Pro Audio vs VS880 question

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UPNADAM

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I am using cake Walk Pro Audio for laying down (arranging and sequencing) my tracks. I then record using the VS 880. Should I assign each instrument to a track in the VS 880 like I do in Pro Audio? Or can I record using 1 track for everything?
 
I also use CWPA and the VS880. It seems like you are attempting to record all of the sequenced sounds to the VS. One way of doing this is to run the stereo output of your synth to two tracks of the VS.

I'm not too sure why you want to record your arrangement to the VS when you already have it in CWPA. Are you then going to master it and burn a CD in the VS?
 
Are you using MTC/SMPTE sync? Playing the 880 and Cakewalk back at the same time with one of them the master and the other slave, and connecting them with midi cables? If not, you're missing out on a lot of flexibility.
What I do is get the form down in Cakewalk. Do a few midi tracks and then record guitars, vocals, etc. to the 880 while they're in sync. To free up tracks and effects on the 880, I'll bump 2 tracks at a time (in sync) into Cakewalk. If your soundcard has a S/PDIF input, you can do it digitally. Then with everything on the PC, you can mix down in Cakewalk if your system can handle it. If not, yeah, mix your midi to two, not one, tracks(R/L) onto the 880 to get a stereo mix.
 
As far as the CD goes... I will burn copies there but I am not sure if I will pay for someone to master it or learn to do it myself. I have SOUND FORGE but I have not worked in it at all. I am recording in VS 880 but I am a novice in terms engineering. Have you mastered anything on VS880?
 
I am using the MTC using cakewalk as the slave and VS 880 as the master. I get a 1/2 bar delay when I do that? Has that happen to you?

I have everything in cake walk and have recorded both ways in terms of seperate tracks per sound and all sounds but vocals on one track. In terms of mastering I was trying to figure out what way is best?
 
Yeah. I hate syncing up my VS with CWPA as a slave. Cubase works so much better for locking in quickly. It's great to use the rotary dial on the VS to move the song pointer in Cubase. I hear Cakewalk has fixed some of these problems by releasing Sonar 2.0.

I have the VS880 Expanded, not the EX, so I can't do mastering in it. Thus, I am currently using a Finalizer for mastering. One thing that sucks about using the VS for mastering is that you have to keep two tracks free for the stereo mix. Thus, you then only get 6 effective tracks. If you use two tracks for your sequenced stereo synth sounds, you're down to 4.

To free up the most tracks on the VS, I'm pretty sure you can assign inputs 3/4 as a separate input for your sequenced sounds going straight to the master mix. Therefore, you can free up all 8 tracks for audio.

If you have a S/PDIF card in your PC, you can then run everything through the VS, out the VS S/PDIF into two tracks on your PC via the S/PDIF on the PC. You can then do your "mastering" on your PC.
 
I'm not really sure what you mean by the half bar delay, but the readout on the 880 never matched that on Cakewalk. I would always start my sessions on Cakewalk as I said.
I never mastered anything on the 880. And that includes mastering the unit itself :D
I've gone pretty much 100%PC these days and use my 880 as a control surface with Cakewalk. Recently I've been bumping tracks via S/PDIF to the PC to spruce up some older tunes.
I export my audio mix from Sonar to a .wav, then I master in Sound Forge using the Waves L1 plugin.
 
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