throughout the whole song before bouncing. What I mean by this is lay down the 1st solo, then FFWD to the next solo part and lay that one down etc etc. You could also use the empty spaces in between the solos to lay additional rhythm sessions.

 Or if your dead set on laying that solo then bouncing it, do so, then just alternate between T12V1 and T12V2 as your rhythm (backing tracks) overwriting when you bounce to conserve memory space, while using T3&T4V1-8 for laying additional sessions. This is the nice thing about the MicroBR and digital recording as there is no loss in quality no matter how many times you bounce.

 This is one of the few limitations of the MicroBR, that being you can only playback, bounce or master 4 tracks at once. What many people do however is record many many tracks and then export each track individually to your computer and use a 3rd party program such as audicity to mix them together.

[64Guitars]

alternate between T12V1 and T12V2 as your rhythm (backing tracks) overwriting when you bounce to conserve memory space

The BR never actually overwrites anything. Instead, it always writes to an empty memory area, then un-links the original material (but doesn't erase it). That's why you can always undo your last operation (it merely re-links the old material and un-links the new). You won't save any memory card space by re-using tracks unless you perform a Song Optimize to purge the old data. So, you might as well bounce to a different pair of tracks each time. It will use the same amount of card space and you'll still have your earlier bounces available in case you decide to go back to one of them.

But your point of deferring the bounce until it's necessary is correct. You should always try to make the best use of all four tracks before you bounce.

Another interesting point that some people may not be aware of is that you don't have to record sections of the song where you're not playing. For example, if you have a 6-minute backing track on Tr12v1 and you want to record a guitar solo from, say, 3:17 to 3:42 on track 3, you don't have to press Record at 0:00 on track 3 and record silence until the solo starts at 3:17. Instead, you can press Play and listen to the backing track (from 0:00 or from anywhere before 3:17), then press Record just before the counter reaches 3:17 and play your solo. After the solo, you can press Stop right away (or Record to cancel record mode and return to play mode). There's no need to record silence from 3:42 to the end of the song. This technique is known as manual punch-in and punch-out. The BR also has an Auto punch-in/out feature where you can pre-set the punch-in point at, say, 3:15 and the punch-out point at, say, 3:45, then rewind and press Play. With Auto punch turned on, the BR will automatically enter record mode at 3:15, then return to play mode at 3:45.

[dragonshade]

Thanks guys.

I had kinda thought of that.... (do all parts that you can through the song also, then bounce). This does bring in the question of why would it be best to wait on the bouncing (keeping it to a minimum of bounces). Is that just for saving V-track save space, or is there a degredation of quality from every bounce?


I had a weird thing happen last night. I recorded a mono guitar on track 3, a mono guitar on track 4, and a stereo recording on tracks 1&2. I then bounced them to V2-1/2.

When I was trying to set the pan it looked like this....

L50=R50 L50=R50

The 3/4 channels (even though mono, and recorded separately) were "linked". I could not adjust them independantly. I know the 1/2 should be linked (being stereo), but 3/4 should not be correct??

[64Guitars]

This does bring in the question of why would it be best to wait on the bouncing (keeping it to a minimum of bounces).

Once you bounce, you can no longer adjust the relative levels of the individual tracks used in the bounce unless you redo the bounce from those original tracks. For example, let's say you record bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar and vocals to four tracks, set the levels of each track for the best overall mix, then bounce them. Then you add some keyboards and some more guitar but you now find that the vocals seem a bit subdued with the addition of the two new tracks. How can you boost the vocals without also boosting the bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar which are mixed with it? You can't, unless you redo the bounce from the original four tracks. But that's tricky because you won't be able to hear the two new tracks (keys and guitar) while you're mixing, so you'll have to guess at how much to boost the vocals. It's the same with panning, EQ, effects, etc. While you're working with four separate tracks, you can adjust these settings as much as you like to tweak the overall sound to your liking. But once you've bounced, you can no longer adjust these settings on each track independently as they're already 'cast in stone' in the mix. So it's best not to bounce until you have to. The Micro BR is limited by its 4-channel mixer. My BR-864 has an 8-channel mixer so I don't have to bounce as often, but I wish it had 16 channels or more.

I had a weird thing happen last night. I recorded a mono guitar on track 3, a mono guitar on track 4, and a stereo recording on tracks 1&2. I then bounced them to V2-1/2.

When I was trying to set the pan it looked like this....

L50=R50 L50=R50

The 3/4 channels (even though mono, and recorded separately) were "linked". I could not adjust them independantly. I know the 1/2 should be linked (being stereo), but 3/4 should not be correct??

You can toggle the stereo linking off on tracks 3 and 4. See page 41 of the Micro BR manual.