Recording Vocals, Stereo or Mono??

[lawrencepd]

I’d really appreciate some help. This is my current setup:

Alesis QS7 with 2 expansion cards (Hip-hop Qcard & some other expansion card)

Planet Phatt Sound Modules

Mackie 1202 VLZ PRO Mixer

MLZ?? 310 Studio Mic

SBAWE64 GOLD Sound Card

AMD K6 – 400, 128MB RAM, 20GB IDE Ultradma drive, Windows98

Cakewalk Pro Audio 8.0, Cooledit Pro, Sound Forge


Currently I’m having a hell of a time trying to use the internal effects on my ALESIS, so I’ve just about given up. Instead, I’ve started recording my dry midi tracks into 44KHZ stereo WAV files, applying effects to each one that needs them, then mixing down to a 2 stereo 44KHZ wav file. My first question is: Can I just as well record the midi tracks to 44KHZ MONO .wav files, apply the effects, and then mixdown to a 2 stereo .wav file without losing any noticeable sound quality? This would help cut down on hard drive space and my computer could probably handle more mono wav files of smaller sizes. This brings me to my second question: When I’m recording the vocals, should I record them ALL in stereo wav files, or just do the background tracks in stereo and do the leads in mono? Any help is greatly appreciated.


[This message has been edited by lawrencepd (edited 08-19-1999).]

 

[Emeric]

Why record midi files in wav to begin with? Cakewalk should be able to sync the midi with the audio data, and free up resources and tracks. As for vocals, I usually record them mono, but stereo offers some options if you have the tracks.

When doing backup vocals, I record 2 (or more) mono tracks, sometimes doubling, sometimes harmonized. I find this fills things out quite well.

If you want to record wave files from your module instead of midi, record them in stereo.

Emeric

 

[lawrencepd]

How else would I apply effects like reverb, delay, etc. to each individual instrument coming from my QS7 or sound module? The midi effects in Cakewalk are limited (only stuff like echo, transpose, quantize, etc.) Yes, Cakewalk can sync audio & midi data, but when it comes to applying effects to the midi tracks, how else could I go about it?

 

[drstawl]

Many synth modules allow a multitude of effects to be applied to their playback without having to do anything but send a MIDI sysex command as part of the MIDI file. I'm not familiar with the Alesis QS-7 or the Planet Phatt modules.