For themaya's is recording sessions straight thru,

[vvv]

... a question:

In the box, let's say you record a two hour session, and so each track of yer multitrack track session is 2 hours long; Do you break down the long tracks to individual song tracks in individual song folders? Or do you just load the 2 hour long tracks each time you go to work on the material?

[The Scum]

If you mean something like a live recording where it's a bunch of different songs in a long take, many DAWs give you the option to use the original track files, and just make some new references to them. It's often a dialog that pops up is you try to copy material from one session into another - "copy original files" vs "create soft link" or similar. You'll get multiple sessions that all refer back to the master.

Of course, then the sub-sessions have to travel in the context of the tracking files. But there might also be an "export" option to create a self-contained bundle, if you need to move it.

If it's something more continuous, like a symphony, film, or a 3-act play, then it's probably kept as long takes. Maybe drop some locate markers on the movements/scenes.

[digitaldrummer]

I'm using Pro Tools (2023.9 - so the process may vary for others) but I've always saved the original session where I might do some brief mixing and put some AUX busses in for reverb, delays, and some markers, etc. Then I will "save as" a new session and edit out everything but that specific song or take (sometimes we'll record the same take multiple times in a session and if there is no click, then I record them end to end vs. using playlists). So then I still have the original session (in case I need to go back for some reason - but never really had to so far...) and I have each individual song (with a rough mix and some busses setup). Then once we work on those songs (overdubs, or just real mixing) I will eventually "commit" by removing the original sessions and also consolidating (Into the new folder for that song) and cleaning up unneeded files from the other individual sessions. Because in the end each mix will not be exactly the same, so it doesn't work for me to keep it all in one session forever. All it takes is for the guitar player to turn up once in the middle of that session...

[floid]

I've been working on something like this off and on this year. I did all the edits and general utility type stuff in a new file version of the master take, as it helped make sure everything would flow properly and have a general set of sounds appropriate for this specific project. But as I work more on the various songs and sections, it's just so much easier to break them out into separate files so I can keep track of what's what. Maybe if I was more proficient in Reaper I'd have found a better solution, but there came a point where loading the entire session just became too clunky and led to much chasing of tail.

[Nick Sevilla]

I usually keep the original files as is. Then, as I mix through each song, I make a new DAW session file with that songs name on it, plus the order in which it is in, to make it easy on me.

Say, a ten song concert:

"Billy The Kid and Friends - Song 1 - Your Momma is a Tramp"

Or something along those lines. If there will be "cuts" as there are in online songs these days, I can mix down each song with no worry.

If the concert is to be done all at once as one big streaming pile, well then when I am done mixing the entire thing, I label a new DAW session as the "Master Mix", understanding that this one has all the songs mixed already. Any edits I do afterwards, are to be done on that Master Mix DAW session.

I do not take out the in between bits, in case they are needed for a video or if they want them kept in, you know, the cheering, the banter, intro to songs, whatnot. It's all part of the live experience, man.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I did this for bed tracking on my bands last record. Because I was engineering and playing I just let the computer roll once we were set up.
I kept a copy of the main session master as is. Then when it was time to work on each song I made a session for each tune and imported all the takes of said tune. That let me edit between takes without digging through twelve hours of audio.
Once the edit was done and it was time to overdub and mix I made a new session again and imported the edit to that.
I ended up with three sets of sessions but it ment that going back to revise things was easy and it gave me the ability to work on each song as it's own thing.

[trodden]

I'm using Pro Tools (2023.9 - so the process may vary for others) but I've always saved the original session where I might do some brief mixing and put some AUX busses in for reverb, delays, and some markers, etc. Then I will "save as" a new session and edit out everything but that specific song or take (sometimes we'll record the same take multiple times in a session and if there is no click, then I record them end to end vs. using playlists). So then I still have the original session (in case I need to go back for some reason - but never really had to so far...) and I have each individual song (with a rough mix and some busses setup). Then once we work on those songs (overdubs, or just real mixing) I will eventually "commit" by removing the original sessions and also consolidating (Into the new folder for that song) and cleaning up unneeded files from the other individual sessions. Because in the end each mix will not be exactly the same, so it doesn't work for me to keep it all in one session forever. All it takes is for the guitar player to turn up once in the middle of that session...

This is pretty much how I work as well. But I'm always chicken shit about getting rid of the OG session, even though I haven't touched it in weeks, so I just save it on the back up drive and don't delete it until final mixes are approved. More ritual/paranoia than anything.

[vvv]

So in more detail:

a cuppla weekends ago I recorded (on Zoom R16) 8 tracks of a jam session (4 drum tracks, two separate guitars, bass, voc) straight through, got a little over 2.5 hours in length as to each track.

I loaded them into my DAW (CEP 2.1) onna 10+ y.o. XP Pro machine, and started doing overdubs to each individual song, like so:

1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OD _______/....../___/.........../______/........../____________

So, I was wondering if that was something others do.

However, after doing about 10 overdubs on 3 songs, the pooter crashed.

So I hadda break up each of the eight 2.5 hr. tracks into their individual songs (in individual folder for organization).

That "break up" of individual songs takes me about an hour each time, so I was tryna save that hour ...

[digitaldrummer]

my DAW (CEP 2.1) onna 10+ y.o. XP Pro machine

there is probably something here... so did you have plugins running too? or can it just not handle that many tracks? I used to record 16 tracks on an old XP laptop with Sonar 4, onto a 2.5" 5400 rpm hard drive - and that part worked. but that system could not handle any plugins. so it was only good for a tape (disk) recorder. then i would transfer it to something fancier.

also, recording large, full tracks, take less CPU power and drive speed than jumping around to a bunch of small, random overdub files.

[vvv]

I had mebbe 3-4 plugs going

but I think it was the sheer length of 8 tracks each at 2.5 hours

I often mix a song with 18-20 tracks with 10+ plugs going ...

but then the songs are like 3-5 minutes

[vvv]

I should add, the reason I recorded straight thru is that I dumped about an hour of recording a month ago when I tried to record a cuppla tunes at a time - easier to just turn on the red light once and go.

I mean, what I really need is a tapeop ...

[digitaldrummer]

I had mebbe 3-4 plugs going

but I think it was the sheer length of 8 tracks each at 2.5 hours

but if you made cuts or edits on any of those big files, that's where it gets harder for the system (even though the underlying files may not change, it has to calculate the metadata and pointers to sort out what to play and when)

[vvv]

I did do some hard limiting, but I saved the files before doing anything else, closed the session and DAW and re-opened it ...

It actually ate one overhead track when I did a short paste on a overdub track right before it locked up - made the whole 2.5 hour OH track a repeat of the 10 second dub paste, but I had the original tracks still in the recorder - whew!

I have this old pooter with a newer 7.5K SATA (actually 3 internal drives, two USB 2.0 drives), and maxed memory (4 gigs? or mebbe 3?), and this old DAW I know so well I can use the keyboard shortcuts in the dark.

Here I thought I found a good change to my process ...