How many tracks is enough ?
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 37262 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from Scottish Borders
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- Boss Lovin' DR
- 14312 posts since 15 Mar, 2002 from the grimness of yorkshire
Johnny Marr didn't f**k about with one guitar track did he now.
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- KVRAF
- 3735 posts since 17 Sep, 2016
Nice! I think Tony may be one of the most underrated synth players, except maybe for diehard Genesis fans. He was a key force in their sound.ariston wrote: A big influence here was Tony Banks - he could make two synths sound like a f**king orchestra, because he was so damn smart in both the sounds he used and in what he was actually playing.
Regarding the original topic, sometimes the notes you leave out are as important as the ones you play.
Windows 10 and too many plugins
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jacqueslacouth jacqueslacouth https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=48379
- KVRian
- 1149 posts since 18 Nov, 2004
I must admit, I still find it challenging going much above 6. Back in the golden days we recorded the guitars, drums and bass on 2 of the 4 tracks available from the stereo out of our ancient mixer. The other 2 tracks, one for vocals and the other for oohs and ahhhs (about as complicated as backing vocals ever got). Now, working on my lonesome, I record the instruments individually (although now predominantly synths) and 1 track for vocals...I've sort of given up on the oohs and ahhhs these days (makes it sound kind of dated 
)
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- KVRAF
- 6467 posts since 18 Jul, 2008 from New York
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- KVRAF
- 3776 posts since 8 Dec, 2008 from Global Cowboy
Two tracks is what we are aiming for most of the time....
The stereo master
The stereo master
No auto tune...
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- Banned
- 1779 posts since 26 Aug, 2012
Shit, you're askin' a question that depends on what style of music you do and you're gettin' a lot of random responses based on what music they create. Well what music do they create? No one's specified. There's pweeple here sayin' they do guitar and drum takes for god sakes!
Clearly those who do future bass would use a hell of a lot more tracks than a minimal techno guy.
Clearly those who do future bass would use a hell of a lot more tracks than a minimal techno guy.
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- KVRAF
- 9580 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
Yeah, the better question is how many are too much. Also dependant on the style of music. But the stories are interesting independant of the style...
I once had to rescue a recording of an opera with big orchestra, recorded by Radio France. I got, I think 6 8-track tapes, sums up to 48 tracks... In the end I used the 2-track room mics and had only added 4 or 5 tracks for the vocals. They would have done better to record just one 8-track... As we had in the studio only 1 machine, it was also hell of a lot work to transfer them to ProTools...
The more tracks you use, the more work it is in the mix. Be lazy!
I once had to rescue a recording of an opera with big orchestra, recorded by Radio France. I got, I think 6 8-track tapes, sums up to 48 tracks... In the end I used the 2-track room mics and had only added 4 or 5 tracks for the vocals. They would have done better to record just one 8-track... As we had in the studio only 1 machine, it was also hell of a lot work to transfer them to ProTools...
The more tracks you use, the more work it is in the mix. Be lazy!
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- KVRAF
- 44171 posts since 11 Aug, 2008 from clown world
If Katy Perry asked me, I'd say ... the exact number of tracks that you normally use, minus the exact number of tracks that you normally use = 0.
This is the same method MJ used when he was working on Anthony Marinelli's Thriller.
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jacqueslacouth jacqueslacouth https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=48379
- KVRian
- 1149 posts since 18 Nov, 2004
What a disgrace!!!Kinh wrote: There's pweeple here sayin' they do guitar and drum takes for god sakes!
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- Boss Lovin' DR
- 14312 posts since 15 Mar, 2002 from the grimness of yorkshire
Some of us have even been known to sing.Kinh wrote:There's pweeple here sayin' they do guitar and drum takes for god sakes!
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2772 posts since 28 Mar, 2007
Tj Shredder wrote:Yeah, the better question is how many are too much. !
After reading the answers my question now seems a bit silly.
I may as well have asked "how long is a piece of string" ?
But your answer does at least bring some common sense into the question by being pragmatic,because the more tracks you have the harder it is to sort it all out.
