I could use some advice here. If I'm setting up a workstation that includes a mac G4 running Logic Audio/EXS24/Unitor 8 MIDI interface, 1-2 PCs dedicated to Gigastudio with RME cards with lots of digital outputs, and I want to record digitally back into the mac, but want to render each channel to it's own discreet audio track, what would be the best way to go about this, keeping in mind that I would need some sort of multi-in digital interface for the G4 mac? I don't .want to record each track separately--probably each section of the orchestra submixed though (but maybe not)
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rendering orchestral composition to audio--looking for tips!
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Yeah, you can render the EXS. I guess I'm mainly curious about how to quickly and efficiently get the many Giga tracks recorded in to the mac in 1 or 2 takes...
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aha...
well I hear the freeze thing is supposed to be pretty invisible to the user so that might be the way to go.
It will be interesting if things go "faster than realtime" in future logic's, in terms of rendering.
Hard to say right now I guess, I know some cards have rerouting software that allows you to route outputs back to inputs without cables. Egosys cards for example have "direct wire" which does exactly that.
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Question for you: Do you have a digital Mixer currently? Are you planning to purchase one? This is important mostly because of monitoring - let's say you had a Hammerfall in each Giga, and one or two within the Mac. If you don't have anything to monitor through, your monitoring will be susceptible to the latency incurred on the way in and out of the Mac to your speakers. There are ways to get around this in the mixer-less world, such as using specific audio interfaces, like the MOTU 2408mkIII. MOTU's Cuemix Console allows you to route your digital audio from all the inputs to your speaker outs, so that you can have a monitoring console at the same time as having all those inputs enabled in record. The other major advantage of this system over others for a Mac is that it only takes one PCI card, letting you expand with multiple rackmounted boxes, instead of taking up several slots as you expand the I/O. For example, two Hammerfall HDSP's systems (for a total of 6 Adat ports) takes up four slots (two slots, two backplanes).
If you opt towards a digital mixer, then not only do you get great monitoring but also flexible routing, hardware fader control, and tons of EQ and Dynamics processors plus effects. A good choice would be the Mackie D8B which recently dropped in price by several thousand dollars. An important advantage in using a mixer is that it is designed to mix audio and sound good at that, unlike the Gigastudio software or even Logic's mix bus. This is a techie subject, but basically the quality of your submixed output from the D8B would far exceed the sound of using Gigastudio's internal DSP-station mixer.
All that being said, if VSL is your primary use on Gigastudio, don't expect to get tons of outs at the same time. Most users are reporting that only 6-8 Legato instruments can be loaded at once,
One last thing: a final important thing not to overlook in this situation is the way you clock the system. There are a variety of advantages to having a master clock reference in this kind of situation so that your interfaces interact properly and your converters perform at their highest level.
Sorry to overload with info...
Steve Rapoport
West L.A. Music
steve44@westlamusic.com
(323) 845-1145
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