add a track

[Stephanie]

I have recorded my band with 4 tracks. Two of those are the main tracks that have all instruments and vocals, track three contains just the vocal of one mike and track four just the lead guitar. The reason for this is to able to add the signal of vocal and/or lead guitar if the balance is out and I need to add either one of the two to the main tracks. There are 10 songs on the main tracks and I may have to add (for instance) the additional vocal track to song 3 and 7 because it's not loud enough but without losing what's already on the two main tracks. I don't want to copy and paste because then I would be replacing data and not adding. Is there a way of doing that.

[Lou Kash]

I would import the tracks to GarageBand and mix them there. That's exactly the kind application you want to use for these kind of things.

[Gerard Bik]

Have you tried the envelope function? It's the blue line in the top of the track.

First set the envelope of the extra tracks to zero (envelope down).
Then raise the envelope line at the places where you want the tracks to mix in.

Switch tracks on and off with the "Play" tickbox

gerards regards

I have recorded my band with 4 tracks. Two of those are the main tracks that have all instruments and vocals, track three contains just the vocal of one mike and track four just the lead guitar. The reason for this is to able to add the signal of vocal and/or lead guitar if the balance is out and I need to add either one of the two to the main tracks. There are 10 songs on the main tracks and I may have to add (for instance) the additional vocal track to song 3 and 7 because it's not loud enough but without losing what's already on the two main tracks. I don't want to copy and paste because then I would be replacing data and not adding. Is there a way of doing that.

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[Stephanie]

I will try the envelope idea (hartelijk dank). I do have Garage Band and I looked around briefly. One of the things I didn't see was import an audio file.
Could you help me with that?

[Gerard Bik]

It is as easy as drag and drop (sleur en pleur). Drag audiofiles from the finder into a new track or anywhere in an existing track. But first you will have to split the Amadeus multitrack file into separate aiff or mp3 files.
Garageband uses the same mixing-by-envelope interface.

I will try the envelope idea (hartelijk dank). I do have Garage Band and I looked around briefly. One of the things I didn't see was import an audio file.
Could you help me with that?

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[Stephanie]

Maybe you have the pro version of Amadeus. I don't have a blue line at the top of the track. I have version 3.8.7. Can you expand Amadeux to 3 or 4 tracks instead of 2? If so, I can't find how to do this.

[CDJonah_alt]

Yes, those are features of AP not AII.

You could do some of the things you want by doing "paste special" -- I
did that in the past before the existence of AP. If you want to handle
multiple tracks easily, it is probably worth updating as with AII, a
paste special is "final" (you could undo of course) but with AP you can
use the envelope function, see if you like it and then try again.

Chuck

Stephanie wrote:

Maybe you have the pro version of Amadeus. I don't have a blue line at the top of the track. I have version 3.8.7. Can you expand Amadeux to 3 or 4 tracks instead of 2? If so, I can't find how to do this.




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[Gerard Bik]

Okay I see. You mentioned 4 tracks, so I automatically assumed they were already in APro. My mistake. Three options remain: use Amadeus II (the way Chuck mentioned), upgrade to Amadeus Pro or use Garageband.

Is your four track recording already in the computer or on an external device?

Maybe you have the pro version of Amadeus. I don't have a blue line at the top of the track. I have version 3.8.7. Can you expand Amadeux to 3 or 4 tracks instead of 2? If so, I can't find how to do this.

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[Gerard Bik]

A recurring theme on this forum is how to adjust the levels of different parts of a recording.
Preferably automatic.


MacUser (UK) mentioned The Levelator.
http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator/


From the website:
So what is The Levelator? It's software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It's not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It's much more than those tools, and it's much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler's application window, and a few moments later you'll find a new version which just sounds better.

A first test shows remarkable improvement indeed for speech. With music, strange effects are bound to occur. A fade-out that gets below a certain level will be amplified again: resulting in a kind of boomerang fade.


Try it for yourself. it's free!


gerards regards




Note to Martin:
Amadeus erroneously is not mentioned in this list. (Some educating might be necessary)
it used to take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition

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[Lou Kash]

But first you will have to split the Amadeus multitrack file into separate aiff or mp3 files.

