Definitly not a dumb question.. I've owned some sort of hardware syntheizer for the past 3 years and i've always recorded each sound as it's own .wav file and mixed them together in my sequencer..

the problem with making everything from the synth one .wav file is that you can't put individual FX on each instrument, and unless you have your hardware patched through multiple outputs, the signal will get crowded..

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id say vstis are alot more 'convenient' to use

and in sum ways...better sounding as well

it really matters what kind of soundcard, FX processors, and synths you have. I have slimmed down my studio to only 2 synths, a novation nova and access virus b. the nova is just amazing for effects, it has everything you could possibly want on it except a compressor...reverb, delay,chorus, distortion, phaser, eq, everything. they're all individual too for each part which is nice.

the virus has a global delay and pretty much everything else besides eq (which you can get on a virus C) and you can only use a delay or reverb.

i have a motu 828 which has 8 inputs (16 with converters, which im getting soon ). i used to use a mixer when i had a 2 input soundcard, but now i just hardwire my synths into the soundcard, 4 nova outputs to the first 4 and 4 virus outputs to the second 4. with the virus i have the first two outputs with a software reverb on cubase. i always run a delay on the virus and adjust the send levels for each part. if i dont want something reverbed, then i send it to output 3-4 which is connected to a non-reverbed motu input.

sometimes if i need to, i'll record an individual riff for editing, but pretty much all the time i record the 4 stereo inputs on separate audio tracks, 2 nova, 1 virus with reverb and 1 virus without.

For mixing down, you need to record them to audio. They all get their own track because often a lot of them come from the same synth. Its not like softies where you can have multiple instances so you need to do one at a time.

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quote:

Originally posted by hey cheggy For mixing down, you need to record them to audio. They all get their own track because often a lot of them come from the same synth. Its not like softies where you can have multiple instances so you need to do one at a time.

what does multimbral mean? I always thought it meant that you could have one hardware synth but it was able to play different instruments on different tracks.. no?

every single synthesizer can only send the use of one patch to one track at a time?

You're right Phantax, a sytnh like the Virus C can play 16 different sounds at the same time. However, I think cheggy meant that once you'll record it to audio, you'll record only 1 track at a time, since in most cases you want to keep the possibility to use FX on or change the volume of each individual sound.

No, effects on the virus are universal, so when you run more than one patch at a time, you share the same delay/reverb settings. You can run 3 sounds out of each different output, but then you need 6 ins on your soundcard to cope with recording them seperately. Things like levels need to be adjusted later on in the mix so you can't have everything on 1 audio channel.

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1 out of every 4 people in this country are mentally disturbed. Look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem okay, then you're the one.