What is the max number of Tracks that you have used in a song?

[V0RT3X]

@V0RT3X: no no, I use Nuendo 5, Studio One 2 and FL Studio 9, I have Reason 3 too but I've stop use it some years ago when I'm boring of libraries, refills etc etc... Anyway IMO the best programmed Sequencer!

Nuendo is expensive! Did you get a student licence or something?

[Turello]

Oh but it's old, just upgraded (starting from N3 but can't remember how I pay cause here change the money from Lira to Euro) but I'll not upgrade again in the future, It's enough to Me!

[robogone]

I watched a doc on the making of a night at the opera and was stunned that they didn't mention a word about what I consider to be one of the best Queen songs ever...The Prophet Song, again a song that pushed the limits.

Definitely must have taken a lot to get all those vocal overdubs with the delay right. Not sure that it's that many tracks, and it sounds like it's all Freddie Mercury with no backing from Roger Taylor or Brian May.

That song would probably have been impossible to put together with such great vocal harmonies with most singers being multitracked in that way.

[Bombadil]

28, I think. I used to get by ping-ponging back and forth between DBX cassette decks, so, for what I do, I don't need 130, or whatever, but then I am not scoring film.

[BERFAB]

I watched a doc on the making of a night at the opera and was stunned that they didn't mention a word about what I consider to be one of the best Queen songs ever...The Prophet Song, again a song that pushed the limits.

Definitely must have taken a lot to get all those vocal overdubs with the delay right. Not sure that it's that many tracks, and it sounds like it's all Freddie Mercury with no backing from Roger Taylor or Brian May.

That song would probably have been impossible to put together with such great vocal harmonies with most singers being multitracked in that way.

I haven't seen this documentary (yet), but on the liner notes for Night at the Opera and several other Queen albums, Brian May famously put "No Synthesizers!" Meaning, I think, that he not only used some fairly cool cutting edge guitar FX, but also pushed the envelope on guitar overdubs. Combined with the vocal tracks, that probably pushed the total track count through the roof.

-B

[robogone]

I watched a doc on the making of a night at the opera and was stunned that they didn't mention a word about what I consider to be one of the best Queen songs ever...The Prophet Song, again a song that pushed the limits.

Definitely must have taken a lot to get all those vocal overdubs with the delay right. Not sure that it's that many tracks, and it sounds like it's all Freddie Mercury with no backing from Roger Taylor or Brian May.

That song would probably have been impossible to put together with such great vocal harmonies with most singers being multitracked in that way.

I haven't seen this documentary (yet), but on the liner notes for Night at the Opera and several other Queen albums, Brian May famously put "No Synthesizers!" Meaning, I think, that he not only used some fairly cool cutting edge guitar FX, but also pushed the envelope on guitar overdubs. Combined with the vocal tracks, that probably pushed the total track count through the roof.

-B

I don't think there's much on The Prophet Song though. Pretty much straight rock guitar on that. Maybe only or two guitars.

I think you're right in that the 'No synthesizers' was put on the albums up to Jazz because Brian May got tired of people asking about the synthesizer sound on their recordings when it was his guitar.

[jancivil]

Legend has it (although it's probably apocryphal) that when Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody, they bounced down the vocals on a 16 track so many times that the final multi track had 4th generation recordings of the Operatic vocals. It's possible I suppose, but either way it shows that where there's a will, there's a way.

Kinda wonder about 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" track. What was it? 200+?

It's unclear to me, but the video documentary of it has the narrator estimating that 256 voices were recorded. There is a terrific amount of hiss, which is a feature, not a bug, of this record.

I believe 256 is correct (16 x 16). This was touted back when that track was first released.

It's certainly likely to be high, but listening to it, I would think that they probably used some of those 16 tracks for the backing (drums, bass, electric piano, acoustic piano, acoustic guitar) and the lead vocal has a clarity that wouldn't come from successive generations of tape.

The drums and bass lack some clarity, so they could have been bounced down, but I would guess that it's more likely to be 11x16 or 176 available at most (disclaimer - just my guess based on listening to it - not going to defend the number if anyone feels like arguing). Still a hell of a lot of tracks though.

The video doc talks of the backing tracks down to a stereo mix taking up two tracks early on. I'm unclear on how many tracks used, regardless. One of the points is that all 12 of an octave were recorded in order to select and bring in harmonies; then there is the half-speed trick to get a bass voice.

[Hink]

I watched a doc on the making of a night at the opera and was stunned that they didn't mention a word about what I consider to be one of the best Queen songs ever...The Prophet Song, again a song that pushed the limits.

Definitely must have taken a lot to get all those vocal overdubs with the delay right. Not sure that it's that many tracks, and it sounds like it's all Freddie Mercury with no backing from Roger Taylor or Brian May.

That song would probably have been impossible to put together with such great vocal harmonies with most singers being multitracked in that way.

I think that middle part in the Prophet Song that is just vox is all Freddie doing the Brian may thing with delays

[Hink]

okay so the last song I just finished was a total of 30 tracks used but in the final mix it was 20 tracks and 3 submix buses. (some tracks like the dry guitar tracks I record or in this case also the line in from my amps were not used in the mix)

My template is 30 tracks, 4 sub mix buses and one Aux Send bus.

[spider-j]

40 tracks are not *that* much, when it comes to recording "real" instruments.
At least this is the way it is done at the recording studio where I help out sometimes:

10 tracks for drums:
bassdrum internal
bassdrum external
snare top
snare bottom
toms 4x
overheads L/R
room L/R

at least 3 tracks per guitar-amp/sound:
close mic, not so close mic, room mic

2 tracks bass:
amp mic, line-out

At least 1 track for vocals.

So the minimum for a "standard" three-piece rockband would be already 16 tracks. Okay, probably less when the drummer uses less or no toms. But with multiple guitars and guitar sounds, additional solo, background vocals etc... the most projects normally have between 30 and 40 tracks.

Funny thing is ten years ago I used a lot more (up to 60), especially for mixing, *because* the PCs couldn't handle so much real time effects. So I had to bounce tracks often and kept all the tracks in the project, because if I wanted to change sth. I had to work it all over again from the dry track or the moment when I made a mistake.

[cornutt]

Most audio tracks for me was about 50, but many of those were tracks consisting of a single chord or drum fill or effect, no more than a bar or two. Back in the day you'd punch all of that stuff in to one stereo pair, but with DAWs, you may as well leave them as separate tracks. Makes for a lot less fader riding.