Recording Audio to send to a Different DAW

[MullisMan]

Hi all, first post.

The band I'm in recorded some tracks for fun at a small studio close to my home, and the tracks ended up sounding pretty good. We would like to add in some Synth parts. I would like to record them myself in Logic Pro X at my home, and then send them to the engineer at the small studio for him to add into his project in Pro Tools.

I have a rough mix in wav format of the track that we recorded, and I was wondering what would be the best way for me to import that into Logic Pro X, and sync it up to the click so I can record my own parts.

Then my next question is what would be the best way for me to export and send my recordings back to the studio for the engineer to add them to our project. I want to make it easy for him to sync up the audio to our existing tracks.

If I need to be more clear or add some info let me know.

Thanks!

Jeremy

 

[DM60]

Jeremy,

The standard way this is done across most DAWs (maybe all) is you export the track and the way it syncs is it exports from 0.0, so when it in imported into the target DAW, the track goes left and would 99.9% sync up.

It is usually a high res. wave (at least the same bit depth as the existing tracks) and that is it for the most part.

Let us know if more information is required. If you need ot know how it is done in Logic, just let us know and a Logic guy can walk you through it. But it should be in user guide as well as it is a comment function amongst DAWs.

Hope this helps.

 

[miroslav]

Yeah...what he ^^^^ said.


If the rough mix that you have was created from the 00:00:00 start point.....then just insert that mix track to start at the 00:00:00 point in your DAW....record away, and then send them your tracks as WAV files also from the 00:00:00 point.

AFA adding a click for your synth tracks...mmm...that might work OK as long as the other tracks were done that way. IOW, you have to match the exact BPM.

Otherwise, just use the rough mix as your tempp guide, and forget the click for the synth tracks, since you really need the synth track to sync to the other tracks, and not just to a click.

 

[Armistice]

If you can't automatically "sync" to a click, it's pretty easy to manually work out the exact BPM and use that.... just be warned that the number might end up being 119.746 rather than 120. A strong percussive element in the song helps.

 

[MullisMan]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I was making it seem more complicated in my head than it really needed to be. The tracks we recorded in the studio using Pro Tools were all to a click track, and I know the BPM's of all our songs, so that won't be a problem playing along with them.

I'm not sure that all the engineers tracks started at the 0 mark in Pro Tools, but then I don't have much experience with Pro Tools. It just looked like he kept moving along the timeline for different takes of each song. So the take that we're using might be third down the line in time. I'm assuming that he should just be able to snap the tracks that I send him to the start point of the correct take when the time comes.

I guess my last question is, what if the imported track doesn't lock in perfectly with the metronome in Logic Pro X? Is it a matter of nudging the track left or right depending on what's needed? Or is there a tool to use in Logic Pro X that would help facilitate that?

Again, thanks for all the help, it's good to be on a forum where people actually help instead of making you feel stupid for your lack of knowledge.

Jeremy

 

[miroslav]

I'm not sure that all the engineers tracks started at the 0 mark in Pro Tools, but then I don't have much experience with Pro Tools. It just looked like he kept moving along the timeline for different takes of each song. So the take that we're using might be third down the line in time. I'm assuming that he should just be able to snap the tracks that I send him to the start point of the correct take when the time comes.

I guess my last question is, what if the imported track doesn't lock in perfectly with the metronome in Logic Pro X? Is it a matter of nudging the track left or right depending on what's needed? Or is there a tool to use in Logic Pro X that would help facilitate that?

Even if say...the guitar first appears at 00:36:00 on his PT system....he would simply export that entire guitar track from 00:00:00.
What you end up with is a track that has nothing in it from 00:00:00 up to 00:36:00....which is fine.
By doing it that way, no matter where on the timeline individual parts appear, if the entire track is exported from 00:00:00...it will line up in any DAW.
That way, whatever BPM was set in PT.....if you set it in Logic, it should be exactly the same and in time.

If however he gives you bits-n-pieces of his PT tracks, and you then have nudge them into their rewuired positions in Logic....then you'll have more work to do, and there may be minor sync differences.