mksphnx2001 wrote:Need a little input from some of yall. How do you guys prep your tracks in the 1000 for a studio session? I have this artist that has signed a deal with Sony/Universal and they want to buy a Beat I did, not sure how to prepare my files in the 1000 in most professional manner as possible.
From years of experience as an engineer in a primarily Hip-Hop studio, my advice would be to be prepared to multi-track your song so it can be mixed properly. Make sure you have a song mode with the song laid out as close to the finished layout as is possible. Make sure that each sound in the mpc is on its own track, so that in the studio, all you have to do to seperate em is to mute/unmute certain tracks and assign the pads associated with the track you want to record to the appropriate output of the mpc. The engineer should be able to help you with the MIDI sync, if any sync will be used.... but most of the time I used to just skip the midi sync cuz midi tends to have a margin of error of + or - up to 30 milliseconds which to me was unaaceptable. A good engineer will be able to sync up the tracks manualy using audio and visual clues. Just in case the engineer wants to MIDI sync it, insert 2 blank bars at the beginning of your song mode. This will ensure that the sync has a chance to tighten up before the first note plays. Even though the song will be mixed at the studio session, test out your rough mixes you have already and TAKE NOTES on mix changes you want to make after the song is multitracked. My most productive and effecient sessions were the ones where the client came in with a list of stuff they knew they wanted to do to the mix but didn't have the capabilities to do themselves (i.e. compress that bassline to make it punchier, eq that hihat so it's crispier, etc.) There will be things that you don't notice til you hear your song in the studio, but the more you know you want to do coming into the session, the better for all.
