Hello,

I work with Studio One 5 and use a lot of vst instruments like Pigments, Omnisphere etc.
Unfortunately I'm still not sure WHEN exactly it's a good idea to transform MIDI data to WAV.

I mean, for me personally it's fine to have almost only MIDI for my melodical tracks
since my PC is not weak.
However, it's always annoying when I want to quickly compare the Orig song with my mix,
because if I mute the orig song and unmute all my tracks, most sounds will not be played.
(E.g. let's say you're in the middle of a long note which cannot be generated anymore.)

For this reason I think it's more clever to transform to midi, because there the sound can be muted and unmuted all the time, without interupting it.

There are different ways to transform midi to audio:
1. I can create a 4 bar Midi event, transform it, and paste it whereever you need it
2. I work with MIDI only and transform all the blocks to multiple WAVs
3. I do the same as 2. but group all MIDI events to have just 1 WAV file.

How do you make it?
Perhaps there is some best practice I am not aware of.

Thanks and best regards

 

Bounce audio as much as you can, it's not only about CPU.

 

I agree with @controlthesystem , bounce to audio when you can. I've learned this the hard way when revisiting midi only projects where a vst is either missing or doesnt load, or sometimes its a preset that got lost in time. It doesn't happen to me as much these days, but trying to restore older projects using only 32bit dll's, really makes me wish I had bounced everything to audio.

For creating tracks, I work mainly with grooveboxes so I prefer bouncing everything to audio and triggering with midi. If I need to record a chord progression or loop, I typically play it out to midi and bounce it immediately to audio. I still keep the midi for reference or if I need to change and re-record something later down the line, but I find committing it to audio keeps my productivity moving.

For arrangement and mix downs, I prefer working exclusively with audio as it makes things a lot quicker for me to get the job done and to resist the temptation of constantly tweaking.

 

You can always freeze tracks, in case you want the pros of a bounced file but still want to easily go back when necessary. I've never used studio one but every daw has that function in one shape or another.

I mostly plan ahead, so the time to turn midi into audio is when each instrument is doing what it's supposed to do according to the "plan". But for that i just freeze the tracks, just in case.

 

Preferences -> Advanced -> MIDI -> check Chase long notes

 

Exactly I also learned this the hard way (losing sounds because of faulty VSTs too, like DRC, Pigments v2 or the sluggish Massive X back in the days, a lot less these days, so I kept this good habit of not trusting VSTs recall mode as a rule of thumb to prevent future disasters). Also you speed up your workflow by focusing on the end-result immediately, and not trying to indefinitely tweak your sound. Also quite a few VSTs act as Analog Synths (I mostly use those) producing slightly different sounds every time a note hits, so you better secure your desired sound!

Freezing mode (speaking of Ableton in my case) indeed is irrelevant on its own (I also learned this over time in my workflow). Instead:

1. Make a copy of the Midi track
2. Copy 1 of Midi track > freeze it and bounce it to only keep the converted audio track
3. Copy 2 of Midi track > just group group its devices (Cmd + G) altogether, and turn them off with '0' or by pressing the on/off button. This way the CPU is freed of this track's devices entirely
4. I usually keep the deactivated Midi track with a different color (like black) just in case I wanna re-load it one day, placing it either in the project itself (below the audio track) or outside of the session (as .als in the menu bar's project folder > Archives)
5. You can also use Shortcut Buddy from a dedicated return channel to further optimise the shortcut flow at a larger scale in your entire project template (but I'm not even using it, I saw this from a producer's masterclass, I need to get into it - and Auto Track Colors the same way by using specific text codes to automatically turn the bounced tracks into the desired pre-set colors, etc...)

 

Last edited: Feb 27, 2023

Bouncing to audio is a good idea at the end of your production. 2 years later, when you open the project again and notice that all the previously used plugins are missing you will be happy that you still have the audio file.

 

Hello, thank you for your replies!

I made these bad experiences several times, when transforming a 4 bar MIDI to Audio:
1.
When transforming it, the end result is not actually 4 bars but maybe 4,1 bars because the DAW also calculates the release/sustain
This means when I want to duplicate the new audio event, it will not be pasted exactly after the current one.

2.
Of course it's possible that I simply cut the freshly created audio event at 5.1, but then I think it will not sound a bit "cutted off".

For me it's more "foolproof" to have a long midi track because I know it will always sound good without being cut off.

Maybe I should just set the "release time/sustain time" to 0 sec?

Regarding loading old project: Ok, here i agree 100%.
I'm sure that whatever old project I load, it won't know all plugins.
But this is something I can do at the end.

I'm more wondering about beginning/mid-work

Thanks for this tip.
However, it does not work if I mute and unmute the track (when I want to switch between orig song and my mix).
But it's nice to know anyway!

Best regards

 

Your DAW software should have an option similar to Logic's Include Audio Tail when you are bouncing. I'm not sure what the option might be called, but almost all or all of them can handle this.

Sometimes I really wish I could go back after bouncing a midi part to audio and change stuff. For whatever reason, but in my case it's usually to change Compression or Automations. What I like to do is render to audio whenever I feel like it, and then I mute the Midi track and disable all the plugins so there is no CPU resources used. I move them to the top of my project editor window and then Hide them, in case I want them as Midi later. They are both out of the way and available if you need them.

 

Last edited: Mar 12, 2023

When your VST's sourcing your midi data are hogging your CPU & you are sure there are no more changes to make which is a whole can of worms in of itself. But it also forces you into a decision, there are backups you can fall back on in case there is some knob you still want to go back & tweak. But it seems you don't need that if your PC is leet. Patching as you go also allows you to do extra sound design at little to no CPU power.

You can keep just patching audio parts wherever you need it, exactly as you are doing it. That's fine. You can also just bulk bounce the clips from start to end in a stem sort of way. Doesn't really matter in the end if all alligns to grid correctly when you combine midi & audio data in your arrangment view. Ears will still hear data whethere you patch holes or bounce everything to audio to mix/master in a seperate session than your creative writing sessions.

 

Exactly what @clone said... Remember to keep tails so you retain the decay of any effects!

 

For me the biggest issue is losing VSTi instruments over time, for whatever reason. I also feel that I may need/want to change effects, especially delay and reverbs, at a later time. For this reason I'm considering rendering all VSTi instruments to a new track completely dry as well as wet. I will also keep the midi tracks with VSTi instruments just in case. This eliminates any concern about VSTi problems but also opens up more possibilities working with a rendered audio track, including remixing the whole project with different VST effects. At some point I might decide that I'm happy enough to delete the original VSTi tracks and just keep the midi and audio tracks.

Also, years from now there may be some incredible new VSTi that's either more realistic to the one you used in your project or just does something new that you'll really like to use. If you keep the midi you can change it easily. Same is true regarding newer/better effects.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 12, 2023