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MOXATRON
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How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Sat Nov 17, 2018 1:42 am

Okay so another random Question about production techniques.

So normally to make a song/track I would play everything as midi including samples and then when I was happy with how it was sounding,
I would then bounce all the tracks to audio, and then try to mix the levels with just all audio tracks.

But recently I have been lazy and have not bounced any of the midi tracks, so all the plugins and filters are all on the midi tracks.
Saving some time maybe?

And on the main output I put an EQ and a Compressor or Multiprocessor.

(I'm using a 2002 model Power Mac G4 Tower with Logic 8) ( I sometimes max out the CPU when there's to many things going on! and it crashes. )

So my Questions would be.
1. is it better to bounce midi to audio? Do you get any improvement by doing so?
2. How much strain on processor and cpu usage does running plugins and effects on midi tracks compare to Audio tracks?
3. What's other peoples approach opinion to this?
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ruedenz
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Sat Nov 17, 2018 3:16 am

Hey Mox,

I rarely bounce midi to audio. Sometimes, to save CPU, if i have too many effects going on, (to be clear: I bounce the midi track with the effects on and delete the midi track, so after that the CPU usage goes down A LOT) and sometimes, to further mess with the bounced audio itself. I don't know why else you'd do it, but I am happy to be taught differently. :) I guess for some it's more fun to play around with audio tracks, others prefer having the timing control with midi.
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B-Jam vs Enos
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Sat Nov 17, 2018 4:39 am

MOXATRON wrote:
Sat Nov 17, 2018 1:42 am
Okay so another random Question about production techniques.

So normally to make a song/track I would play everything as midi including samples and then when I was happy with how it was sounding,
I would then bounce all the tracks to audio, and then try to mix the levels with just all audio tracks.

But recently I have been lazy and have not bounced any of the midi tracks, so all the plugins and filters are all on the midi tracks.
Saving some time maybe?

And on the main output I put an EQ and a Compressor or Multiprocessor.

(I'm using a 2002 model Power Mac G4 Tower with Logic 8) ( I sometimes max out the CPU when there's to many things going on! and it crashes. )

So my Questions would be.
1. is it better to bounce midi to audio? Do you get any improvement by doing so?
2. How much strain on processor and cpu usage does running plugins and effects on midi tracks compare to Audio tracks?
3. What's other peoples approach opinion to this?
1. There's no improvement by bouncing MIDI to audio.
2. There's no difference CPU wise between a MIDI and an audio track in terms of insert effects.
3. I only bounce tracks if i've maxed my CPU so I only do when I have to. I prefer to keep everything editable via MIDI and/or track effects etc. (I may bounce tracks for creative reasons though such as when I want to chop something up i've played for example)
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JulianConvex
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Mon Nov 19, 2018 8:30 am

1. is it better to bounce midi to audio? Do you get any improvement by doing so?

Technically: If u have a slow CPU -> bounce your stuff to audio. If u have not much RAM -> keep it in midi.

2. How much strain on processor and cpu usage does running plugins and effects on midi tracks compare to Audio tracks?

There is no difference. Plugins gives no fuck where the signal comes from.

3. What's other peoples approach opinion to this?

I don't have problems with both (RAM/CPU) but i really fast bounce my tracks to audio. It helps me alot to stay focused. Because u make a hard decision. After u bounce there is no way back to change something and get lost in details. It freed my mind to just see a simple audio file without huge fx chains and shit. Also u got way more possibilitys to mangle and get creative in terms of sounddesign.
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mlkii
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:10 am

I have to bounce to audio all the time because Reasons VST implementation sucked! Hopefully it gets better soon! I would much rather prefer to keep the tracks in midi for modifying.

When i mix, i bounce ALL tracks to audio most of the time. I don't think there is any advantage to this. However, i do it to keep the composing and mixing as separate activities. It's more of a mental workaround. If I don't, I'll never finish a song. Especially for these battles.

I then bounce all tracks to one audio clip for the mastering. Again, for me its just a technique to mentally separate the activities.
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Professor Coneyack
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:16 am

When starting a track mostly midi, very little audio from returns and/or comp'd tracks. Once the track is like 30% done I always bounce down to audio. The more the track gets finished, the more audio to midi ratio. Less lag, higher performance. Unless you have a buck load of ram and processing speed it dont really matter.
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juicesippin
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:33 pm

Sometimes I will start bouncing midi to audio when I have too much going on. It sorta forces me to commit to certain patterns, and not have to worry about moving notes around. Also, audio in general is easier to be creative with because it can be easily chopped, and effected without worrying about some wierd side effects in your synth patch.
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C!GwiththeArt
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Re: How much midi to audio do you bounce?

Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:20 am

i bounce everything because i lost too much good midi/Vstis sounds because they with time and updates got outdated and didn't work anymore
even so with Tracks that have alot of cpu intense processing on them
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