Benefits to using multiple outputs

[ToddK]

I think you'll find that when using a high number of instruments
in EWQLSO, its wise to assign each and every instrument to its own
output. ( Of course, you'll need Kontakt, preferably K2 to do so i think
Cant remember how many kompakt has :p .)
Even grouping all the horns to one output, doesnt seem to
work/sound as good as assigning them individually.

That way all the summing takes place at the master bus.
No pesky, hidden overs or clips going on.

Put a soft limiter on the master. Dont let it attenuate more than 3 db or so.

With orchestra material, i believe in keeping the dynamic range big, and
not compressing so much.
Seems to sound better overall to me.

Keep the levels on the low side,
until your mixing. Then if you need more at the master bus, start
upping levels.
Use the limiter to get a little extra overall output, instead of cranking
up individual outputs.


Just an idea i thought i'd share.:)
Toddk

[Lerue]

ToddK

This sounds like solid advice, but could you please explain why I would want all my channels going to different outputs as opposed to 1/2 as is my usual custom. My Audio card only has stereo outs, and also, when I do a mix/master, it all goes into a stereo signal, so what would be the benefit to having multiple outs?

Thanks for the info.

Le' rue

Edited cause Tchoyy was on my Mind :o

[tchoyy]

Tchoyy

This sounds like solid advice, but could you please explain why I would want all my channels going to different outputs as opposed to 1/2 as is my usual custom. My Audio card only has stereo outs, and also, when I do a mix/master, it all goes into a stereo signal, so what would be the benefit to having multiple outs?

Thanks for the info.

Le' rue

Huhuhu, it's nice to you thinking of me but I didn't start this thread, it's ToddK :D

[Stefan Podell]

Reasons I bring each instrument back to its own stereo buss:

* I can automate fader moves (and anything else) in Cubase
* I agree with Todd that it sounds better
* They're there, I figure I might as well use them... :p
* If I'm using multiple non-keyswitched versions of an instrument, I can do a single fader move for all the articulations (in other words, I can bring all the 18V patches into one buss, then if I'm doing adjustments, all the patches are effective)

Kompakt has 8 stereo busses, so each patch can still have its own return. So you don't need Kontakt to do this.

- Stefan

[ToddK]

Thanks Stefan!

Happy to hear this is possible in Kompakt.

Great point about bussing multiple articulations to one path.

Talk about speeding up workflow. That really helps. :)
TK

[T. S.]

Hi ToddK,

I'm a little confussed (at my age it's easy to do), are you saying you use an individual audio autput for each Midi track (channel) you use in a particular program? For instance, if you had 3 instances of Kontakt fully loaded would you then have 48 midi tracks (channels) and 48 separate Audio tracks?

If so, does it add much to the CPU?

What DAW are you useing?

I can certainly see the advantage to this for adding "Plugins" and adjusting Volume controls that are more right in front of you without haveing to expand Kontakt.

You say it sounds better. Did you do any A/B type comparisons? Probably pretty hard to do.

If you used this approach on that last composition you did then I am impressed. I'm still wondering what you used for the Bass on that? :)

T.S.

[ToddK]

For bass, i was using straight pizzicato 9 basses, quick up dn 9 basses
and for sustains, 9 basses Big sustain.

A for instance regarding multiple outputs, i would sometimes used to
have clipping from two or more instruments routed through a buss
together, due to high velocities. Having only one instrument/voice
coming through one buss, insures that i will not clip as long as i
keep that instrument's volume at zero db.
I use Kontakt 2 in Nuendo 2.

So, i dont mean per channel. I mean per instrument. it depends on
how many articulations you have for a single instrument. So actually, you
can easily run out of outputs if you have too many articulations going.
But, you can get around that with keyswitching, wich is what i do.
This takes up more ram though. I went all out, and got 3 gigs of
high quality ram. I have a p4 3 ghz with 3 sata drives. One for OS,
one for sample libs, one for recording audio.

So far,, with K2, i havent run out of outputs, and i havent had to render
anything due to cpu overs.

I highly reccomend K2 for EWQLSO.
TK