New Tracks :: Overbridge is my new best friend!

Hi all,

I just completed a set of songs that are my first daw assisted tunes in over 3 years. Up until the past few months I’ve been recording live to stereo, but this new workflow thanks to Overbridge is really working out for me. All sounds made with Octatrack, Analog Four, and RYTM.

Hope you enjoy !

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good job, i like depth :wink:

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Thanks ! Depth is my fav too

This is my kind of stuff. Very nice!

I also like Depth but RND is really good too!

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Congrats, really good stuff in here ! My personal favorite is RND, man, that bass :heart_eyes::+1:

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Thanks @DampSquid nice of you to say. Whats your SC I’ll check out your tunes as well ?

Cheers @tobee appreciate the support ! RND was so fun to make and came together fast. I feel like maybe my technoish stuff is a bit busy too many sounds. I’m learning :smiling_imp:

Okay, to a little explanation of how you did it
It would be good
keep it up
Regards …

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Sure thing @evilheat

Set up is basically:

RYTM > Overhub > Mac
A4 > Overhub > Mac
OT Cue Out > A4 Ext Inputs > REC via overbridge
I have RYTM and A4 Overbridge sync setting set to clock so they receive start/stop/sync from Ableton live.

I also have a midi out from RYTM to Octatrack and when recording I turn the OT so its receiving sync only but its sending out program change messages. This is because when I perform I am used to changing patterns on OT because thats how I play live. The sync needs to come from DAW not OT though because otherwise my recordings are way off grid.

I set up Overbridge control panel to accept inputs on 8 tracks for RYTM and 5 tracks (4 incl ext) for A4. So now I have 13 tracks set up in Ableton live set to rec from the correct OB inputs. I actually made a template that I use always for OB recordings so I don’t have to do it each time.

Now the second weird thing I do is I also record stereo in via my Steinberg UR22 MKII interface. It’s also hooked up with Overhub. This sits at the top of my arrangement view always and I can mute/unmute it.

I have the master out on OT going into the UR22 and I monitor the stereo on my speakers not the ableton output. This gets recorded on it’s own stereo track alongside the OT multitrack.

The reason I like having both the multitrack OB recording and the stereo track simultaneous is I record the whole song same as I would perform it live. With all modulations and live tweaking, mutes, etc. I keep the stereo file always as my reference for how I played with the FX, and how I live arranged it. So even if I chop up all the multitrack files and re-arrange and clean it up with Ableton, I can refer back to the original live recording. I want to enhance the live arrangement only, not re-write it.

So after recording I have the full song in multitrack and I’m staring at 13 audio files with long spaces of empty (sometimes even empty tracks). I begin the DAW arrangement by adding a dummy midi track on top and I put 8 bar clips colored and named to match different parts of the song. IE: INTRO, PART A, PART B. This helps me quickly chop up the audio tracks and move things around. I generally chop it up in 8 or 16 bar segments especially for the drum tracks. The long performy bits where maybe I was tweaking things live, I will leave as intact as possible, deleting only the silent areas. I also go through the tracks and fix any blips … the most common for me would be muting/unmuting drums at the wrong time. Missed kicks or stray hats mostly :smiley:

I set up 3 sends to represent the FX that were removed by OB because I’m working with dry recordings. I have a reverb, delay, and saturation/overdrive send. I try and match as close to the original FX I had set up so its easy to look at the machines and replicate the FX levels. I don’t really add back any Chorus because I add some stereo widening in master and I don’t want to “over widen” anything. I barely use any chorus anyways since I get some stereo stuff from rev/del.

For mixing I usually have it already mixed to the right levels on the machines so I don’t touch the levels. The only time I change the level is when I add plugins that bring the level up. I could use wet/dry levels or reduce makeup gain, but it’s not always possible to get it perfect so I just use my ears. Also thats why I keep my original live as ref ! Keep the mix the same.

After I have all the tracks chopped, arranged, FX re-added, and mix just right I usually take the loudest part of the track and add a reference track on top of it so I can compare my mix, EQ, fullness, transients etc etc. I always bring the reference track down to match my RMS not bring my RMS up to match the reference. (Since I’ll be bringing mine up in Master) For bouncing my mix I keep my master FX pretty limited. I use a transparent compressor with just mild glue settings. A characterful EQ just boosting a bit and cutting a bit, and a use Voxengo Span to really get a detailed look at the shape of my EQ curve.

For Master I take the 24/96 audio file I rendered and I move into Reaper. I know I could do it in Ableton, but I like the way reaper navigates and I prefer doing master in a different “headspace” or environment. I basically do all the stuff you’d do to master … I can make another long typey post about this hahahaha but I’m also not even close to pro at mastering so … errrhh I’ll omit it for now.

If you have questions about any of the process, please hit me up. Happy to share :smiley:

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thanks for the info it’s a complex configuration but it seems to work pretty well,
one of the hardest things that there is to replicate the sensation of live using multitrack recording, in the end you end up loading the track in question, one thing that I do not have is, do you record the changes of the pattern of the octa via midi in ableton?
no more a greeting from the Balearic Islands

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Complex yes, but once I got the recording set up down its a piece of cake :smiley:

I don’t record any midi data in just the multitrack audio. I perform the song just like I would at a gig so all program changes are done on OT on the fly. I count/feel the 8 and 16 bar sections and change patterns around there. Sometimes live I’ll accidentally do a section thats 12 bars or 20 bars instead of multiples of 8 but I can clean this up later in the arrangement and still maintain all the perfoming and tweaking I did live.

It’s really lucky that Overbridge exists or I wouldn’t even get A4 into the box in multitrack (since theres only stereo out on A4).

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