How to turn external synth into an audio clip?
xster
San FranciscoPosts: 22
Suppose you made a MIDI clip driving an external synth and you got everything setup right. You like the sound and you got all the automations in the MIDI clip and you're happy with the outcome. Now you want to use the same synth for something else so you want to "materialize" or "rasterize" that MIDI clip into an audio track to "freeze" it. There are so many ways to go about doing it but they're all slightly inconvenient.
If the MIDI clip is clip 1, you can then create a synth clip in clip 2. Turn the synth type to input. Turn clips 1 and 2 on, then record+play to resample. Once it's resampled, create a new kit clip 3. Pick a kit sound for the first sound and select the previously resampled sample. Insert a note in the kit track. Delete clips 1 and 2. 8 steps. And AFAICT, it doesn't time-stretch anymore if you adjust your tempo.
Or if the MIDI clip is clip 1, create a new audio clip 2. Select audio source to be stereo (from input). Arm clips 1 and 2. Record and play. Make sure to press record again before clip 1 loops. Delete clip 1. 6 steps.
Is there a way to express the idea that clip 1 is MIDI and it's exactly looped back into input. I want to turn that MIDI clip 1 into an audio clip 1 in one step? I think Akai MPC calls it autosampler or something.
Comments
The "6 step" option is the one I use all the time. It's no hassle at all. Once you've set the input to stereo, it stays on stereo, and a new audio clip comes armed to record by default. Presumably you've been recording/playing the MIDI track in question as well, so it's not like you have to arm that either.
So that leaves: pad-select to create a new audio track, hit record, hit play, and then tap the audio track's launch button to stop it before it next comes around. That's dead easy.
If you're already in play mode (good for loops with reverb so that you get the tails in the beginning) you have to tap launch twice: once to disarm, the next time to arm and start recording.
Keep the MIDI track around. Clone it or clear it. But if you're using an external controller, it has "learned" your input preferences. Set up synths and play in some MIDI, tweak, create new audio track and record it, clear/clone and repeat. It's very quick, actually, and sounds like exactly the workflow you're going for.
Thanks for confirming. It’s not a crazy workflow. I just wanted to see if I missed anything since it seemed like it may be common-ish