This is a retarded question

I miss the days of high school, when I sat in my room with a 4-track casette recorder and some crappy thrift store instruments. I made more GOOD music back then than I do these days, with a somewhat decent home studio (well decent to me, compared to some of you guys I might as well be dumpster diving for food).

My point is that I am becoming more and more fixated on gear and sound quality and other {censored} that doesn't REALLY matter... I just want to start recording more tunes. I am thinking about getting a digital multi-track like a Korg or a Roland (hey IM not a fanboy) but my main question is this: If I am recording a track that involves midi sequences and I want to go back over and re-record something else that I want to be synchronized, is that possible?

I basically want to re-re-re-re-re-record but not have to worry about my stuff being off-sync. Do any digital recorders have any sort of a midi clock function that syncs up everything nicely?

Yes, that is standard behavior for any multi track software or hardware sequencer that handles MIDI.

You do sometimes have to deal with sound card latency on the order of a few milliseconds.

hear ya load and clear....this was my feeling a few years ago too which is why I scaled way back on gear....and will keep it that way...the only thing I continue to buy is a module once in a while for my eurorack modular.

The only thing I gas for now is time like I had years ago.

"The only thing I gas for now is time like I had years ago."

damn straight. i still use tape recorders and other stuff, but I agree it seems as i've gotten older I keep trying to get back to some sort of lost innocence where nothing mattered except for making some sort of noise.

+1 for sure.

You know you're too far gone into the digital age when something like this happens to you:

Last year I finally got my old Wurly fixed, to the tune of $500. Couldn't wait to get it home. Plugged it in. Played a chord. Boy, was I shocked! I was so disappointed that it didn't sound like my Wurly samples, I almost cried.

Back in high school, when the Wurly was new, I was so focused on the music. Now it's gear and technique, I'm sad to say. MetroSonus, I feel your pain.

Then get off this forum and go make music....duh.... if you want to make music you should be here. Unfortunately it's the truth.

There are no retarded questions, only retarded people.

I would use only acoustic instruments if I could, acoustic sounds 100x better than electric or digital, always.

hey i remember the old days and i think i was making good tunes with minimal setup too...but i like the studio nowdays as well...

"MetroSonus, I feel your pain.

"

I forgot I said that.. i had to add it to my sig to keep it raw in my mind..

Skunk3, sync in most envs is pretty good now, but the occasional nudge or crop shouldn't be a productivity killer. Just look for something immediate, with sufficient I/O and good sound quality. All of those criteria can be met according to budget.

Fretting over gear has never stopped me from making music - only my own ambitions, broadened range of options to effect those ambitions, and subsequent paralysis in the face of them. Without some underlying rigor, everything turns into a bowdlerized page from _Fear and Trembling_.

That said, I do crave simplicity and am forever on the lookout for "the final [whatever]", and have been fortunate to get those, after some time. I've long had this vision of my studio, reduced to the Elektrons, some form of analogue-ish poly, and some decent effects. I've only just realized that ambition while clearing out a lot of the kipple in my studio and head, for lack of a better way of describing it.

I don't need any more gear; I could use some compositional chops, jamming partners and a producer, though.

With that sort of mindset, this forum wouldn't exist and the world would be filled with so much amazing music that war would be a long-forgotten concept.

It wasn't a retarded question. Get off your high horse, brother.

I don't have room for any more gear nor time to learn to use it. I just want more time to play too. Going away on business next week and won't get to play at all. I just had a mini panic attack when that realization hit me.

I am sure that many can relate to me when I say that sometimes it's easy to get stuck on getting the "best" and newest gear and sound quality rather than saying screw it and recording something and not worrying about the details. I can barely even sequence out a couple drum loops in FL Studio before I start adding efx, EQ, compression, etc... too focused on DETAILS!

I think I am going to buy a decent used digital multi-track and get back to jamming. I don't even care if the music sucks, at least it will be fun. Messing with computers is supposed to help productivity, but for me it kills it.

p.s. I wished I lived nearer to Chicago!!

In my own experience, those are usually just ways to delay the inevitable collision with one's own limitations. I hope that's not the same for all, but I know I'm not alone in this, either.

Discipline yourself to stick to one stage of production at a time. Just work on the immediacy and structure, get it out like you want it, then start fretting over mixing, eq, compression, etc.

Limitation is the mother of invention...the problem with software is you have almost infinite possibilities and features out the yazoo that it's easy to get distracted.

A friend of mine has one of the Korg D1600 multitrackers. Good effects and

decent EQs with sweepable mids for each channel. Sizeable monochromatic LCD screen (I hate all the color screens now...makes me feel like I'm using a PC). We slaved it to my MC909 via midi, worked great.

I'd also take a good look at the Yamaha AW line. Yamaha has been making digital mixers since day one, and dynamics/eq on each channel is a very, very good thing to have.

No PC for music here except for dumping/loading sysex files.

I record my 24 channel mixer out straight to a Boss BR1180 multitrack and try to get all EQ's dynamics 'acceptable' before recording. If necessary I'll use it's onboard mastering tool kit with multiband compression for slight adjustments. I don't use the onboard effects though (have quality efx processors in my mixer's aux busses).

actually, eventually, you may just come full circle...

Lately I have broken my rig down into two. in one, i have this massive, magnificent, monsterous pile of great synths (if I do say so myself). IN the other, I have the MPC1000, A5000, E64, Electribe EMX1 and an axiom controller board.

originally this small setup started as kinda a place I put stuff I loved but didnt use much. Then something happened. I realized I was sitting down to use the small rig of lesser items, bringing just one synth at a time from the 'big rig' over and focusing on it. I sequence with the MPC and sample/process with the samplers. I am mixing through a crappy yamaha small format mixer (the one really week link in the setup). suddenly, out of now where, I have started having fun with what little studio time I have.

I think the difference here is focus - I dont have the 'where do I start' moments that I get in the big studio, because there really isnt much *choice*. whatever synth i have hooked up in the small rig is going to be the focus of my attention at least long enough to get a track started. Then, I kinda go 'ya know..this track needs virus'..so i swap out whatever is sitting in front of me for the virus...and on and on.

I will still probably keep the big daw around for mixing and finishing tracks. but writing in the context of a big rig? never again.

What high horse? If your posting here your not making music. So logic dictates that if you want to make more music don't post here and you will. How much gear you have has nothing to do with how much music you can or can't make.

I don't remember saying your question was retarded, you said it (see thread topic). I also didn't say you were retarded, you're implying that yourself.

Seriously, if you want to make more music then go make it. Talking about making more music isn't making any more music than you are now. Constantly screwing around with buying and selling gear isn't making any more music either.