Using more than stereo outs with MIDI gear...why?

[MeisterEckhardt]

Hi. I've pretty much just recorded stereo outs from my synths to DP for years. Then a friend took an exact same synth as mine and on his song, routed the bass part to a separate output. So most of the mix out of his synth were going out to the stereo outs, with the bass on output C, a third separate output on the synth. What a huge difference! Why does this work when ultimately listening back to the whole song is mixed in stereo? I am not sure why separating single parts to different outputs makes those parts stand out. Why does this work when you are in fact hearing the mix in stereo in the final product?

Thanks for your time.

Cheers,
Meister

[FMiguelez]

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I'm pretty sure he uses separate outs to process certain things differently.

Maybe he makes the Bass go to out A to apply extra compression and EQ or whatever. Then, after this, he just sends everything back to the main bus?

This way you have much more control. Maybe he doesn't want any reverb on his bass or kick parts, but he uses lots of it for his string parts...

Maybe he uses different outs to make "groups of instruments by frequency", and treat them in certain way. Or divide outs by instrument sections (WWs, Brass, Percussion, Strings), etc. Then he can play with the depth of each section independently...

That's why I always record my MIDI stuff to audio, independently. It gives you maximum flexibility not only when mixing, but when dealing with the changes the clients always want, whatever they may be (it sounds nice, but can you take the piano out in this section? Can you increase the level for those wind chimes at the end?)

[MeisterEckhardt]

Beautiful! Thanks! That answer makes sense. And thank you for the idea of recording each MIDI track to audio separately. I will try this! Bravo. Not bad for an iguana. Who's your pet human?

[FMiguelez]

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Glad you found it useful.

Try to find a way to record as many independent tracks as you can in the least amount of passes possible, otherwise it can be pretty time consuming.

Even when the MIDI mix has been finished, and it sounds decent, there's no comparison to how much better you can make it by processing the individual tracks. You can EQ your instruments so they don't sound muddy or harsh, you can keep tweaking volume, Trim, EQ, compression, etc. independently of everything.

I recently changed my studio setup radically. Now I'm learning to record each channel individually with its plug-ins already there, in one pass, thus killing 3 birds with one shot

As for the human pet... well, let's just say the iguana is being more careful with her hands now... Oh, no. That's actually the other way around...

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