Two Questions Concerning In-Project Bouncing And MIDI To Audio Conversion

[Mike Freze]

Hi, everyone! Thanks for all your great help recently.

1. Can you bounce several tracks in a Cubase LE project without leaving the project? Or do you have to export the files (mixdown) to get them to bounce, save to the hard drive, and import that one stereo wav file back into a blank track in Cubase to continue working on other tracks with the bounced file there at the same time within the same project?

I have no problem bouncing several tracks when I export it and call it back into Cubase later (as one file). But I tried using the "bounce" feature in my project without exporting and it seems to be doing something because if I bounced three tracks, the square graphic image in my tracks all say "bounce" for each track. But they never went to one new audio track as a bounced, sinlge file: they still remain as separate tracks with the word "bounce" in each one. Again, this is when I attempt to bounce several tracks in a project without exporting to bounce.

2. If you can record MIDI tracks as midi information alongside your audio tracks in a project, but need to convert them to audio before you mix down to a single stero file, why record the MIDI as MIDI tracks to begin with?? I mean besides the added editing features of keeping something as MIDI until you're ready to mix, is there any quality difference in doing this instead of just recording the MIDI instrument (my external keyboard) as an audio file to begin with? Do you lose some sound quality by saving a file as MIDI and then converting it later to audio as apposed to recording it as audio right from the start? Some people have told me that there is a slight second generation sound quality loss by starting with MIDI tracks and then converting them later. Is this true? I'm not necessarily a big fan of soft synths to add effects after the fact; if I can get it right with my external effects (amp settings, foot pedals, etc.), I like to record that all as I like it at the very beginning. To me, there's no comparison in sound quality with real hardware vs. synthesized sounds or effects.

Thanks!! Mike Freze

 

[dintymoore]

In my 20+ years on Cubase, I have never "bounced" a track. I'm not sure why you need to do that.

If I did, I'd use Export Audio Mixdown and in the dialog box that comesup, there's "Import to" and below that two boxes for Pool and Audio Track. If you check them it will save you having to import them back in.

As far as recording the MIDI tracks, there's no standard way, however you want to work is up to you. Personally I never record MIDI to audio until the final stereo mastering phase. I've always heard the sound get degraded when I did that, to me the parts sound better left MIDI until the mixdown to stereo.

A exception is when I record synth distorted Les Paul type sounds. For those I play through a tube amp and mic that.

There's no standard way of any of this, it's up to individual preference.

 

[Mike Freze]

Thanks, Dintymoore

I was just curious and I appreciate the advice. I guess I've read that it's good to "bounce" a track toa new audio track if, say, your tracks contained a lot of separate samples, loop clips, etc. that stesses your computer processing when you call it up: bounce to another single rack and all those snipets get saved as one continuous audio file.

Also, sometimes one's computer has only so much RAM or processor power to work with. In that case, wouldn't it be best to, say, bounce 4 separate drum tracks to one, call it back up into your project after bouncing, then you free up three additional tracks to record with?

Mike

 

[dintymoore]

I was just curious and I appreciate the advice. I guess I've read that it's good to "bounce" a track toa new audio track if, say, your tracks contained a lot of separate samples, loop clips, etc. that stesses your computer processing when you call it up: bounce to another single rack and all those snipets get saved as one continuous audio file...

Yes, that's true. In the "Devices" menu there's "VST Performance" that shows you how you're computer is handling everything

... Also, sometimes one's computer has only so much RAM or processor power to work with. In that case, wouldn't it be best to, say, bounce 4 separate drum tracks to one, call it back up into your project after bouncing, then you free up three additional tracks to record with?

Mike

Yes, the more expensive versions of Cubase do not have track limitations but as I recall LE does, so that's how you'd work around it.