question about formatting in production

[DTMFL]

I'm looking to do something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbIw48L-Yg


for those who don't watch it, basically the guy produces a song (more of a beat) and takes it directly across the street to a studio to record.

My question is about the formatting, is he taking this to the studio in midi format, or just cutting the whole loop to a single audio track and then adding vocals (as in the next video on the side)?

And if he is taking it as a single track.... say in .wav format. is the studio doing any equalizing or mastering on it aside from vocals? or is that something that he already did while producing the beat (or not at all... when I listen to the song I'm not really sure, it sounds like he may have only equalized the volume but I could be wrong)?

I was thinking about doing it this way
produce beat>equalize volumes>equalize beat frequency as best I can in my home studio> bring to studio to finish.

If it's done this way how would mastering come into play? should I just use midi when I go to a studio and bring the plugins and synth, or cut each individual track to an audio format beforehand?


or perhaps I should just do the beat, adjust volumes and forget about the rest.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

[Cuica man]

is he taking this to the studio in midi format

Only if the studio has the same plugins/ instruments.

how would mastering come into play?

Mastering is something you do after tracking and mix down.

forget about the rest

?

[DangerousDave]

I am pretty sure he is just taking his beat over to the studio to use as a backing track to sing to, he probably records the vocals separately and then will take the vox back to his computer and then mix the vocals into the mix accordingly. In other words, he will finish the production after he gets the vocals recorded. I would bet he does just simple leveling on the mix to leave some room for the vocals but again, finishes the track once all the pieces are in place. This is all speculation but this seems like the most logical way to do things.

[DTMFL]

thank you very much for the responses.

so I gather that it would be best to use .wav format to bring it to the studio. And then they are probably giving a .wav audio file back with just vocals so he can mix and master it?

I'm guessing they aren't using project files unless they have the same DAW. If I brought my ableton song to a studio using pro tools, how would they want me to bring it in to work on? if I have it recorded as a .wav file in itunes are they able to separate out all the tracks for mastering or is it already a single audio track that can't be separated?

[Cuica man]

If I brought my ableton song to a studio using pro tools, how would they want me to bring it in to work on?

I've been researching that a lot lately... For the best quality, you should export the files as individual tracks with all of your plugins and volumes rendered in each track.
iTunes only works with stereo tracks. (Except video 5.1 surround). Export directly from your DAW.

[DTMFL]

Would they also be in .wav format, basically a cd with audio tracks that are individual instruments?

or are you saying put it in a folder and then burn it to a disk or a flash drive to bring to the studio?


1) also another question I've had about recording drums is, should I use separate midi tracks for the snare cymbals kick and toms ( a total of 4 tracks)? and result in an audio track for each category. Or is it even better to go as far as to record each cymbal or tom in it's own track.

On the last project I went in, recorded each one separately in midi and then converted them all to audio separately and it took a long time to do this, is there a better way to record the whole drum kit on one midi track and then break it up into it's separate components when converting to audio? I've seen some guys produce and complete songs for mastering much faster than I do (but every song I get a little better). I'd like to pick up some extra tricks.

My setup includes a roland synth, a studio mic, an apogee and Ableton. At this point my process has been to do everything in midi and then convert to audio.

I want to get good quality, but at the same time complete my songs in a timely manner (goal is my first fully produced album soon, to be mastered by a studio). The reason I used that video to start the thread is because that's a similar setup and idea as to what I'm looking for.


again, I would like to thank everyone for the responses. all these tips have really helped me out.

[DangerousDave]

1. Let's not worry about mastering right now, this is the absolute last stage of music production and is almost a moot point in this case, we will worry about mixing, getting the levels right, etc.

2. Again, I think he ONLY uses the beat audio track to sing to, as a reference, then he could take the recorded WAV audio vocals that he records in the studio back to his computer where he would then continue to mix and produce the track. This would allow him to still use midi and tweak things instead of converting both the beat and the vocals to audio and then mix them that way. I always like to stay with midi as long as I can in the process so I always have the option of adjustment and change.

3. Most people set up drums in racks or groups, with a separate channel for each individual instrument (i.e. tom, snare, kick, cymbals, and hats) and either have a grouped set of audio tracks routed into one drum submix, or as I do it with drum racks. There is no need to bounce this to audio unless you want to, again I tend to stick to midi unless I have a need to bounce to an audio track.

4. As far as quality is concerned, your ability to accurately mixdown, level, and produce the sounds you are using well will effect your mix by about 90% imo. The sound quality of your recorded audio (since you are using direct line in recording) shouldn't be much of an issue in this case. I will say if you use midi though, then sound quality really doesn't become an issue, aside from your sound design and production abilities.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

[DTMFL]

Dave, your post just made me realize that I've been making my production process too complicated. That's a much more logical approach.


thank you

[sounddevisor]

Hey, DTMFL -

When you're going into another studio to work, a good practice is to always talk to them ahead of time, either by email or better by phone, and find out exactly what their set-up is - what DAW they are using, what computer hardware, what kind of files would they like you to bring, what media formats can they read (Flash drive, Firewire drive, etc.) That way when you show up there are no rude surprises or time wasted converting media formats or whatnot that could have been done ahead of time.

Another thing that I don't think was mentioned in the thread (and sorry if you already know this, but just to be safe) - when you save your Ableton tracks out as .wavs, make sure that ALL the tracks that you render start at time 0:00 of your session. In other words, if you have, say, a guitar part that doesn't come in until halfway through the song, you still want to render out that track all the way from the beginning of your song. That way, if you are bringing the files into Pro Tools (or Logic or whatever DAW) you can just drop all you tracks in, line them all up at the beginning of the session, and they will be perfectly aligned.

And one more thing with rendering out tracks - if you are printing any effects like reverb or delay, make sure that whatever track they are on renders all the way to the end of the reverb or delay tail at the end of your song. If you set the endpoint of your render by selecting tracks in the Arrange window, you can end up with cut-off tails.

[DTMFL]

ok, so render each individual track from beginning of song to end. I'm thinking I can take them all and throw them in a folder on a flash drive and that will do the trick. Definitely will save time arranging the song in the studio, I hadn't thought of that yet.

thank you