This and the arrangement. From singer-songwriter 1 vocal, 1 guitar, maybe plus drums, to Hybrid Orchestral 200+.

 

Around 12 maybe. I always try to cut tracks down to a small number and getting rid of plugins asap and commit to audio and make new sample based instruments with baked fx.

 

This depends on whether you mean including buses/FX etc.
Without including FX/buses, whatever the composition requires. This can vary from 12 upwards as I tend to use real instruments unless the commission requires electronic, so the drums regularly take an average of 8 of the smaller 12. If real horns are used, that can change too, same with real strings as there will be room mics as well as close mics. If pre-paid, a real Orchestra is done in a proper huge studio and that can vary depending on whether the newer attachable ribbon mics are used on every instrument, or whether a batch of overheads on each section. Otherwise much less. If a MIDI-based Orchestra with triggered samples, I tend to bounce to audio for each instrument once satisfied. While my system can do 128 tracks comfortably, I try to make it no more difficult than it absolutely needs to be.

Out of interest purely, I figure when you say 200+ Hybrid Orchestral, you are referring to MIDI tracks with separate articulations as an educated guess?
I get that many people like to mix from their MIDI tracks and I can see value in that if you wish to change on the fly.

EDIT - Being old school and this has been shown to be correct so far, if what I have dry, sounds like shit, all that great production is going to do is reproduce a polished turd. If it sounds good dry, the track number before FX and editing and final mix is irrelevant, because it will likely be both polished and good.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 28, 2024

no more than 1 track.
i drop the splice sample into the DAW and my song is ready

 

I mostly do rock, pop, metal, some urban, and for the most part, I'm always committing to bounce as much as I can. Whenever I work with some other producer, especially in urban music, they ask me to keep all recordings. I guess it's a younger-people drive to dive into the smallest of details. If I'm calling the shots, I comp as I record, and I commit to groups the fastest. I end up with somewhere around 20 tracks to mix most of the time. If I get tracks to mix, I'm always looking for ways to sum up tracks before I work on them. I hate clutter.

 

around 25... 30... but dont forget that i heavily layer the sounds inside the plugin. for example in nexus one instrument patch is made of several sounds and in kontakt you could layer too. my mentality is less is more. when tracks reaches big number of tracks is often for me, when i add FX to the track.. stacking and layering downlifters and risers.. but honestly said it stays under 50 maximum.

i use automation on cutoff, reverb, delay parameters and sometimes a higpass filter on the entire track that filters up or down the arrangement before chorus

 

It's not that different in this case, Ophidian is using many instruments and samples but just one monophonic track (he's using only one note column). It would be de equivalente of using multiple midi clips and sample clips organized inside a single track on Reaper for example.

 

On my template i got 85 channels including parallel compression, reverb and other fx. For insert mics i try to be more minimalistic, i use around 30 max because i don't like a lot of channels for things with similar tone. I have no problem sending 2 different instruments to the same channel if they sound similar and they are proper gain staged.

 

25 - 30

 

Usually, yes. But if a real orchestra is used with a mic attached to every musician, plus drums, guitars, synth, sound FX, you can also end up with 200+ recorded tracks - nowadays.

 

Nightwish likes this post (symphonic choirs and orchestra, metal band, a guy who plays pipes/flutes/rhythm guitar/piezo guitar, keyboardist with three synths)

 

My track count is going down as I get (more experience + more knowledge + older + lazier). Went from an average of 150+ to now 50+.
Tracks are also getting shorter and more to the point.

 

Unfortunately, Nightwish doesn't like music

 

But question is how did they record the same orchestra + band when we only had tape machines?

 

Easy, with two overhead mics.

 

Wow ...you went wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy back ....2-track machines...
How they recorded when the only available format was 78rpm:
https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/historyof78rpms

Back to topic

 

I am producing music for money since 2005. I don't recall any song that is above 24 tracks including FX Returns.

 

Just two tracks.

1. Cowbell

2. Everything else.

 

Agree to disagree. All good