KVR Audio

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 4:12 pm

I'd say "enough" is however many the song needs. If it only needs 8, use 8. If it needs 98, use 98. Nobody really cares how many tracks you use or not, they only care about what the end result sounds like.

And don't confuse "tracks" with "channels". a 24 track song might have 36 or more mixer channels, depending on routing and grouping and multing and all that other stuff.

At any rate, some of the R&B songs I used to get to mix would have 8-12+ tracks of backing vocals by themselves, harmony layers, before even counting things like drums, which if stemmed correctly for full control might be 10-14 tracks. With some genres it's pretty easy to get over 40+ "real tracks" before even counting mixer channels, busses, VCA's and FX Returns.

Boone777 · Post by **Boone777** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:34 pm

One thing that can influence the track count is distortion. With orchestras you can add more intruments without it being a complete mess as opposed to metal guitars for example. Lowering distortion you will be able to add more though like double or quadruple tracking. The number of tracks in orchestral music might simply be 2 overheads or a 100 tracks when working with VSTi.

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:38 am

Boone777 wrote:One thing that can influence the track count is distortion. With orchestras you can add more intruments without it being a complete mess as opposed to metal guitars for example. Lowering distortion you will be able to add more though like double or quadruple tracking. The number of tracks in orchestral music might simply be 2 overheads or a 100 tracks when working with VSTi.

You can't add distortion by adding tracks. The projects I know with a lot of tracks for sure don't have sound all the time. That is more a question of composition or arrangement. DAWs work internally with 32-bit floating point. It is not analog, its digital...
I did not understand your last sentence, maybe repeat it in your native language, then someone can translate it correctly...

stardustmedia · Post by **stardustmedia** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:45 am

Boone777 wrote:One thing that can influence the track count is distortion. With orchestras you can add more intruments without it being a complete mess as opposed to metal guitars for example. Lowering distortion you will be able to add more though like double or quadruple tracking. The number of tracks in orchestral music might simply be 2 overheads or a 100 tracks when working with VSTi.

What do you mean with distortion? Why should adding a track in a DAW add distortion? That doesn't make sense to me.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:19 am

I think Shredder means distorted sounds.

Though I have distortion as a send effect.

Gucky · Post by **Gucky** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:05 pm

So far as I remember I never use more than 12 tracks in my Faber project.
Sometimes only 5 tracks.
Here is an example for 5 tracks. I think it needs no more tracks for this song:"Canadian rain"
https://soundcloud.com/musikus/canadian-rain

I think more tracks would destroy the mood of the song.
So I decided in general not to add so many tracks on a new song as possible but only so many tracks as a new songs needed
and no one more.

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:49 pm

one more.

stardustmedia · Post by **stardustmedia** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:05 pm

Burillo wrote:one more.

∞ - n * (idealtrackcount - (numberofKVRreplies)^2)+1

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:07 pm

You can see below how a band or group recording tracks can easily stack up. In a modern daw some of those would be stereo tracks but if you look at them individually as mono tracks it stacks up quickly. 36 tracks with a possible 3 that won't get used, maybe the hat and one of the two bass or lead guitar recordings. That's why studios were syncing two 24 tracks decks together, because they needed more tracks.

Kick In
Kick Out
Snare
Snare Btm
Hat
Tom 1
Tom 2
Tom 3
Overhead L
Overhead R
Room L
Room R
Tamb
Perc L
Perc R
Bass DI
Bass Amp
Piano L
Piano R
Synth L
Synth R
Rythym Guitar
Lead Guit DI
Lead Guit Amp
Violin 1
Violin 2
BG Harm Alto
BG Harm Alto
BG Harm Soprano
BG Harm Soprano
BG Harm Tenor
BG Harm Tenor
BG Harm Bass
BG Harm Bass
Lead Vox
Lead Vox Dbl Ad Lib

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:09 pm

Usually as few as I can get away with - 2-3 maybe

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:16 pm

Gucky wrote:So far as I remember I never use more than 12 tracks in my Faber project.
Sometimes only 5 tracks.
Here is an example for 5 tracks. I think it needs no more tracks for this song:"Canadian rain"
https://soundcloud.com/musikus/canadian-rain

I think more tracks would destroy the mood of the song.
So I decided in general not to add so many tracks on a new song as possible but only so many tracks as a new songs needed
and no one more.

Thats heavy rain you get in Canada !

The tune has a minimalist 80's vibe, reminds me of stuff from back then using hardware musicstations.

I guess you used 5 synth sounds, one on each track.

Of course you could have used 5 synth sounds over many more tracks and had different parts on seperate tracks and routed fx to the same sounds.

For simplicity, is it better to do it all on one track with clip based fx,or split it over numerous tracks ?

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:11 pm

Gucky wrote:I think more tracks would destroy the mood of the song.

More tracks would not help the mood, but a real flute instead of the synth one would really push it. Recorders are also way cheaper than synths, though you would need a microphone, which would add to the cost...; - )
Maybe put another track in, play the melody with a real flute and then compare the mix...
You might need to rehearse for one or two hours if you don't know recorders, but thats pure fun...

Sorry, couldn't resist, take it as a compliment, I like the mood...

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:36 pm

Eight! - Six for the cowbell, and everything else dubbed live to the last stereo pair.

dzilizzi · Post by **dzilizzi** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:06 pm

I used to program all my drums on one track. Actually, if I'm using something like Addictive Drums, I still do. But when you properly mic drums, there are at least 10 (?) mics, meaning 10 tracks. Probably more if you have them. Vocals can run into a lot of tracks if you do doubling and background and have separate tracks for verses and choruses. Maybe you want to add different effects to each verse or chorus?

And now I am looking at learning orchestration. I've been watching a lot of informational videos. Some instruments have key switches for the different articulations. But if you use the key switches and want to change things, it can be a pain. Whereas if each articulation is on a different track, you can have some instruments playing legato at the same time others are playing stacatto - which may happen in an orchestra. But then you have crazy amounts of tracks and you think about stealing the 47 inch TV from the family room to use as a monitor. (65 inch would be better though I am not sure where I would put it. Open floor plan and lots of windows = very little wall space)

So, 5? Plus a master - 6? Oh wait, effects, so 7, um 8? Yeah, I have no idea.

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:44 pm

dzilizzi wrote:But then you have crazy amounts of tracks and you think about stealing the 47 inch TV from the family room to use as a monitor. (65 inch would be better though I am not sure where I would put it. :

How about a DAW with a "carousel" spin view ?

Does such a thing exist ?

All the tracks on a revolving drum that expands as the track number grows ?

No more scroll - scroll - scroll.

Just - spin - spin -spin !

How many tracks is enough ?