General approach on managing Time Usage

[The StabbinCabin]

I try and keep things like sims and other demanding plugs to a minimum- but I'm not sure if I'm alone when I'm in a session and find myself spending a little more time that I would like freezing and bouncing tracks, while the client is just kind of chilling.

Anyway, this recent session I had got a little stressful- I tried to tackle getting the drums done first and then focus on guitars layered with delays/verbs and then reamp when they were done- but I kind of got stuck in that thing where I started processing in the middle of tracking, so things got bogged down pretty quickly. Going back and forth from freezing/unfreezing 4-5 times was pretty crappy because we were switching guitars and punching in as ideas started rolling in. Moderate instances of Lecto/ect with verb/delay busses. Collectively out of the five days we were tracking, I think we got a good 60+ mins of rendering throughout. I felt kind of embarrassed but I wasn't sure if that was a normal thing or moreso on myself for not managing all of that better.

How are you guys managing keeping that under control during sessions? How much time are you guys spending on average bouncing/consolidating?

I'm just wondering if there is any advice that could be shared to improve workflow during tracking- because I feel like I could do that better next time around.

Thanks duders

 

[JeffTD]

Absolutely none, tbh. This is one of the reasons I will not use sims while tracking; I can't afford the processing power on basic shit like distortion.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

Yeah but you gots da Kemper. I probably should split the DI and just record the amp next time huh...

 

[JeffTD]

That or run the sim on the input channel and duplicate that so you can record a baked sim and a DI at the same time. The issue with the sim for me mainly is that you've got to have the latency super low and your session running at 128 or so. Instead of dealing with that I just crank it up to 2048 so I get my full processing power and monitor the inputs.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

huh the title has nothing to to with the question. Are you using a daw that has to render plugins in realtime?

 

[aortizjr]

That is where amp sim plugins fail, especially with IR's and such. They just eat CPU for lunch, and all the freezing and dealing with that kills workflow which can kill inspiration.

But for tracking and inspiration you typically don't need the ultimate mix ready tone in most cases. If so, your clients are usually paying a lot more. You don't want it to suck, but you can do a lot with a POD, GSP1101, pedals, etc. The Kemper is awesome, but not totally necessary. Just make sure to take a DI for re-amping later... which is true pretty much always!

The other thing I do is not fully mix till mix time. While tracking, I will "mix" of course, but I try to use stock plugins and such that I know use very little CPU. It is good practice and you should be able to go a long way without using all the mojo plugins and analog modeling plugins. Often if you are really good about getting good sounds at the source, not as much mixing is required.

The biggest killer for me are Virtual Instruments. So you are stuck freezing those or just straight up printing them and saving the MIDI. But I use Cubase, so I can freeze easily while getting setup for the next take.

 

[Sloan]

How are you guys having problems running multiple vstis, amps sims, and fx with a computer put together within the last 5 years?

 

[JeffTD]

How are you guys having problems running multiple vstis, amps sims, and fx with a computer put together within the last 5 years?

4-6 rhythm tracks, 2-6 melody tracks, a lead track or three, etc... add up.

 

[mva801]

How are you guys having problems running multiple vstis, amps sims, and fx with a computer put together within the last 5 years?

And it's not just running them that's the issue, it's running them at the very small buffer sizes required to maintain an acceptable amount of latency.

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

Yeah but you gots da Kemper. I probably should split the DI and just record the amp next time huh...

That.. And then you could try something completely whacky and fuck'd up like actually try to record in something that doesn't need to be reamped / edited / processed later on.

Just a thought..

 

[rvs0002]

Pick up a used POD XT or X3 and record distortion track for listening back and punching in along with the DI all via usb. After you are done tracking you can get rid of all the scratch tracks and work with the DI's. Piece of cake.

 

[smy1]

That.. And then you could try something completely whacky and fuck'd up like actually try to record in something that doesn't need to be reamped / edited / processed later on.

Just a thought..

+1

 

[Sloan]

Are you guys using like lepou stuff for amp sims? Last project I finished I had 4 rhythm tracks, 2-3 leads, lots of Trigger instances and a lot of effects and didn't have any problems really.

 

[HOFX]

Pick up a used POD XT or X3 and record distortion track for listening back and punching in along with the DI all via usb. After you are done tracking you can get rid of all the scratch tracks and work with the DI's. Piece of cake.

+1.

 

[mva801]

Pick up a used POD XT or X3 and record distortion track for listening back and punching in along with the DI all via usb. After you are done tracking you can get rid of all the scratch tracks and work with the DI's. Piece of cake.

You don't need a pod. You can run your DI track through an aux with the amp sim on it. Just print that as you go, voila. Only one track with the sim. Then when you're done and can up your buffer size, and throw your sim on the DI tracks, or reamp or whatever.

So lets say your di is input one. Make two audio tracks, one with input one for the di and one with an input of a bus. Make an aux track (or whatever they're called in your daw) Set it's input to one. Set it's output to go to the other audio track's input. Put your sim here. Then you'll be recording the output of the sim, and you'll only need one. Much cheaper than a pod.

I think we've already suggested this, but if anyone wasn't sure, that's how you'd do it.

 

[Line666]

I usually just do guitars first to mitigate this and then crank the buffer after. Guitar players are usually who write the songs so they really set all the tempos anyway plus it's usually the drummers who suck at tracking to a click so it's good to give them a frame of reference, means I can also make any last minute arrangement adjustments without too much strain either.

 

[Line666]

Also, in general, recording is a lot of waiting around most of the time anyway, you can do a bit to mitigate that for people but I wouldn't get too stressed about it; it's kinda just the nature of the game.

 

[Alphanumeric]

Bounce out the mix put into single track on separate session and record sims to that?

 

[slo77y]

i try to cut down waiting time to a minimum... dont have problems with processing tbh, just buy a good machine, and you should be able to run enough ampsims to track a band. processing while tracking doesnt make that much sense to me either, i try to get the sounds good at the source and forbid myself any processing until im pretty satisfied with the tone i get. what helps with di tracking is creating an extra GTR track, that doesnt get recorded but always is in monitor mode with an amp on it. then record seperately to another track and send 2 guitars into one stereo instance of x50 etc.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

That.. And then you could try something completely whacky and fuck'd up like actually try to record in something that doesn't need to be reamped / edited / processed later on.

Just a thought..

lol no way