Mixdown Program?

[ShaolinDrunkard]

I love traktion, but I need another program I can mixdown with. Preferably one that allows you to mute/enable each track quickly and easily, possibly from the keyboard. Any suggestions? I figured I'd record in traktion, then "render" each trak to a seprerate file and import them into the other program when its time to mixdown.

Thanks ahead of time.

[larsfarm]

I can recommend Tracktion... I use T only for mixing stuff I've recorded with a Mackie SDR hard disc recorder... T can mute/solo channels at will...

[Lunch Money]

I also recommend doing it all within Tracktion; however, other people seem to have success with Adobe Audition, which can also double as your audio editor within Tracktion.

Still, I can't think of any advantage any program would have over Tracktion for doing a mix.

Greg

[ShaolinDrunkard]

Let me further explain. I need to be able to mute/enable multiple traks at once. I have adobe audition, that works great for editing, but not for mixing down. In traktion you can only really mute/enable a fast as you can move the mouse from one trak to another unless you buy the Makie control interface(which I dont have near enough money for). My music is electronic and I have to be able to quickly mute/enable traks. I geuss maybe the program I'm looking for might not exist, I was hoping for something that might allow you to use the keyboard numbers to mute/enable the corresponding traks. Sort of the way a studio mixing board would have mute/enable buttons above each trak so you can mute/enable multiple traks at once. Its true Traktion can mute/enable fine but only as fast as you hand can move from one trak to another.

[Lunch Money]

2 further suggestions:

1. Make bus groups if you know some of those tracks are going to be muted at once.

2. Discover the unbridled power and fury of automation. "Riding the faders" is all fine and dandy, but not really for muting. Since it's something you can plan in advance, why not automate the muting or arrange your track so that the clips are 'cut' at the right spots? Making multiple edits only takes a few kilobytes extra since the actual audio files don't need to be copied multiple times.

Other than that, another suggestion would be to use a 'virtual keyboard' that allows you to steal Tracktion's normal 'hotkey' focus and program the keys as MIDI CCs latched to a mute function. I'm not sure if this mute function can be 'latched to' with native Tracktion filters, but you can always replace those with 3rd party, including ones by La Barrail or home-brewed with SynthEdit.

Where there's a will there's a way, but you need to think outside of the bun, I mean "box".

Greg

[ShaolinDrunkard]

I dont think the mute buttons can be mapped, but thanks for the automation suggestion. I didnt know automation worked for mute/enable.

[LRS]

I dont think the mute buttons can be mapped, but thanks for the automation suggestion. I didnt know automation worked for mute/enable.

I'm not sure that it does however you can automate the track volume to an "off" position any time you like.

Cheers
Graham
www.lakesiderecordingstudio.co.nz

[DaveL60]

A tip in a CM special issue was to chop the clip up using the / shortcut key to isolate the bit you'd like to adjust (mute, in this case) and set that clip's volume independently. Simpler than automation, in some cases.

DaveL

[Rock]

there is another way to flip back and forth between groups of muted tracks...

1st - Add a new volume control to all envolved tracks.
2nd - Turn down all the separate volumes to 0 db
3rd - use the 'f' key to disable all the volumes in group one
4th - select all of the volume controls envolved in both groups

now the "f" key will toggle back and forth between the two groups as long as all are selected

[Todd24]

A tip in a CM special issue was to chop the clip up using the / shortcut key to isolate the bit you'd like to adjust (mute, in this case) and set that clip's volume independently. Simpler than automation, in some cases.

DaveL

Or just delete the clips that you dont want to hear.

[djsubject]

i can knock up a 20 track mute (if IIRs helps me i might get solos on it as well) vst to go in a wrapper & that can be automated or assinghed to midi controllers,

or use any vst with a mute button, then that can be automated or assinghed to a midi controller


Subz

[Beno]

There is an automateable mute in the volume/pan filter in T2. Its just a shortcut to automating volume drops. It can be "played" in real time too.
Ben

[wazun]

The only thing that worries me to use tracktion for a mixdown is the audio bugs I read about on this forum, that the sound gets worse the higher the cpu load is and about clipping problems.

[Lunch Money]

The render bug is sorted (as far as I know, and besides that, and I know some people hate it when this is mentioned, but NOBODY could even tell for almost 2 years that it was there...), and ALL sequencers will begin to stutter with higher CPU load. This should not happen while rendering, since it's a different 'beast' than realtime playback.

I don't think you have anything to fear by using Tracktion for mixdown.

As for automation, I was definitely assuming that you would be automating the volume filter to go to 0, not just turning a 'mute' on/off. Isn't putting the volume at 0 a mute, after all?

I'm personally more a fan of just shit-canning parts of clips that you're not using. Keep a 'master edit' with all your clips intact, and just 'save as' to make new edits with your various mixdowns, chopping out the bits you don't need rather than 'muting' them. The technique Rock mentioned should work well, too, just slicing up your clips with "/" and dragging new volume filters to them and 'muting' using the clip-based volume filter.

Greg

[pHz]

besides ... if you want to render tracks to individual waves before you mix then CPU load probably wont be ani issue (although HD speed might then rear its head if you have LOADS of tracks) ...

slainte rob