NIOA VS-880 TIP 100-0016:

Laura Tyson's Six Ways to Use Virtual Tracks

1. Capture multiple takes or solos. Try that blistering guitar solo as many times as you need to "get it right". For each take, switch to the next unused virtual track. After you're done, go back and listen to each take, pick the one you like the best.

2. Record different instruments playing the same part. Take advantage of the virtual tracks to get creative: Try changing the instrumentation of your song. Try a different vocalist or record the bass part with both an acoustic bass and an electric bass. Decide later which one you like the best.

3. Create Composite ("Comp") tracks. Take hand-picked sections from many different takes and edit them together to create a unique comp track. Keep the Comp Track on a different Virtual Track than the original parts. The Comp Track does not eat up any additional hard disk space, and your original takes always remain intact. Note: this trick requires extensive knowledge and understanding of editing.

4. Save Track Bounces as Virtual Tracks Track Bouncing is all done in the digital domain with all mixer effects Track bouncing is non- destructive - do a lame mix? Simply UNDO. All your original parts always remain intact!

5. Print tracks "dry" and "wet" at the same time! Record your guitar performance on three different tracks:

Track one: Dry, unprocessed guitar solo

Track two: Guitar printing through "Vintage Tweed" as an insert

Track three: Guitar printing through "GuitarMulti1" as an insert

The VS-880s built in digital mixer allows you to do this quite easily. In mix down, you can decide which track to use. And if you decide you don't want to use either the "Vintage Tweed" or the "GuitarMulti1" effect, you still have the original unprocessed guitar track to work with.

6. Store different edits of a track. Record some drums. Then use the Track Copy command to copy the drum tracks to different virtual tracks. Then use Track Cut or Track Erase to edit these tracks differently from the original performance. Compare. Swap the original drum tracks in your song with the edited drum tracks. Take a vote on which sounds better. These edited versions of original tracks don't eat up any additional hard disk space.

Laura Tyson

1998/03


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