Mixing/Mastering EP/Album in one session or multiple?

[JasinElric]

How do you guys manage this kind of problems?

Don't start a gigantic project on a laptop. It's a laptop. I don't care how amazing the specs are.

 

[egan.]

Don't start a gigantic project on a laptop. It's a laptop. I don't care how amazing the specs are.

I've only owned laptops for the past 5 years. No complaints.

 

[anotherpaul]

Don't start a gigantic project on a laptop. It's a laptop. I don't care how amazing the specs are.

That's very helpful, thank you.

 

[B36arin]

I've only owned laptops for the past 5 years. No complaints.

I have a new Macbook Pro Retina, I'd claim that it runs a lot better than our three year old Mac Pro at the studio.

 

[JasinElric]

Excuse me for hating on laptops. It just doesn't seem wise to put so much stock into a piece of equipment that if one component burns out or breaks its nearly impossible to replace. IMO/YMMV all that shit.

 

[anotherpaul]

Well duh. However I can take it with me to record on location and to play backtracks on stage, blah blah blah. Anyway, I'm still looking for a method to easily freeze/print parts of the track that would allow me to have several songs in one Reaper project.

 

[DanLights]

Any Reaper users here?

I'm currently doing each song in a separate session using the same template as a starting point. Though all in one seems like a legit thing to do to ensure the consistency of settings and sound throughout the record. What bothers me is that I have to do a lot of "track freezing" because my laptop can't handle all the processing, ampsims, VSTi's and such. Sadly, I haven't found a way to "freeze" track within time selection in Reaper that could be helpful in "all songs in one session" approach. There is an way to render track contents to WAV, put it on a new track and mute the original, but this would lead to a very cluttered workspace. How do you guys manage this kind of problems?

You can hit "apply FX to item" or something like that, and it only "freezes" the selected item(s) instead of the whole track. But, then you'd have to turn off FX when listening to the frozen item and turn them on when listening to the not frozen item, otherwise you'll hear one with double fx or the other one raw.

 

[anotherpaul]

You can hit "apply FX to item" or something like that, and it only "freezes" the selected item(s) instead of the whole track. But, then you'd have to turn off FX when listening to the frozen item and turn them on when listening to the not frozen item, otherwise you'll hear one with double fx or the other one raw.

Thanks! It's actually quite neat since "apply track fx" adds a rendered take to each item. That allows for quick toggling between the raw/processed versions of the item. It seems like a possible solution using some custom actions.

Although, I feel like maybe I should be doing all CPU-heavy stuff that is basically pre-mixing (sample replacement, VSTi's, ampsim's) in a separate project and then only use ready-to-mix tracks in one big session.
Does anybody also do these things during mixing? What's the common approach?

 

[Marcolobo]

I've tried to use an only session for tracking and mixing, i can't. I feel like something is not OK with that, maybe it's just some kind of an organization plan i've made through this time.
I track in separated sessions, mix in separated sessions, and master in one session, importing all the mixed tracks, this way i can take a look to the different songs each time i need to.
Cheers!

 

[tempe]

I'm a one song per session kind of guy. Import session data in PT makes things really easy, also if anything goes wrong in the session worst case scenario is that you only lose one song. Also the way PT deals with tempo maps it can be a real pain to make small tempo adjustments, it generally pushes all the other markers out. I'd hate to have to remap an entire project halfway through.

 

[Siriun]

Excuse me for hating on laptops. It just doesn't seem wise to put so much stock into a piece of equipment that if one component burns out or breaks its nearly impossible to replace. IMO/YMMV all that shit.

Not true at all. The only specs on a laptop that would be nearly impossible to replace would be the motherboard or video. But if we're talking about putting equipment into a laptop to boost it than that's all replaceable.

 

[Michael Wenz]

Im about to do 10 songs and pondering what is the best way for this project. Last album I did it in one Pro Tools session and I deactivated all the tracks to save on UAD and system resources. Worked well.. I did end up making separate versions on the home stretch. I think I will make one master track so I can compare the songs as I go... Ok I start now! One screen PT12

 

[Michael Wenz]

Ok maybe not! The bussing is too complicated.... Have to find a happy medium. Got me thinking!

 

[Lost Tribes of Cheekowara]

As far as tracking and production goes my brother Željko and I done it both ways, everything in one session and every track separately. But as far as mixing and mastering process goes, every track has to go in separate project. Now I would like to ask one particular question, that is very interesting to me and that is: How much difference between individual tracks (songs) on one album/EP you tolerate or you are willing to make?

Damir

 

[Kaza]

Don't start a gigantic project on a laptop. It's a laptop. I don't care how amazing the specs are.

I would take this with a grain of salt. A string processor is a strong processor. My laptop is an i5 8 GB RAM and I record at 48k and do big ass sessions.

Been doing it that way for years

It's ALL about the specs... Not if it's the shape of a box or a notebook....lol