Can n-Track genereate two ops?
Hi everyone,
I’m thinking of using n-Track live to playback pre-recorded tracks. Well, I’ll be using something live and it could well be n-Track. I need to know if n-Track can generate two different outputs: One for the audience and one for the drummer, and assign them to different soundcards?
Thanks.
Eyup!
Yes 
Steve
Cheers. Now I get to learn n-Track! What sort of things do I need to read up on to make this happen?
Thanks again.
Eyup!
Depends what you want to do. Read the manual for a start, there’s lots of good stuff in there. Have a look at Audio Minds where there are some walkthroughs and tutorials. Pester people on this board, we’re a mine of information, some of it is even true
However, I think many people would advise caution when using anything PC based for live work. The opportunity for glitches and crashes are endless. Having said that, I know there are NTrackers who do just that.
Incidentally, you ask about two outputs, well, if you use one of the Creative Soundblaster range of cards, you already have two outputs built in.
Let us know what your intentions are and maybe we can be more specific in our advice.
Steve
I saw a classic at a local festival a year or so back. An acoustic singer-songwriter type was using a laptop, provided as part of the backline, for accompaniment. Two songs into his set and he bends down to get the laptop on the case. Then he looks worried. He looks at the soundman, desperately- no help there. He turns to the audience, “Does anyone know the screensaver password for Jake’s laptop?” No one does. He then spends 15 minutes running ‘round the festival trying to find someone who can let him finish his set.
Mainly, I want it to play alongside me performing acoustically. Just like that guy, really. Initially a laptop with external soundcard (with two distinct outputs) would be ideal. I probably wouldn’t need the second if it were just me playing, but I’d like to be able to take it to the band without huge staying-in-time-related problems.
Originally I wanted human accompaniment and placed an ad…
MUSICIAN WANTED: Unreliable, amnesia-suffering, drug-addicted moron with no sense of either rhythm or melody.
Pete Doherty got in touch but I figured, better the devil you know- and stuck with XP.
Time to start learning nTrack.
Cheers.
Bish,
The most foolproof thing to do is to mix your tracks and dump them to CD or music player (iPod, etc.) and take that to your gig. It can be very risky to depend on a computer on the gig.
The downside is that your adjustment options at the gig are limited. You have to do your mixing at home and hope it sounds right on the job. This will probably take some trial and error.
If you want a separate mix for you and the audience, you have two choices:
1. Mix your tracks so that what you want to hear is in one channel, and what you want the audience to hear is on the other. Then, plug the right and left outs of your CD player into to separate mono inputs on your PA. Send the audience channel to your mains and your stage mix to your monitors. You don’t need a stereo mix when playing live, because only 1 person in the audience is going to be sitting in the right place to hear a proper mix anyway. Everyone else will be to far one side or the other.
2. If you want some control over the mix on the CD, then you must make some choices. Mix your tracks so some instruments are panned hard left, and others are hard right. Then when you plug the player into 2 mono inputs as above, you can adjust the relative balance between the two tracks both in your mains and in your monitors. I’ve done this often. I usually put drums and bass on one side and everything else on the other. If I’m just using drums and bass for the tracks, bass on 1 side and drums on the other. Then you pan both to the center and adjust the volumes.
HTH!!
Don