[Ardour-Users] MIDI recording workflow

[fred]

Le 20/07/2011 22:11, Nando a écrit :
> Hi!
>
> I'm trying to establish a workflow that's useful for me. I have a MIDI 
> keyboard and jack soft synths like Yoshimi.
>
> I want to be able to record MIDI and work with effects over the 
> generated audio. My idea is to have maximum "editability" (can you say 
> that? hehe), so I clearly prefer saving MIDI info to just saving the 
> output to an audio track. OTOH, when the project gets big, I like to 
> "render" that MIDI info, or in other words, save the output of the 
> synth to an audio track so its easier for the hardware to play. If I 
> need to change something, I just discard the rendered audio data and 
> use the MIDI info again.
>
> To achieve this (for each softsynth in the project) I was creating a 
> MIDI and an audio track, and routing them like this:
>
> MIDI Kbd --> MIDI track --> Synth --> Audio track --> Master
>
> But... I have a problem here. I just can't hear the output of the 
> synth when I need to.
>
> When recording the MIDI notes from the keyboard, I can only hear my 
> playing record-enabling the audio track, and thus recording both MIDI 
> and audio. I can hear my playing when the transport is stopped though.
>
> When playing already recorded notes, it is not possible to hear them.
>
> The MIDI track it's doing its job well, because the output of the 
> track (recorded notes AND notes played on the kbd) are flowing towards 
> the Synth, which is generating the audio.
>
> Then we get to the audio track, as if we where recording, say, a 
> guitar. The described behavior is when "Record monitoring handled by" 
> is set to "ardour" in the prefs. If set to "audio hardware", I just 
> never get any sound, except when playing audio data previously 
> recorded in the audio track. With "Tape Machine Mode" on (which I'm 
> not sure to understand), the behavior is the same, except that when 
> the transport is stopped, I only hear sound from the record armed 
> tracks (which might be useful, so I've left it like that).
>
> So, I guess I understand the problem. When you're recording a guitar, 
> you don't want to hear the hum or anything from the guitar when 
> playing the recorded audio, so it makes sense that it mutes the input 
> when playing. In my case, when I'm recording MIDI notes, the audio 
> track is playing so it mutes the input and I can't monitor. When 
> playing back it's the same.
>
> The only solution I see is to put a bus in between the tracks, and 
> route it like follows:
>
> *MIDI Kbd --> MIDI track --> Synth --> Audio Bus --> Audio track --> 
> Master...*
> *                                                \_________________/*
>
> Here we have the same routing as before, but with the bus in the 
> middle, and an extra connection from the bus to Master. In that way, 
> if I want the recorded audio I can mute the MIDI track and/or the bus, 
> and If I want the keyboard or the recorded MIDI data I can mute the 
> audio track.
>
> This solution also takes effects into account. They are set on the 
> bus, so they'll be "rendered" and recorded on the audio track, and 
> they get disabled (with the bus) when using the recorded audio.
>
> Given that muting the bus and the MIDI track really lower processor 
> usage, this approach would work. The only problem would be that it 
> starts to get cumbersome... 2 tracks + a bus for every synth part you 
> use can get difficult to browse and manage. I was experimenting with 
> grouping, narrow tracks strips, track heights and hiding, but it's 
> still cumbersome.
>
> Any idea?
Maybe Synth to Bus & Track and the two of them to master ?

I'm on the same problem these last days...

HTH, let me know please,
Fred

>
> Thanks!!
>
>
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