Soft Synth "Recording"

[KAI]

Hi everyone.

I don't if this sounds noobs... but I always have this doubt when I am using soft synth in a midi sequencing software.

When I use a VST plug-in, for example GPO.
How do I get the best quality of sounds when I want to record them into .wav files?

By the way, I've 2 sound cards. One is my computer sound card audigy 2, the other one is an audio interface (actually it is a mixer with audio interface, the Alesis Multimix 8 usb).

Thanks.

 

[Cheez]

One soundcard is sufficient. Soundcard must be multiclient. Just connect stereo audio out to stereo audio in.

I don't use Kontakt or VSTis with the Kontakt engine. But Gigastudio (which is not a plug-in) has a capture wave function which lets you capture the wave without external wiring connections. This will give the best quality. Howver, most VSTis would not be able to do that.

 

[iansoh]

actually what exactly do u mean by "recording to wav"? what i'm thinking is, if you have a midi sequencer which runs VSTi then you should be able to render/export to wav files after recording in midi.

 

[Cheez]

Actually, iansoh is correct. VSTis should appear as an "audio instrument" and can be "recorded" internally from the DAW software.

 

[teraslasch]

yep, you should be able to "freeeze tracks", the term used is bouncing.

 

[Cheez]

Freezing tracks is a totally different thing. So is bouncing.

Freezing is a function whereby you can freeze a track with a VSTi loaded so when you sequence, the track doesn't run the VSTi. This is to free up CPU and RAM resources particularly when lots of VSTis are loaded. This is different to the mute function which does not reduce the CPU resources during playback (mute simply keeps the track quiet).

Bouncing refers to combining more than 1 track of audio into 1 audio track. This helps when there are many audio tracks which may stress the hard-drive.

 

[teraslasch]

i remember my teacher telling me that bouncing is actually really the same thing as freezing in sonar. just that hard bouncing is actually recording the wave, while "freezing" is considered "soft bouncing", if it made any sense.

 

[iansoh]

i don't see how the terms "freezing" or "bouncing" apply to this guy who just wants to record his soft synth track into a high quality wav file. sounds confusing to me, anyhoo. let's keep it simple and focus on helping this guy without befuddling him with technical jargon.

 

[Cheez]

Freezing is not bouncing the the strictest sense of the word. But yeah, you can say that if you stretch the meaning. The princinple is the same - saving resources, although the resources you are saving will be different for each of them as their bottle-necks are different. In bouncing, you add on tracks into one track - ie you bounce a few tracks into one track and so reduce the total number of tracks you need to finally mix down. In freezing, you don't actually "bounce them". You can freeze a track and then bounce the other tracks into one track - in this case, bouncing still needs to occur.

And freezing is not only in Sonar - Logic started it first, then everybody else took it on. Now, pretty much all DAW software can do freezing.

 

[KAI]

thanks for all the replies...

I agree with Cheez that "bouncing" and "freezing" are different in definition.
I think I understand what you guys mean, is to record the VSTi instruments to audio "internally".

New question arise... Since it is "internally", does it matter (in quality) when recorded with the pc soundcard?
p/s: I still try to figure out how to let my alesis multimix works as playback audio devices, but it can work as recording devices and record sounds from my sound modules.

 

[Cheez]

Recorded "internally" by definition means it already bypasses your soundcard. So it doesn't matter.

 

[KAI]

Thanks.