I was doing a test last night of converting MIDI to AUDIO so I could apply the audio plugins to the drums. I have EZDrummer inserted as soft synth. Put some loops in a MIDI track. Playback was as expected. Sounded very good. Next step was to run CAL - split notes to tracks. Playback of split notes thru EZDrummer was still very good. No change from before running CAL. Then I took the KICK MIDI track from the CAL split and bounced it to an audio track. The results I got at that point were disappointing, to say the least. The overall volume level was way low and the sound of the kick was no where close to what it was in the MIDI track. What I did: So I went back and made sure the track levels on the bounce were set up higher. I set the audio output track for the MIDI track to 0 db. During the bounce to track I used the default settings for the most part other than trying the bounce to stereo and also trying mono. No difference in quality. I also used 'TRACK' as my selection during the bounce. Anyone else experience this change in sound quality when bouncing to track? Any suggestions what else I might try to improve this? Thanks Dave

What soundcard are you using? 

I seem to recall that with factory cards the windows mixer can control the levels of bounce and audio input. 

check that. 

using PreSonas FireStudio Any windows soundcards are disabled so it wouldn't seem like the windows mixer could be causing it eh? As much perplexed by the was the sound of the kick drum changed after the bounce. Sounded nothing like the MIDI version. No PC modules were in use. I don't do a lot of bounce to track stuff so I'm really not sure if this was like this is X1 (BTW I am using X2), or if I were to try this with a different soft synth and see if the problem persists in something other than EZDrummer. Will try one of the keyboard synths tonite and see what happens.

it shouldn't be doing that.  but I have to ask why you feel it necessary to split the MIDI notes to separate tracks instead of just using separate audio outputs from EZD?

you can set up EZD to send outputs to different tracks and you can either add audio FX for processing directly on those output tracks or if you need to save CPU then you can bounce the audio to new tracks or FREEZE (much cleaner, IMO).

Well Beagle, I did not know that! Excellent tip. I thank you. WAY simpler than my described method.

click on the little mixer icon on the EZD GUI and it will take you to the MIXER page where you can set which components go to which ouputs.

however, you need separate audio outputs for the synth.  this can be done easily when you first insert the synth by selecting ALL AUDIO OUTPUTS STEREO from the popup dialog box.

if you didn't select that when you inserted the synth and only have one audio output, then you can add them manually, but that's more of a pain.  you have to set the inputs and outputs correctly after you add them (up to 8 outputs for EZD, IIRC).

Sounds easy enough. Tips like this just make life a lot easier. Thanks Again. Much appreciated. dave

Beagle


it shouldn't be doing that.  but I have to ask why you feel it necessary to split the MIDI notes to separate tracks instead of just using separate audio outputs from EZD?

you can set up EZD to send outputs to different tracks and you can either add audio FX for processing directly on those output tracks or if you need to save CPU then you can bounce the audio to new tracks or FREEZE (much cleaner, IMO).

Reece, just a FYI on my behalf, I also use the split notes to tracks CAL. The reason being, once you do that, each midi can be sent to the module of your choice. Or, it can also allow you to run multiple instances of EZD so you can literally use different kits at once. An EZD module with just a kick drum (you load no other samples but the kick) one for snare, one for cymbals etc. So it's pretty cool to do it that way. You can also use SD3 on an instrument, BFD on another, Steven Slate on another...so you have quite a few options when using this method.
 
The thing I like the best with it is....the track separation lets me know in an instant, what midi notes I'm editing as nothing else shows up for that track. It's a heck of a lot cooler looking too to not see all the other midi notes all over the track. :)
 
It gives you loads of tracks (like in this instance, there's 42 drum tracks but the midi won't be touched other than being sent to the module of my choice) but also lots of control. Here's a shot of it:
 

 
Closer look: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/SntMultiEZD.JPG
 
See all the EZD modules? Each one has a midi track sent to it so I can use all of the instruments in my EZD library and not just one drum kit like say DFH or something. In this instance, I'm using the pop rock kit for snare and cymbals, DFH for kick and toms and some other cymbals. I could swap one of those out for SD3 or whatever else. So it's pretty cool for situations where you may want the instrumentation of another kit. :) Just figured I'd share that with you.
 
-Danny 

Guitarhacker


What soundcard are you using? 

I seem to recall that with factory cards the windows mixer can control the levels of bounce and audio input. 

check that. 

I was thinking that when you bounce a track the sound card is not involved in the operation...

Curious about that.

Danny Danzi

Beagle


it shouldn't be doing that.  but I have to ask why you feel it necessary to split the MIDI notes to separate tracks instead of just using separate audio outputs from EZD?

you can set up EZD to send outputs to different tracks and you can either add audio FX for processing directly on those output tracks or if you need to save CPU then you can bounce the audio to new tracks or FREEZE (much cleaner, IMO).

Reece, just a FYI on my behalf, I also use the split notes to tracks CAL. The reason being, once you do that, each midi can be sent to the module of your choice. Or, it can also allow you to run multiple instances of EZD so you can literally use different kits at once. An EZD module with just a kick drum (you load no other samples but the kick) one for snare, one for cymbals etc. So it's pretty cool to do it that way. You can also use SD3 on an instrument, BFD on another, Steven Slate on another...so you have quite a few options when using this method.
 
The thing I like the best with it is....the track separation lets me know in an instant, what midi notes I'm editing as nothing else shows up for that track. It's a heck of a lot cooler looking too to not see all the other midi notes all over the track. :)
 
It gives you loads of tracks (like in this instance, there's 42 drum tracks but the midi won't be touched other than being sent to the module of my choice) but also lots of control. Here's a shot of it:
 

 
Closer look: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/SntMultiEZD.JPG
 
See all the EZD modules? Each one has a midi track sent to it so I can use all of the instruments in my EZD library and not just one drum kit like say DFH or something. In this instance, I'm using the pop rock kit for snare and cymbals, DFH for kick and toms and some other cymbals. I could swap one of those out for SD3 or whatever else. So it's pretty cool for situations where you may want the instrumentation of another kit. :) Just figured I'd share that with you.
 
-Danny 

Hi Danny,
yes, if you use more than one instance of EZD or more drum synths then separating the MIDI into different tracks is one way to do it and might be the best way.  but there's an alternative that I've used which works quite well for me and that would be using the drum map.  if I have more than one instance of EZD or more than one drum synth being used, I simply edit a drum map to send specific notes to specific synths.