How many tracks can I record simultaneously?

[kongwee]

What software you are using for your old comp? unsane
This will help ankursamtaney better.

 

[unsane]

nuendo 3.0 and later cubase 5.5

 

[ankursamtaney]

Thanks, unsane. That's information is quite encouraging. Can't wait for my interface to arrive and start experimenting!

Will let you know how it turns out for me. Thanks!

 

[Cheez]

Tested real live - this time with my notebook. Just completed my new music from composition to arrangement to recording to production. All done on a notebok (Sony Vaio Z56 C2D 2.8GHz, 6GB RAM, internal HD 7200rpm, external HD 7200rpm only for sample streaming). Audio interface - Echo indigo DJ. Midi interface - M-audio 1x1. DAW = Sonar X1 (yes, the newest DAW!). Kontakt 3.5.

I have 10 midi tracks (not too many this time), but gigantic samples (loading Akoustic Piano, KHSO TVEC violins x2 instances, MM-bass, Sample Modeling Tenor Sax, SD2...and others). During midi playback, I got some pops and clicks. Getting into trouble with my HD. CPU and RAM usage not maxed out. Shows that the samples are really taxing my external HD (which by the way is a Lacie 7200rpm USB 2.0). This never happened on a desktop - which by the way is a Quad Core 2.5 GHz with 8GB RAM - more powerful and so no justifiable comparison can be made.

Midi tracks bounced into 7 separate audio tracks. This is into the internal HD. Then came the crazy thing. Sonar X1 has this beautiful new Pro-channel (basically a channel strip). I basically applied tube saturation, EQ, compression, reverb, and various other things (Guitar Rig x2 - one into electric guitar and the other into the e-bass) all over the place. Not to mention I applied the Cakewalk PX64 percussion strip onto the SD2. Each audio track has it's own separate plugins. Playback - no pops and clicks or any problem whatsoever. All the way to final mix down and rendering into wave file.

That's only 7 simultaneous audio tracks, but a whole lot of plugins. I'm pretty sure I can go beyond 10 + applying plugins without problems.

 

[kongwee]

But still different from recording. I tried a 16 track recording with my iMac 2.4 C2D 4 gig. I have 12 physical input(iMac and audio interface) and plus 4 bus from my audio interface. 32 buffer size, 24 bit recording. Only 6 input will record with signal and rest recording nothing. I run recording with all input. Yes, it will create wav for the empty input and my HDD meter move a bit. I check all the 16 audio file are the same size.That mean a true recording with 16 input with 24 bit quality.

 

[blueprintstudios]

ankur : tried recording 12 blanks during this experiment when I was at my inlaw's. no crashes no choppies etc, fine on my laptop specs closest/equal to yours at 1.66ghz Core2Duo 2gb Ram Windows XP and 5400rpm hdd

 

[ankursamtaney]

Ron - thanks a bunch! I might try this out on Ableton myself, perhaps with 16 tracks once I get the toslink cables from Sim Lim today (they're such an effin' rip off here man! they cost 2 - 4 bucks in the US.. most buggers here sell them for over 20 bucks each! BEST and DIY have them at 25 bucks a piece!). Being sync-ed via ADAT, I don't think I'd have different-latency issues with for the saffire vs the ADA8000.

Now the questions (as always! ): Assuming I'm recording absolutely dry, it should not make ANY difference to the HDD writing ability or CPU usage whether I'm recording blank wav tracks vs seriously loaded (bass / guitar / drums, etc) wav tracks, right? I think it shouldn't matter, but I -- for some strange reason -- have always equated blank tracks with light, easy-on-the-comp tracks.

BTW - Finally got the Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and the ADA8000 yesterday! And guess what -- the Behringer (despite all the bashing the brand gets!) works like a charm, but the the Focusrite came with a very apparent flaw that took a little playing around to figure out. The Headphone 1 volume knob controls output of the 2nd headphone jack, and Headphone 2's knob controls the output of the 1st headphone jack! How strange and annoying is that!! Waiting to hear back from the guys in the UK on this.

 

[kongwee]

You can try this.

Track 1 - Input 1, send bus/aux 1- 15.
Of cos, you input 1 must record something or switch input that you wanna record.

Then add track 2 with bus 1 as input, track 3 with bus 2, add until track 16 with bus 15.
Adding different plug-in in all the bus is option.
All track record enable and start recording.

This way all your tracks will record something.
You can add more bus and tracks to hit max of your laptop.
Hope you get the picture.

 

[blueprintstudios]

ankursamtaney : by the way that experiment on the Firewire + USB , I recorded 12 tracks simultaneously , from an iphone > 1/8 stereo to RCA + Rcato1/4" converter (as a splitter) playing a metronome > I had a total of 12 tracks and confirmed they're able to record 12 by unplugging one, plugging in the next progressively, except for that latency part when I have Left (white) in R16 and Right (red) in my audiofire4 which I had to highlight.

if you're recording drums for 12 tracks initially and need to punch in (by playing back 12 , then recording additional 12) and you start to get sluggish, disable plugins if any, then increase buffer size/latency to make up for it. if still crappin out, usually disabling some of the drum tracks ("usually need snare/kick+hihat" only, unless it's a toms jungle roll part) or even bounce to stereo track and start a new session with drumsstereo.wav then record guitar,bass,vocals etc.

if you find all these a big hassle, then it's time to upgrade your laptop hehe. cos the above mentioned idea is how I get by with this free laptop from starhub. but so far i don't have problems on 8 tracks and 8 record+8 playback.