This week Ryan answers a listener’s question about how to get virtual instruments and “in the box” sounds to sit better in a mix and Jesse talks about lost files in a session and protecting your data. While Jon still does not have his equipment after the move across Canada, we had a 3 year old fill in for him.
The Home Recording Show
The Internet's Best Home Recording Podcast
Speaking of track names… When I first started using an external HD to record an album, I figured “let’s make this thing Mac and Windows compatible so I can bring it into ANY studio.” Bad idea… the only option is to format it with a FAT32 file structure. FAT32 limits the length of file names to 11 characters. So “Grand Piano.1.aiff” becomes “GRANDPIA.AIF”.
I could deal with this, but Logic 7 (what I was using at the time) couldn’t. If I recorded multiple takes or sections for a track, it would name the resulting audio files “Grand Piano.1.aiff”, “Grand Piano.2.aiff”, etc. Unfortunately, either the OS or Logic wasn’t smart enough to truncate everything EXCEPT the take number. Each new recording on that track, be it a new take or a different part of the song, would be named “GRANDPIA.AIF” just like the previous take.
How did I discover this? When I opened my project the next day and every section of the piano track- verses, chorus, bridge, etc. -were the same last-take recording placed at various points of the song. Yup, all of yesterday’s work was totally and irrevocably fucked.
The lesson here: Use the long-format file system that’s built into your OS and worry about transferring files later if you need to.
Great episode. I’m going to have to research whales to keep up with Gianni.
Hey Ryan.. Gianni makes more sense than Jon.. I think you should keep him on the show and give Jon the flip ROTFLOL
Jesse.. LOL.. Good Thing about Logic is you can set the program to save ALL assets in the specific song mix folder (or as they call it the project folder). And then you just copy or back up that song project folder and ALL the assets including settings files, reverb setting, Impulse response files, audio tracks, samples etc etc etc all get copied. Basically nothing is left behind but the actual program itself (ala Logic).
Son’t ya just love Logic Jesse?? ROTFLOL
you guys have mentioned some other DAW’s besides Pro Tools and stuff, one program i don’t ever hear anything about, that i use, and have been using since the mid 90’s is Sony Vegas, was wondering what you guys think about it, if you’ve even used it. it’s a great program, very user friendly, intuitive, and extremely powerful. what’s your take on it?
-duane
Thanks for the comment Steve. I do love Logic. As far as Vegas Dane, I’ve never used it. I’m mostly a mac guy, so I’ve never tried it. I’ve heard good things about it on the web from users, but I still go by whatever works for you is what you should use. Most DAW’s out there do just about all the same stuff, just pick one that suits your needs best. I use Pro Tools, because that was what was around when I first started using computers. If it would have been Digital Performer, that’s probably what I’d be using today.
Your son is sooo cute! And yes, get rid of Jon in favor of your son.