Recording question

[The-Warlord]

Hello,
I want to record songs, and use Guitarpro 4 Midi backing tracks. I use Adobe Audition 1.5 to record and arrange my stuff. Basically i mute all the backing track, then play along with the song, to get the timing right. After that i save the backign tracka s a midi file and import into audition. Then i put the recorded guitar part over it. My problem is if there is a guitar intro, say 8 bars of riffs then drums etc come in, how do i get the timing right? As in, you can drag the loops around, so basically i would have say a 2 min guitar track, but the saved midi track is only 1 min long because there is a guitar intro..do i just have to slide it to 1min and hope for the best? A bit complicated..

 

[soft]

hey Warlord, i read through your question again but still could not pin down what your actual question is. hmm

1. did you mean the backing track is not long enough for the guitar intro?

2. your guitar track is not in sync with the backing track?

 

[The-Warlord]

Hi James - its no.2 The song has a guitar intro, no drums, so technically the midi file has nothing on it while the guitar is playing....you know? So when I create the midi file it ignore the empty bars and only startes where the drums are..

 

[soft]

i dont use the GuitarPro so I dont know if you can do this.

simply add in the number of bars you need for intro.
record a simple click track with maybe a bassdrum + snare. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - for that number of bars. this is to help you stay in sync when recording the guitar.

also, you can try to do Tracking. This means laying down individual tracks instead of using the MIDI backing track as a midi format.

this is what you do.

below is the set up of midi channels/track in your midi song file.

1. Bass (ch 1)
2. Piano (ch 2)
3. Strings (ch 3)
4. Guitar lead (ch 4)
5. Guitar 2nd (ch 5)
6. Organ/Pad (ch 6)
7. Melody(ch 7)
8. Melody 2nd (ch 8 )

9. Bass Drum (ch 10)
10. Snare (ch 10)
11. Hi-hats (ch 10)
12. Toms (ch 10)
13. Crash (ch 10)
14. Ride (ch 10)
15. Percusion (ch 10)
16. Click track

you then solo each individual instrument, play the midi song (remember to solo the Click track too, we need to use it to sync back up all the tracks in Audition) and record it into Audition.

Follow so far?

Basicially, you solo the Bass track and Click track. Record it into Audition.

Solo Piano track and Click track. Record it into Audition .........

The reason why I suggested recording all the midi tracks to audio in Audition is so that you can have better control over EQs, Panning, Dynamics and Effects.

So, after you have finished recording the midi to audio. You need to sync all the tracks up. Remember the Click track. You can use this as a visual or audio guide to synce up the tracks.

Once the tracks are in sync, you can drag the front part of each track, where the Click is, to the right. this is like hidding the Click but it is still there, just that you wont hear it.

So, now you are ready to record your Guitar part. Remember Track 16 which is the Click track? Enable it so that you can get the timing right for the front part where there's no other instrumentation.

When you are ok with the recording, just mute the Track 16 again.

Mix the tracks by balancing the levels, add some compression, EQ a bit, experiment with Efxs, go wide with panning......

Welcome to the world of audio engineering! :lol:

* it will be quite a challenge to split the drums which are usually all on 1 track/channel on a midi file. But there is a simple way to do it. I hope GuitarPro has a Filter by Notes function.

 

[duskalways]

rayer: if anyone needs a professional writeout in manuals, they should seek you james!

 

[thor666]

there's a Count Down function in Guitar Pro. basically is 4 metronome ticks for 4/4.. and similiar for other time signatures.

 

[soft]

duskalways, you mean there are jobs like these? ha..ha..

thor666, ahh... ya. that would work too! as long as we can set the number of bars for the count-in. wait, we need another 1 bar of count-in before 'this' count-in! ha..ha..haa...

 

[The-Warlord]

I guess what ill do is add a click at the beggining of each bar of the guitar intro, and then cut it out aftr everything is in sync. Thanks guys!