re: X32 Discussion
Wanted to post an audio file and a quick story - a few weeks ago, I did my first live recording with my new X32. Set up was quick and painless, even though we put the recording idea together at the last minute. I patched into the monitor split at the venue (as they no longer had their monitor desk) backstage, and after a quick soundcheck to set head-amp levels, I set about configuring my Studio One V2 template to take the channels in. Since I had inputs on both "ends" of the channels (had most starting at "1", but had a couple recording-only connections that I ran from 32-down), when all was routed, said and done, I took the remaining tracks out of record-arm in S1V2, and "hid" them in the UI. MC is about to start the show, so I hit record - all is well. First band starts - all is well. Levels look good, and needed very minor tweaking to get them dialed in just right. I'm watching the waveforms getting built and populated in S1V2, and watching my meters page on the X32 - all is well. I decided to try something that I've been thinking about doing since the X32 is so flexible. I know I'm sending dry, raw tracks from the pres to the computer, so I decided to mix the show "live to 2-track" in headphones, even though I've not done "house sound" in quite some time - my mix wasn't going to FOH, but I "pretended" it was. Started configuring filters, EQ, dynamics, FX, etc - all is well. After the gig, I'm just elated - everything went off without a hitch, so I strike and head home with my gear and immediately head to the studio to quickly audition the tracks before bed time (it's about 1:30AM by now). I knew we had some 'buzzing' issues periodically with the bass channel, so I immediately went to that track, and found my first problem - no bass. It was a guitar. Hmmmm - I start searching thru the multitracks to find the bass - no bass - anywhere. Now, I'm in kind of a panic, and start looking around at symptoms. It turns out, when I "hid" the tracks earlier that night, it appeared to have changed my digital routing in the DAW, so I had multiple copies of the same input on a few channels, and others were just gone. I was crushed - here I was, recording some soul legends (just for fun, no "charge") and I came up with an incomplete set of tracks at the end of the night. So, back to my 2-buss mix - this was my saving grace. The mix was "good enough" to get a nice feel for the show's energy, with a "decent" balance of all the instruments - not perfect, but "decent". Lessons learned - go back to my "old standby" Reaper to track - simple, lightweight and easy-to-configure, and then just copy the WAVs into my S1V2 project when I'm ready to mix (I *love* S1 for mixing!). Here's a link to one of the tunes that I mixed "live to 2-track" that night - I have a long way to go to get my 2-buss mix to "Christian" levels, but it's encouraging to know that it can be done (and then some....).
(Me and) Mrs. Jones