KVR Audio

elxsound · Post by **elxsound** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:20 pm

whyterabbyt wrote:Three, one for each ear.

Each of my ears have lived by this sage advice. One ear was a bit immature compared to the others, but in time and with practice I have been able to make one track per ear with perfection and ease. Three for the win.

toonertik · Post by **toonertik** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:22 pm

donkey tugger wrote:As long as the computer's not actually on fire and just a bit hot, then you're ok to add a few more.

That is too damm close to the mark!!
Until recently, I was using an very old Dell something 5100... was originally a pentium 4 HT... I replaced the pentium with a proper 2 core thing... Dell would start and say "incompatible CPU>> hit F1".. and it would load...
During the 5/6 years I used that, I blew up 4/5 power supplies... sometimes I could just replase the fuse.. so about 6/7 blow outs....
So I just went back to old skool 8 track working...
Now I can load many more... but 16 tracks is about my mental limit these daze...

toonertik · Post by **toonertik** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:26 pm

THE INTRANCER wrote:Well, personally I've been producing music since the mid 1990's with 4 audio tracks, 16 midi channels, 24 audio channels, which has risen to around 200 tracks of audio and instruments in the past year. Big tracks naturally involve more time, skill and effort as one would expect but ultimately, none of that matters if the music sucks. It comes down to the skill and talent of the producer, and that takes years and years of personal development and practice in this field.

All done on that imaginary Reason thing you designed, I guess )))))

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:38 pm

I use nothing more than I have to, if that.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:39 pm

as another ancient one here who started with a guitar, two mics, two speakers and two cassette recorders my quest for more tracks was never about adding more instruments. I wanted to able to record more than one guitar track so I could have more than one take to choose from, I always used drum machines so miking a kit wasn't a need. When I bought my first digital unit (Akai dps12) in the 90's that was resolved with virtual tracks, now of course it's a non issue. Ironically now I have songs with a huge amount of takes but I never go back and listen to them, I dont comp either. I do however keep most of my songs with a low track count, what pushes up my track count is back to drums and multi-outs on jamstix otherwise I would most often be under 10 tracks and sometimes 8.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:48 pm

ariston wrote:
dellboy wrote:
Good post, pretty much sums up my feelings.

I have just listened to your Soundcloud "Tyger" and it seems influenced by Genesis - Mike Oldfield.

LIke.

Much.

Will listen to some of the others later.
Hey, thanks a lot for listening in! Yeah, you just named two of my biggest influences. Over the last year, I recorded 4 pieces in this "long-form" vein, and once I've finally gotten over the flu and its annoying long-term effects, I'll tie them up in a neat package and set about "releasing" them (probably on bandcamp).

I agree with what you wrote as well...

Winstontaneous · Post by **Winstontaneous** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:33 pm

Working on my own stuff, maybe 2 to 12 tracks. Working with others, often more, but generally bussed/grouped into no more than 8 "stems" for easy triggering/mixing with Ableton Live controllers. It took a while for me to see that mult-ing, while increasing track count, can make mixing much easier by reducing the amount of automation needed.

inkwarp · Post by **inkwarp** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:55 pm

i've stopped thinking about this kind of thing. at least i don't think my stuff is crap because there are thousands of trevor horns out there who used dozens and dozens of tracks does not make it good automatically.
there is a lot to be said for minimalism in the right hands. as so often happens on forums, there is a great debate about the technical aspect of music-making but rarely any debate about music itself. i have been listening to Low recently and it's vibe is quite beautiful and 'real'. no loudness wars or any of that tosh. like it came from another planet.
i find it a labour just making 8 tracks gel together without having these purely technical issues constantly coming to mind.

fluffy_little_something · Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:05 pm

Obviously one track is enough if you do it right.
Not sure about the maximum number. I guess it depends on whether or not many of them sound at the same time, in which case the result can easily sound too dense.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:07 pm

If your computer produces nothing but crackles and pops, it's enough.

fluffy_little_something · Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:11 pm

Except if it's deliberate, like with the old vinyl noise

Once we all have 256-core 10GHz tablets, there will be plugins to simulate the nostalgic crackle sounds of the old days, i.e. 2015

jabe · Post by **jabe** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 1:33 am

Some of - no, ALL* of the best music ever was made on 4 or 8 tracks. It's often easier to be more creative with restrictions. Without limits, there's nowhere to stop. Set yourself some limits and challenge your inventiveness to stay between the lines. In addition to being forced to make compromises, you might even finish something. Restrict tracks, restrict time, restrict whatever: work within boundaries, even if you change boundaries the next time and the time after.

* this might be an exaggeration, but not by much.

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 1:36 am

dellboy wrote:How many tracks is enough ?

How many tracks means overkill ?

At what point does too many tracks kill inspiration and become impractical ?

How much does the type of music you make affect track count ?

Is less more ?

it's different for different people.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 1:39 am

jabe wrote:Some of - no, ALL* of the best music ever was made on 4 or 8 tracks. It's often easier to be more creative with restrictions. Without limits, there's nowhere to stop. Set yourself some limits and challenge your inventiveness to stay between the lines. In addition to being forced to make compromises, you might even finish something. Restrict tracks, restrict time, restrict whatever: work within boundaries, even if you change boundaries the next time and the time after.

* this might be an exaggeration, but not by much.

The restriction to restriction. Hm.

I wouldn't make such a philosophy out of it, to be honest. Why not rather let it come to you? There may be tracks where you use a sh**load of tracks, or the ones where you use just a handful.

cron · Post by **cron** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 2:16 am

Very few for me. If we don't count composite sounds, I rarely go above 6 + sends. Multi-outs and composite sounds might take that up to 10-15. Obviously it's not going to cut it for certain types of music, but I prefer a very 'raw' sound if I'm making more 'conventional' music. My more experimental stuff rarely goes above 6 tracks total for any reason, but my working methods there are significantly more audio-heavy and rely on lots of non-real-time processing, so the sound design is typically finished before I even open the DAW.

The only thing that really blows the doors off that method for me is when I'm doing a pre-recorded mix for radio or whatever. Then it's one track for every piece of music so I can volume and EQ match tunes without relying on automation too much.