MD8? getting that full sound when bouncing/ping-pong.......save me i'm drowning!

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silverman

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Hi there! I've invested in the MD8 and am having moderate success with it. But I can't seem to figure out how to keep a full sound, for example, panned guitars, when I ping-pong tracks down to less than the original number of tracks used. Should I track with the source audio already panned and double it on another track(not copy)panned the other way? If I do, will the signals stay panned when I ping-pong? It just sounds so mono when I bounce tracks down unless I actually have another identicle take overlaying the first. Please help, Any insite would be greatly appreciated. what am I doing wrong?
 
Bounce

Assuming you're bouncing down to a Stereo Pair (L&R) on two separate tracks, the bounced tracks should maintain the same pan position on the new tracks.
Try a test bounce (on some expendable tracks), and pan all tracks either hard left or hard right. Also, if you are monitoring with headphones, panning is deceptive - it's essential that you monitor through speakers. Of course, there are some things, like bass guitar and kick drum, that you will want to pan dead center.
Also, be aware that the MD8 has an analogue mixer section, so anytime you bounce you will lose some "presence". If you try to make up for this with EQ (like boosting the highs on the bounce) you will get distortion with the MD8. Better to cut a little bass EQ and get as much signal onto the bounce as possible without clipping. It takes some trial and error, but it's worth it. I've got the original MD4, and I've done as many as three bounces successfully.
Good luck!
 
thank you buffalo

I appreciate the insight Bob, unfortunately I don't think I elaborated my goal well enough. I'm trying to take two tracks (for fullness, successfully enough that I don't hear too much comb filtering) down to one track. I want to use this technique solely for rhythm guitars and possibly vox of some sort. I don't plan on using this on electric bass, drums, or any lead guitars. I'm doubling the rhythm guitars and tracking without any onboard EQ filtering or boosts( all of that I do upstream before the source goes into the track input, unless I use the insert patch capabilities of tracks one and two).......This brings me to say that I want to track only rhythm guitars on tracks one and two, using low Z dynamic mics, that is all I have(sm 57s, beta 58s, beta 56s, akg something vocal mic, and samsons uugh)........The way I understand bouncing is I must use the grouping capabilities, which meens I have to use the pan pot to select odd or even groups, therefore the pan pot is no longer available for the track, but instead is being used for guiding the two tracks through the group bus matrix........Therefore, I want to actually track each of the two rhythm guitar takes panned from the beginning to the left and right, but they don't get saved to disk that way. This is sort of like using the aux sends during tracking but being able to take the changes made via aux sends out later becuase the effects were not saved to the disk.....so I guess my main question is, is there a way to get the original pan possition of each track to save to disk, thus, when I bounce both guitar tracks down to one they are still split to left and right on the new track (destination track) even though the pan pot of the new track is top dead center "TDC"........ I know this is getting into guerrilla tactics, and for that I appologize. please reply if you feel up to it.. very many thanx
 
The pan pots are sending the signal through the group buss, but only the selected buss(s). Rotated fully left, the signal should only go to the left side of your bounce track. If you put the unit in Rehearse mode, you should be able to see this in the VU meters.
You are still going to have less than ideal sound this way. There's a trick I use on vocals to make them larger in the mix, that you can also use on guitars - you need some sort of digital delay (even a cheap one will do) -
Route guitar #1 through it's Direct Out to the delay unit-
set delay for a slight setting (10-15 m.s.)- return the output of the delay through the Stereo Sub In (left or right side) and use the Sub In volume control to mix the delayed signal with the "dry" signal. By doing this, you have a huge guitar part and you haven't had to bounce.
Hope this helps.
 
Yo Hi"O"Silverman:]

Advice: Don't bounce any tracks. This way, you will have complete control over EQ, Pan, volume, reverb, etc., for each track.

When you bounce tracks, you combine, say, two tracks to one track; then, your control of the two sounds is very limited; you can boost EQ and the rest but one of the tracks may not need as much EQ or reverb as the other track.

Eight tracks is a bunch of tracks to overdub. I think you will improve your sound if you forget about bouncing. The pan knob should send your single track cut whichever way you turn the knob.

Green Hornet
 
you all rock!

Thank you all for the much needed help. I can't express it enough. A great big Peace symbol to all of you. Cheers Hornet! I'll try to keep the track bouncing unter my hat for now.


Y'all rock!


Joshua
 
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