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- KVRAF
- 4104 posts since 24 Oct, 2000 from A Swede Living in Budapest
For the core musical idea - I keep my track count down to 8 tracks max. If I cannot come up with something that is good enough with 8 tracks then 20 more tracks probably won't help. But after I nailed down the core - I don't care about how many extra tracks I use.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 ?
/C
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HARDWARE SAMPLER FANATIC - Akai S1100/S950/Z8 - Casio FZ20m - Emu Emax I - Ensoniq ASR10/EPS
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- Rad Grandad
- 38041 posts since 6 Sep, 2003 from Downeast Maine
first I'm a pweeple 
I'm a pweeple, he's a pweeple, wouldn't you like to be a pweeple too 
Seriously that was a fair point that Kinh made, different styles is going to make a difference. Imagine the track difference between a piano/violin duet as opposed to a symphony.
Another point that's missed is tracks are different today than in tape days, in comparison to a 4 track say and then like myself saying I can be under 10 tracks or even 8. Thinking about it that was quite misleading, first because if comparing to the old tape days I have to count some tracks I use as two because they are stereo tracks and to be in stereo on a 4-track I would need two tracks. I use to record my bass and drums first on a 4 track, mix those together on a separate deck and re-record them on two tracks elsewhere on my 4-track tape so my drums could be in stereo and adding in the bass I freed up one track. I didn't do typical bouncing, this was my preferred method and also I would do it a few times in a song. So this also brings up a question, what would our track count have been had we had unlimited tracks and no bouncing?
Another point about myself I failed too mention was that because I can now I record 5 tracks for most guitars (sometimes 6 and sometimes 4) which explains why I dont do much comping. 2-3 Mics for guitar, the di out of my amp, I split my guitar signal and record the dry track for re-amping (something I actually rarely do), and the fx I monitor through (Lexicon mx400) but then the fx are stereo so maybe more like 7 or 5 tracks. In my head I still count the guitar as one because of buses which I do use a few of. (off topic: Samp VCA's, I love this on my guitar and drum tracks)
I guess it also depends on what we are talking about here, how many tracks are we mixing at the end or how many tracks are we using total? If comparing to tape days, I could still get by with a 16 track without bouncing at mixdown and maybe have a few leftover if I want a synth or two as well as drums to be in stereo. If we are asking how many tracks would it actually be? Way too many to count. Not really a cut and dry question but it does remind how many ways there are to take advantage of today's technology
I'm a pweeple, he's a pweeple, wouldn't you like to be a pweeple too Seriously that was a fair point that Kinh made, different styles is going to make a difference. Imagine the track difference between a piano/violin duet as opposed to a symphony. Another point that's missed is tracks are different today than in tape days, in comparison to a 4 track say and then like myself saying I can be under 10 tracks or even 8. Thinking about it that was quite misleading, first because if comparing to the old tape days I have to count some tracks I use as two because they are stereo tracks and to be in stereo on a 4-track I would need two tracks. I use to record my bass and drums first on a 4 track, mix those together on a separate deck and re-record them on two tracks elsewhere on my 4-track tape so my drums could be in stereo and adding in the bass I freed up one track. I didn't do typical bouncing, this was my preferred method and also I would do it a few times in a song. So this also brings up a question, what would our track count have been had we had unlimited tracks and no bouncing?
Another point about myself I failed too mention was that because I can now I record 5 tracks for most guitars (sometimes 6 and sometimes 4) which explains why I dont do much comping. 2-3 Mics for guitar, the di out of my amp, I split my guitar signal and record the dry track for re-amping (something I actually rarely do), and the fx I monitor through (Lexicon mx400) but then the fx are stereo so maybe more like 7 or 5 tracks. In my head I still count the guitar as one because of buses which I do use a few of. (off topic: Samp VCA's, I love this on my guitar and drum tracks)
I guess it also depends on what we are talking about here, how many tracks are we mixing at the end or how many tracks are we using total? If comparing to tape days, I could still get by with a 16 track without bouncing at mixdown and maybe have a few leftover if I want a synth or two as well as drums to be in stereo. If we are asking how many tracks would it actually be? Way too many to count. Not really a cut and dry question but it does remind how many ways there are to take advantage of today's technology
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