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Multitracking


Steve

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As some of you know, I'm writing a piece for DJ Tech Tools on multitracking that will hopefully get published, but it's kind of a general article about getting started. If anyone would find it helpful, after that article goes up I could write something that's more Adobe Audition focussed for peeps on here to check out, as that's the software I use so I can explain things in a little more depth for that particular app. What do you think?

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I would love this Steve.

 

As I shouted yesterday, I've been doing this for my last 2 mixes and I find it's great but I'm just kind of fudging it without and serious attempt to get the most out of the software I'm using (Reaper btw).

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It would, but if you get into it, you may want to ask me how to do something specific and I'll almost certainly be able to tell you if you use Audition as well. We'll see how it goes once the article goes up cos that might be enough for you, or if it's rejected for some reason, I'll post it here instead.

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My DJ Tech Tools piece is approaching completion. It's nearly 3,800 words now and there's numerous examples and audio samples. I think that alone should be a great starting point for people (hopefully - not trying to big myself up too much here, lol), then we can get a bit more specific with certain things on here. The article will hopefully go up on July 27th.

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Here's a transition I started working on last night for the 79 mix: -

 

Clipboard02.jpg

 

It's not finished yet. It doesn't look like much, but it took about 2 hours of messing around to come up with that and all for a whole 16 seconds of audio. That's why it takes me so long to finish these mixes!

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i would definitely enjoy reading about this. also, do you have any links to past multitracked mixes youve done?

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i thought it was musically solid from the get go, bro... very solid indeed, and unexpectedly energetic for a multitracked mix. there are very few, if any, moments where i would think it wasnt made on decks. props!

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Question Steve, how do you decide what bits you put in what tracks? I gues obviously each track is meant for a different instrument but when I do multitracked mixes I almost stick bits in randomly. On my last one I did each individual take on a different track. How do you choose what goes on where?

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It's only really in the transitions that I'm doing anything, so the main part of each song gets put into track 1 (recorded in a different track, then moved up to track 1). Then I use the next few tracks for layers for the transitions. If I can shift blocks of audio up, I will, but I'll try not to have audio overlapping/overlayed on the same track cos blocks can get hidden and it makes it hard to see an overview of things. Also, it can be a good idea to have a different sample (or element of the song) in each track. In the image I posted in post 12 in this thread, there's 6 tracks: -

 

1 - Top left is the outgoing track, then the other two blocks of audio are a vocal sample

2 - Scratching on a "ha haaa" vocal sample

3 - The beat from the incoming track

4 - Panned baby scratching on the beat

5 - The ends of the vocal samples from track 1 placed here so I can add effects to the entire track, instead of each audio block at once

6 - Scratching on a piano sample

 

Doing it like this, if, for example, you listen back and find that all of the scratching on a certain sample is too loud, if it's all in the same track (and it's the only thing in that track) you can just lower the volume of the track itself, which then affects all of the audio blocks in that track.

 

What I always try and do is complete each transition or multitracked segment 100% before I move on, so that I know that when the last song is done, I don't have to go back and do anything. Doing it that way means that I can export the project at any time to a single WAV if it's getting out of control in terms of the number of tracks/effects used, or if it's just getting too messy, then I can start a new project and import the single WAV to track 1 and carry on. The big disadvantage to that is that it's like mixing a cocktail - once the ingredients are all mixed together, if you don't like one of them you can't take it out - so be absolutely certain that you're happy with what you've done before you do that.

 

The best tips I can give you are probably: -

 

1 - Place the bulk of the tracks in track 1, as long as they don't overlap/overlay

2 - Be very careful about not accidentally recording over a track that already has audio blocks in it

3 - Put groups of the same sample in the same track, then you can change the volume and mess with effects and panning on a per-track basis, instead of having to do it per-block

4 - Watch out for "rogue audio blocks" that you've forgotten to delete, i.e. blocks left over from a section that you've cut out

5 - If you need to bounce tracks down or export to a single WAV, be 100% sure you're happy with things before you do so

 

Oh, and a tip that's specific to Audition is that if you right-click on an audio block (or a group of blocks) you can lock it in place, but when it's locked in place this only stops you from moving it left and right (so you can't accidentally move it out of time), but it doesn't stop you from moving it up and down, so if you have a mess of blocks spread across a dozen tracks, you can easily lock them all in place and then move them up and down to tidy the session up.

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Thanks Steve, I think your approach is prety similar to what I'd roughly do, only you bounce out a transition once you're happy and I do the whole mix like one huge messy version of what you've done. Yours makes sense because you can alter FX and volume in the track, with each track having one sample, as opposed to me where I have one item per track then get 3 minutes down the line and put another sample in there from the next transition. So it's all about bouncing really, or having my mixes run onto dozens if not hundreds of tracks.

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please keep us posted on this article, steve. i think the next serious mix i work on is going to be multitracked. i think im going to use logic, but i am unable to figure out how to adjust the tempo/bpms inside that program. one of the only ideas ive come up with, aside from learning to use ableton, is to rerecord a tune in traktor at a set bpm and then importing that wave file into logic. however i feel i will lose considerable sound quality... your thoughts?

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The article is up mate, although I had to split it into 2 halves as it's about 4,000 words long. The second half (that will go up next week) is the more practical part though, but remember that it's aimed at beginners, so I don't know how useful you'd find it. You may get something out of it though. If you want to read part 1, which is more of an introduction, you can do so here: -

 

http://www.djtechtools.com/2011/07/27/a-guide-to-making-a-multitracked-mixtape-part-1/

 

As for as adjusting tempos goes, I do all of the beatmatching manually. Audition lets you timestretch and/or pitch bend, but the way it works makes it more time consuming than just beatmatching the track on your deck before you record it. You would lose sound quality when doing it in software, but how much you'd lose depends on how far you're changing the tempo, so it may be negligible and not even noticeable.

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word. really appreciate the input. when it comes to software im most definitely a beginner. i spent a bunch of time watching beavo edit/master our mix on sonar, and i have been able to add ID samples and stuff on top of my own mixes with logic, but never any serious editing. its daunting, but your mix has me really interested in trying this out.

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No worries man. I'm trying to get people into using Adobe Audition cos it's what I use and if people want advice, I can give it. With other software, I don't have a clue.

 

I'm going to write an Audition-focussed guide on here soon that goes into a bit more specific detail than the DJ TechTools article.

 

Oh, and check your PMs BTW. ;)

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