Keeping track of, well, tracks?

[rbhsjr]

Last night I did my first recording of a choir - which went well but I came across an issue which when I think about it, I should have had before. The director wanted to have all parts sing at the same time. No problem. 5 mics used. But after doing three takes - when I go to mix - how do I know which ones were done when? What's the best way to keep track of all the takes (in Basic)? Thanks

Rutherford

[Dave Labrecque]

Last night I did my first recording of a choir - which went well but I came across an issue which when I think about it, I should have had before. The director wanted to have all parts sing at the same time. No problem. 5 mics used. But after doing three takes - when I go to mix - how do I know which ones were done when? What's the best way to keep track of all the takes (in Basic)? Thanks

Rutherford

Not sure what you mean by which were done when. First take is first, second take is second... :confused:

[Kimbo]

If you're doing several takes in Basic either put them in seperate folders , the second take being (song title ,take 2) etc., or if you are only using 5 mics make the first 5 tracks take 1 ,then mute and make tracks 6 thru 10 take 2 etc. hope that helps

[Bob L]

You can also learn to use the Multi-Take Record Loop function and the regions will actually be marked as take numbers.

Read the helpfile section in the Recording To The MT section.

Bob L

[sebastiandybing]

You need to use the cue location window,
before recording a take you hit Q on the keybord and then N on the keybord,
type in a take number eg. 1 and then a start and end messure if you know before reording. It could look like this 1 M1-M64 or letters, many scores use letters, like this 1 M1-LC.

Also make sure you got a copy of the score to write whats good or not so good. I write things like -1 or +1 above the system so it is easy to see whats
working or not.

the cue location can also be activated doing the recording.

Sebastian

[Bob L]

You can also select the five regions you just created for take one... then use the Region Rename function on the Regions Menu to label them as Take 1... then after Take 2 do the same... etc.... each group of Regions will be renamed together in the one operation.

Bob L

[JonathanT]

Looking at the folder of wav files in Windows Explorer (details view) will give you the time each one was created - would this help?

Jonathan

[rbhsjr]

Thanks for all the ideas, I should have been a little clearer. The concert was last week and this was a "cleaning up" session. The chior simply sang the vocal parts "overdubbing" what was there. As I learned quickly -if the director wanted two or three takes to choose from later, I didn't know how to pick the 1st take vs the 2nd due to me simply repositioning the curser on the timeline and recording again.

Kimbo, I already had 20 tracks used already so I couldn't do it that way.

Bob, I'll read up on the multi take record loop function. Just hadn't thought of it before.

Thanks

[Bob L]

That situation is what layers are all about... if this is something that will come up for you in the furtue often... then a jump up to Lite or Full may be of interest... you can do that easily with the GFA plan if desired.

With Layers... you would simply record the first take and then switch to a new layer on the vocal tracks... then record another take and so on... when finished, you can then switch between takes on the fly while playing back... then you can choose between the takes and easily build a composite layer of the best parts of each take.... its an awesome solution for just the situation you encountered. :)

Bob L

[rbhsjr]

Bob

I agree but I just tried the multi-take and that seems to be the ticket for me right now. Thanks.


Rutherford

[rbhsjr]

If I record the takes on tracks 1, 3, and 4 - when I go to insert say the regions of take two to replace the regions that are there with shift and insert - it inserts them on 1, 2, and 3 and not 1, 3, and 4. And it inserts at the multitrack cursor position not the original record position. Am I missing something?

Rutherford

[Bob L]

The takes are labeled as to which take number and what TRK was the original... you can place them back on any track...

The shift-insert key works in this manner when multiple regions are selected... it inserts at the original timestamp position (when stamped as in recorded regions)... and it inserts from the hottrack down... so... you would want to adjust all your multi-take record tracks to be adjacent to each other by re-ordering them if they are not contiguous to begin with... then select the first of those tracks as the hottrack... then select an entire group of take number regions and use the Shift-Insert combo... it will insert at the original timestamp position and from the hottrack down.

Changing from take to take is as simple as selecting the next group of take regions... listed in sequence in the Regions list and re-inserting them in the same manner... the new take regions will replace the previous ones on the multitrack.

Bob L

[Grekim]

Timestamping is stored in the edl, right? Because I lose the @ symbol when I import a file recorded in a different edl. The workaround is just to "export tracks to soundfiles" I guess.

[sebastiandybing]

I also use the layers and multi take function when dubbing solo´s or short pasage. But when it comes to dubbing a hole song with many tracks, I find it easyer to record down the timeline, this way I can use the cue location
to keep track of takes and then usesing locator 1-4 for fast jumping between
different takes at a specific messure in order to find the best parts.

In your case I would copy the 20 tracks you already have 3 or 4 times down the time line and give them a cue location each.

When finish recording I would rename the regions, and then make a editing group. I would then simply copy/paste the best parts together after the last take.

Sebastian

[Dave Labrecque]

If I understand you right, after the fact you could always double-click on a region (from a certain take) and look at the resulting position of the cursor within the underlying sound file to get an idea of relative time of that take with respect to the others. This will work only if you wrote to the same sound file for all takes. Each successive takes data will be later in the underlying sound file. In a few minutes you could ctrl-U each region (update name), labeling each one with it's respective take number for instant identification thereafter.