Ableton Forum

i been wanting to ask this i have my formula but i want ot know what you guys do. Here it goes, after you make a beat you want an artist to record on, what do you do? do you mixdown the beat first then let the artist record or you just record without it being rendered to one track and then you do the vocals and the instruments at the same time?

This for hiphop type stuff?


If so - hit the close button and answer NO when it asks you to save

Khazul wrote:This for hiphop type stuff?


If so - hit the close button and answer NO when it asks you to save

if the vocalist is there with you recording the vocals I don't really see the need to bounce it down first unless you're trying to save on CPU or something.

I would just record them in. Unless you're working with someone remote (i do) then i bounce it down and send it to them so they can send vocals back for me to import.

Khazul wrote:This for hiphop type stuff?


If so - hit the close button and answer NO when it asks you to save

haha thats funny, that was a general question

Khazul wrote:This for hiphop type stuff?


If so - hit the close button and answer NO when it asks you to save

and if its housey-trance...
get some crackers and put reverb on the master outputs

and save that shit -----> and put it on myspace to join the cool kids.

and dont forget the highpass filter on the kick.

tempus3r wrote:if the vocalist is there with you recording the vocals I don't really see the need to bounce it down first unless you're trying to save on CPU or something.

I would just record them in. Unless you're working with someone remote (i do) then i bounce it down and send it to them so they can send vocals back for me to import.

I tend to mostly work with remote vocalists, and do what tempus3r does, bounce it to send to them and then get stems back from them to work with. It does depend on the track though. Often it can be easier to just work with a flattened audio and just focus on the vocal tracks

RhythmSickness wrote:

tempus3r wrote:if the vocalist is there with you recording the vocals I don't really see the need to bounce it down first unless you're trying to save on CPU or something.

I would just record them in. Unless you're working with someone remote (i do) then i bounce it down and send it to them so they can send vocals back for me to import.

I tend to mostly work with remote vocalists, and do what tempus3r does, bounce it to send to them and then get stems back from them to work with. It does depend on the track though. Often it can be easier to just work with a flattened audio and just focus on the vocal tracks

so you do your vocals in live or some other DAW?

PurpleHaze wrote: so you do your vocals in live or some other DAW?

Ah well it depends on the vocalist. Some of them use GarageBand to record. It really doesnt matter to me though as I just work with stems of audio that they provide. I tend to do all my sequencing in live where it involves working with stems.

yow can u explain something to me what are stems? i heard about stems but i am yet to graso what they really are, i have this vague idea in my head, that is stems are individual parts of the song recorded seperately then put together in a multitrack.

yeah thats basically what stems are, individual tracks or takes rendered out. They typically include silence to fill out the length of the track

Can somebody give me the exact date when the term "isolated tracks" became "stems"? I've been seeing the term stems pop up all over the place now and it's kind of getting on my nerves. Sounds like a hippy term that people use to sound cool. Maybe I need to grow the fuck up and evolve.

seems like a computer-musicism to me

RhythmSickness wrote:seems like a computer-musicism to me

To me it sounds like a catch phrase that appeared in a UK movie like Human Traffic and now everybody is using it.

beats me wrote:Can somebody give me the exact date when the term "isolated tracks" became "stems"? I've been seeing the term stems pop up all over the place now and it's kind of getting on my nerves. Sounds like a hippy term that people use to sound cool. Maybe I need to grow the fuck up and evolve.

I first herd the term when dealing with post work in a film score environment.
You might have several "Stems" premixed and sent out of the main mix so the sound to video editor will have some thing to work with,,
another application of the term is if you have a to record a larger ensemble next to a more traditional four piece but it's not convenient for all parties to be recorded at the same time,, so,, you would record the smaller arrangement and then use it as a guide while you record the larger section onto a multi track,, then this multi track would become a new stem group in the original arrangement.
To me the term stem indicates it's a simplified grouping of a more complex arrangement,, wether it's bounced or not is dependent of the situation that requires it.