Highest Track Count?

[mykrobinson]

Man, doing some of my classes and project on URM Acadaemy have exposed me to what I would consider an insane amount of tracks. Probably not a lot for many of you who are more experienced... My first project out of the gate was a song by Th Contortionist (prog rock band) and it had almost a hundred tracks.

That said, I know some of you on here have some that are even heavier track count that this.

So what is the highest track count you have ever worked on in a project? You mind posting a a few screenshots of the session and track manager?

Thanks for entertaining me this evening

[lexaproductions]

I've easily done 300 hundred tracks. Reaper handled it no problems...

12 Tracks of Drums overdubbed so that's 24

15 singers that are doubled so that's 30
Room mics on everything

Some lead vocals

Bass DI+Amp
a few Electric Guitars 2 mics each

B3 Hammond 3 mics
Piano 2 mics
plenty of Synths, Keyz, Synth Percs, etc...

Add all the Busses, Folders VCAs etc... You quickly in the 200-300 tracks area...

[martifingers]

Impressive and slightly daunting to handle all that both practically and "mentally". I wonder though if really it mattered in the end that e.g. there were 3 mics on the Hammond. I mean was that actually audible in the mix? Especially if it was not prominent eg as in a solo.

[lexaproductions]

Yeah, the goal was to record everything and decide what to keep during mixing stage.
E.G. the organ needed up doing an outro alone with the bass pedals so I was glad it was recorded.

[zeekat]

Originally Posted by mykrobinson

My first project out of the gate was a song by Th Contortionist (prog rock band) and it had almost a hundred tracks.

Neat, their two last records are amongst my favourites, they got rather amazing once they recruited the mad-eyed singer. I assume the project isn't something publicly available?

[mykrobinson]

Originally Posted by zeekat

Neat, their two last records are amongst my favourites, they got rather amazing once they recruited the mad-eyed singer. I assume the project isn't something publicly available?

It is available through URM Academy. If you don't have a subscription, you can buy that month's "nail the mix."

https://unstoppablerecordingmachine....utm_source=urm

[serr]

Around 300 or so tracks is the highest it usually goes for me when things get silly. The usual stuff. Multiple mics on not just drums. Parallel processing with mults of various things. Bussing. (I'm including subgroups and parallel tracks in the count.)

Not SOP to go off the deep end with every mix but it happens here and there just because you can and the software never complains.

But this is nothing compared to some of the orchestral stuff some people are working with. I believe there are a few guys running with the MADI connected interfaces and working with 1000 or more audio tracks. Between that tech and some of the dante network stuff I find myself saying "Oh, you can just do that like nothing now eh?"

[serr]

Originally Posted by martifingers

Impressive and slightly daunting to handle all that both practically and "mentally". I wonder though if really it mattered in the end that e.g. there were 3 mics on the Hammond. I mean was that actually audible in the mix? Especially if it was not prominent eg as in a solo.

My guess is it captured the elements of the sound in a complete way that made it real easy to work with and balance. If this was a leslie cabinet, 3 mics are the minimum required to capture the sound with the multiple drivers in motion.

It probably saved a lot of fiddle time at mix time at the least. Let's you just grab from the recorded elements where you might have had to pull and tug on something to balance it otherwise.

[Rangler]

Originally Posted by lexaproductions

I've easily done 300 hundred tracks.

I would have a nervous breakdown trying to keep that all in my head.

[lexaproductions]

It's that bad, if you're organized...

[DaveKeehl]

The highest track count I've worked with I think was 100 or something. If you have lots of recorded material you usually also have more busses and parallel channels so it's very easy to reach crazy amount of tracks. At that point gain staging is the key not to get crazy in my opinion.

[Mind Riot]

Originally Posted by lexaproductions

I've easily done 300 hundred tracks.

Good lord, three hundred hundred tracks?

I could never handle a project with 30,000 tracks.