Recording multiple layers of guitar with effects in the performance panel

[TheMissingLink]

Hi fellow Mixcraft users!

I've been a happy Mixcraft user for a while now, but I'm wanting to step up my game, and running into some problems.. Chatgpt can't help me, so I hope you can!

I have some e-drums, keyboard, a guitar and bass connected to my computer, and I'm looping these by using the performance panel, triggered by a launchpad.
This works really well, but the problem is that I would like to record multiple layers of guitar, for example a rythm and solo guitar with different effects.

The problem is though, that while the rythm guitar plays, the solo guitar also get's monitored on this channel while I'm recording, so that it sounds like a mushy mess. And simply turning off the monitoring for the rythm guitar isn't exactly smooth, and makes everything stutter for a moment.

I was looking for a way to record the processed sound through a sub-mix, but I can't record performance panels there, and now I'm pretty lost..

I really hope there's a way to make this work, and that someone can tell me what I'm missing!

Thanks for reading, I hope I explained my problem well enough, and thanks in advance for your support!!


Robin

[Rolling Estonian]

What are your PC specs? What you're trying to do, multiple instruments and tracking simultaenously puts a pretty heavy burden on a system. Not saying that's the issue but often times folks don't realize how labor intensive audio production can be on a system.

Welcome to the forum BTW.

M

[TheMissingLink]

Thanks for your response!

I can't check my specs right now, but it's a reasonably beefy PC with an external Tascam US-366 audio interface. I'm aware of the stress I'm putting on the system

To clarify, the "mushy mess" I mentioned comes from the the solo guitar and the recorded rythm both being monitored over the same distortion effect, so I'm trying to seperate the effects while looping.

Thanks again, hope you know a way!

[Rolling Estonian]

the "mushy mess" I mentioned comes from the the solo guitar and the recorded rythm both being monitored over the same distortion effect, so I'm trying to seperate the effects while looping.

When you have instruments sharing the same frequency space when played together they'll overlap and be a problem. An example would be a kick drum and bass. Not knowing exactly what your going after it's hard to say though, there are many options for separating the frequencies or at least making them work together better. Panning, eq, compression, side chaining all worth exploring.

M

[TheMissingLink]

Thanks again for the effort!
I really think the issue is not clear here though..
This is not a frequency issue, the problem is that both channels are always monitored.

I'll try to simplify for now, maybe I can make a small video later to show what I mean, and to figure out if it's possible.

-simplified version-

- I'm recording a video, while recording the mixer output of Mixcraft.
- I use 1 guitar on 2 channels, one with an effect that has all sound going left, one with the effect going all to the right.
- I press to record a drum clip, play it, and it loops
- I press record on the guitar left clip, but when I play the sound monitors over both channels, so left and right. After recording, it's all to the left like it should
- When I press record on the guitar right clip, the same happens, it will monitor over both left and right, and after recording, play on the right.

Can't turn of monitoring, because I can't hear what I'm doing, and it's part of the live loop, so should be heard live.
Turning of the monitor for one channel during looping cannot be done smoothly.

A possible solution would be to record the processed channel, and change the effect from left to right in between recordings, but this also doesn't seem possible.

Hope this clears it up a bit. Maybe what I want is impossible, but it seems to me this should be what performance panel is supposed to do.

Thanks again!!

Robin

[cactus-head]

Are you saying that while recording a single channel (left or right) on a single track if you have track monitoring engaged, it plays out of both right and left during recording... not just the channel you are recording to?

It could be your track recording setup. Make sure you are not using a single channel input and setting the recording channel to mono. If you have a single channel input from your guitar on the left channel for example, recording it in stereo should only record on the left channel as well as monitoring on the left channel.

The other possibility is if you are monitoring through your audio interface. It may be playing both left and right.