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Chapter 4: Advanced Recording
MT50 User's Guide
Advanced One-Take Recording Techniques
What happens if you want to record musical instruments or electronic
devices that output stereo sound? With only four tracks, your options get
used up in a hurry!
There is another problem. Any spatial nuances--the subtle things you might
want to do with positioning sounds in the left-to-right stereo image--can be
lost if you have only one track reserved for your drum machine.
The special one-take recording capabilities of the MT50 explained below
allow you to accomplish some pretty slick tricks to solve these problems.
These techniques involve the MT50's sophisticated ability to control the
placement of sound in the stereo image, and its ability to bounce multiple
left and right tracks to a stereo two-track mix.
This might sound complicated, but it's easy to do. It basically involves just
two controls: the Record Select (REC SEL) switch and the PAN control.
For example:
•
You can record four instruments at the same time, but use up only two
tracks in the process.
•
Many drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers output stereo
sound. Perhaps you spent a lot of time programming a drum machine so
that different drum sounds (bass, snare, etc.) are panned left or right in
the stereo image. This can make a recorded drum part far more dynamic.
Using this technique, you can preserve the stereo placement of a previ-
ously-programmed drum machine or synthesizer without running out of
tracks.
•
Perhaps you want to create stereo guitar effects using, for example, a
stereo chorus connected to two guitar amplifiers with different tonal
characteristics or delay times. You might then record this stereo output
to two tracks so the left and right channels of your guitar solo have a dif-
ferent tone. If you bounce the solo to a single track, you would lose the
left-and-right placement of your guitar's two tones, essentially undoing
your efforts. Using this technique, you can preserve the stereo nuances
of your solo.
The following diagram illustrates how signals from each PAN control are
routed to the stereo bus (the two thick horizontal pipes in the diagram) and
output via the STEREO OUT jacks. That is, each PAN control functions as
a "turn indicator" directing signals onto the stereo bus. The following pages
will explain how to record four musical instruments on two tracks, and how
to keep a stereo image of two instruments on a recording. As the diagram
shows, the L output is sent to tracks 1 and 3, and the R output is sent to
tracks 2 and 4.2
STEREO BUSS
PAN
PAN
L
R
L
Drum
Bass
Module 1
Module 2
STEREO OUT
L
R
To track 1 or 3
PAN
R . . . . . L
R
Guitar
. . . . . . . . .
4
To track 2 or 4
&
4
3
2
1