If you edit music recordings, always work with uncompressed audio formats, i.e. AIFF or WAVE.
(There may come a time in the future when you might regret that you were trying to save a few lousy MB of hard drive space by working with lossy-compressed audio. Personally I have a similar experience with my archive analog recordings from my 1980s groups. Many of them are virtually useless today because then we thought we must save a few bucks on microphones, high quality tapes, and other stuff. You get the picture...)

You might want to export your multitrack recording as one stereo AIFF (the basic track) and two mono AIFFs (the separate tracks). Then you have three files to import into GarageBand per drag and drop, as stated above. Optionally you can add the exported files to iTunes first, which has the advantage that you can easily tag them with metadata, and then you can use GarageBand's Media Browser to import them from iTunes directly.

Another advantage of mixing in GB is, that you can apply any sound processing AU plugins and GB effects non-destructively.
In the end you output to a stereo AIFF file which can be added to iTunes automatically.

Oh, and don't forget rule no. 1:
NEVER perform a final mix into the headphones!!!
Attach a pair of good speakers, turn ALL equalizers of your amplifier OFF, and listen to some reference CDs you like, to get the feel for the basic sound color of your speakers (unless you already have a pair of neutral reference studio monitors).

[Lou Kash]

Stephanie, re-reading your original message, one more note:

Depending on the kind of the recording, I would possibly split the original multitrack recording into separate songs first. Then you can edit only the songs that actually need editing.

When mixing in GB, you can then make a "template" from the first song you'll be mixing, so you don't have to start all over for each song. Simply save it under a new name and replace the audio files on its tracks.

[Stephanie]

I really appreciate your help and suggestions, Gerard, Chuck and Lou. Meanwhile I created two mono files that need to be combined into one file so that I have a dual mono file with two tracks that are the same. I don't need to use the extra track for the lead guitar because it's loud enough throughout. So, one mono file has all instruments and vocals and the second mono file has amplified vocals. I will also try your other suggestions and probably go to Amadeus Pro. Sounds like it's worthwhile. I dragged and dropped (sleurde en pleurde - that's for the Dutch among us) the two mono files into GB, but I'm not sure I can work with that program. No soundwaves and there's a number of other things I didn't like. Could be a matter of getting used to it. Seems to be quite a learning curve there. To answer another question. The original recordings are on a 4 track Fostex and ended up as WAV files on my Mac, then saved as aiff files. I find that the best format and burn CD's in that format too.

[CDJonah_alt]

Sounds like you have a way -- may sound a bit strange however because
the vocal will be off to the side.

Chuck

Stephanie wrote:

I really appreciate your help and suggestions, Gerard, Chuck and Lou. Meanwhile I created two mono files that need to be combined into one file so that I have a dual mono file with two tracks that are the same. I don't need to use the extra track for the lead guitar because it's loud enough throughout. So, one mono file has all instruments and vocals and the second mono file has amplified vocals. I will also try your other suggestions and probably go to Amadeus Pro. Sounds like it's worthwhile. I dragged and dropped (sleurde en pleurde - that's for the Dutch among us) the two mono files into GB, but I'm not sure I can work with that program. No soundwaves and there's a number of other things I didn't like. Could be a matter of getting used to it. Seems to be quite a learning curve there. To answer another question. The original recordings are on a 4 track Fostex and ended up as WAV files on my Mac, then saved as aiff files. I find that the best format and burn CD's in that

fo

rmat too.




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Charles D. Jonah CDJonah@anl.gov
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Chemistry Division
Argonne National Laboratory
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[Stephanie]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the vocal will be off to the side. I'm planning on combining the two mono tracks into one mono track and then make a dual mono so it's the same on L and R. It's probably not the shortest route, but I'm not that adept yet and I thought the theory sounds ok.

[Lou Kash]

and then make a dual mono so it's the same on L and R

Why that?
A mono track will play simultaneously on both channels of your Mac. There's no need to double its size. If you burn it to audio CD, it will be automatically converted to a dual channel track.

By the way, no offense, but... :)
In that time you're trying to figure out how to mix the tracks the HARD way using Amadeus, you already might have taken a quick tour through GarageBand's help files and learn how to use it.
It's really as easy as it only can be and it's the best tool for what you want to accomplish.
A friend of mine who hardly knows how to copy and paste text from one text document to another, he intuitively learned to play with GB in almost no time, now producing gigabytes of weird music (or something close to that...) mostly with his self-recorded audio samples and noises.