Converting midi to audio

Yes often.  Although I do tend to print out the individual stems before finally sub-mixing them after getting the individual track levels into the right ball park.

I'll often submix a drum kit for example from the printed audio stems rather than straight from midi, basically because there's less stress on the system dealing with the stems than there is with the soft-synths/samplers.

Same with horns or strings too or indeed anything that breaks down into a logical sub-mixed section.

I'd probably still work that way if I had computer power to burn too as it makes the workflow (for me at least) a lot simpler.

lvsranch


Does anyone else convert midi to audio before final mixing?  What about mixing down to stems?  Just looking for some others inputs on this.

Yes, and even some effects. Think of it this way... will I still have these virtual instruments and plugins the next time I go back to remix this ? In a year ? 5 years ? 10 years ?

As a rule I convert all tracks to audio before I start the final mix.  That way there is no real time generation of sounds going on except effects.  What you hear is what you get, no surprises.  I also archive them that way so at some point in the future I can get my song back even if I a different daw with all different software.

As for effects plugins I don't worry about those much unless they are rare ones or I'm thinking it's a critical part of the song.  Then I bounce them to audio also.  With time based ones remember to set it to 100% wet, do the bounce, then remove or disable it on the source track.  This is just like the old "print to tape" workflow.

I find converting MIDI to audio more pleasing (especially for a fade out) than the other way around*






larrymcg, a stem is an audio track. Could be a simple as a bass track or as complex as a drum sub-mix (as Jonbouy describes above). HTH








*Melodyne VST is now able to convert audio to MIDI, how cool is that?

Does not simply "freezing" a track do this?  I often freeze tracks but have not seen the need to bounce to another track or "stem".  My understanding of freezing a track is that Sonar will print all soft synth, effects, and EQ to the "frozen" audio track.  It doesn't save envelope automation.

Does not simply "freezing" a track do this? I often freeze tracks but have not seen the need to bounce to another track

Same thing. Just more convenient to un-do.

I am using Total Video Converter to convert any file to any file type. This helps you as per my knowledge.


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