Multi-track lightweight

WayneM wrote on 4/2/2011, 10:06 AM
A pianist and composer friend is in need of some help and I'm trying to fill the bill.

He has written several compositions and not being able to afford a full orchestra or string section has "recorded" the accompaniment on a synth. He has tried playing the synth and then playing piano live and recording the combo. It does give asense and I think it is right to try to do it better. I could haul my 24-track Mackie digital to his apartment, but what I would rather do is record the synth directly to a track, then do playback and have he play live with it.

For portable work I have Sound Forge 9.0e and Vegas Pro 8.0c on a good laptop and an M-Audio Fast Track Pro. That software and the Fast Track Pro (2-channel, not the unreliable 4-track unit) are very stable and I have recorded dozens of hours of live concerts for CD release with them.

I think I might be able to do the playback and live recording of him on either Sound Forge or Vegas, but am not sure about that. The reason I would like to have the synth pre-recorded is so I have two-tracks I can record with the FTPro.

With either SF or Vegas, can I do playback of a track and record two tracks at the same time?

Worst case I may just do the Synth playback and record directly with him on phones as he accompanies live and use a single mike for the grand piano.

Suggestions appreciated!

Wayne

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 4/2/2011, 3:29 PM
Vegas will record as many tracks as your sound interface can handle.
Synth tracks will need to be laid down as WAV, not MIDI to import to Vegas.
Latency can be an issue when recording live to a reference track.
Turn off anything that could be loading the CPU and tweak your audio buffers as necessary.
WayneM wrote on 4/3/2011, 3:41 PM
Thanks. Would it be possible to first record a Synth track with Vegas (8.0c), then play back the Synth track while recording the piano live on another track?

I know much depends on the interface. If the latency is constant I could shift one track. It's all sounding complex enough maybe I'll just pack up the 24-track digital and do it the right way :-)

Thanks
musicvid10 wrote on 4/3/2011, 4:38 PM
"Thanks. Would it be possible to first record a Synth track with Vegas (8.0c), then play back the Synth track while recording the piano live on another track?"

Yes, as I said, as long as your record the synth as an AUDIO track, not MIDI.
Vegas does not support midi instruments, period..
LarryP wrote on 4/3/2011, 6:31 PM
Wayne,

If you record a reference track, sometimes called a click track, and use that as the reference for all other tracks the latency should be manageable especially with ASIO drivers. A 512 byte buffer is about 12ms. of latency which isn't usually noticeable except for maybe for an occasional drummer. Using the same reference track prevents latencies from building up.

The artists I record also appreciate Vegas's punch in record to do retakes or, as is often the case, to pick up from a flub. Punch in is pretty fluid which makes for a good recording session.

Be careful to have only 1 path for monitoring, either Vegas or the M-audio hardware if it supports it.

I've found Vegas great for studio style recording as well as 24 track events. Have fun!

Larry