Recording sequenced audio from synths

Hello all.

I’m close to pulling the trigger on the Live. I want to be computer ‘free’ as much as possible. I’ve bought the mpc tutor bible already which has been very helpful. What I want to be able to do is trigger 4-5 external synths on different channels then once I have something I like record the output as audio from my mixer. Is the Live adept at doing this? I also have a Tascam recorder but it would be great if I could use the Live for this purpose.

Thanks.

I use the live in this respect.

What I do is make the synth parts as midi sequences first on the live until I'm ready to bounce to audio. I usually bounce each instrument individually (by muting the midi tracks of the synths I do not want to record audio from) and you can have up to 8 audio tracks. Very easy to do but the only drawback is that you can't overdub any audio tracks on the fly, just one shot recording: record+play start, stop, change track, rec+playstart

robirch wrote:Hello all.

I’m close to pulling the trigger on the Live. I want to be computer ‘free’ as much as possible. I’ve bought the mpc tutor bible already which has been very helpful. What I want to be able to do is trigger 4-5 external synths on different channels then once I have something I like record the output as audio from my mixer. Is the Live adept at doing this? I also have a Tascam recorder but it would be great if I could use the Live for this purpose.

Thanks.

The only issue you will encounter is there are only 2 MIDI outs. I use mackie vlz mixer to bus some of my external sound sources to my MPC. It has a no fuss one button press to send channels to an alternate output which I run into the Live. Regardless of what mixer you use or how you route the audio into the live, there are at least 3 ways to capture the incoming signals. You can record to the sampler, the looper, or an audio track. In the scenario you describe I usually record to the looper and export the captured audio as a sample.

yes it’s possible. you just need a midi patchbay or a midi splitter to record midi data of all synths without replugging. maybe it‘s even possible without that, if you use midi thru on your synths and build a chain.

Thanks for all the responses.

I bought it last weekend and already it's totally altered my perception of how songs can be put together. Yes, I could sequence and record stuff in, but I really also like the clip mode so I could just capture samples of musical passages from each instrument. Heck, I may even sample whole patches into it. So may options.

If you’re looking for a midi patchbay I can highly recommend the Roland UM 880

None of my synths ever get unplugged since I picked it up

plugged.in wrote:Very easy to do but the only drawback is that you can't overdub any audio tracks on the fly, just one shot recording: record+play start, stop, change track, rec+playstart

You can use the looper for that.

alexbuga wrote:

plugged.in wrote:Very easy to do but the only drawback is that you can't overdub any audio tracks on the fly, just one shot recording: record+play start, stop, change track, rec+playstart

You can use the looper for that.

Its why I always use it for this purpose and recommended it in this thread. If needed it can put bounced as a sample and loaded as an audio track after the over overdubs.

You could try this.

I actually have a Kawai Mav-8 which is one of the best purchases I ever made - I think it as $20 from a studio sale.

JeriKo Jackson wrote:

plugged.in wrote:Very easy to do but the only drawback is that you can't overdub any audio tracks on the fly, just one shot recording: record+play start, stop, change track, rec+playstart

Its why I always use it for this purpose and recommended it in this thread. If needed it can put bounced as a sample and loaded as an audio track after the over overdubs.

IIRC, using the looper you can only over dub a single track. I’m trying to overdub live on numerous audio tracks. Am I wrong in thinking this can’t be done?