ChipMusic.org - How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-11T20:06:33Z

Thank you guys for sharing! I've used both methods and I also love that raw chiptune feel
I'm just interested in knowing more 'thorough' ways of recording those lovely DMG, GBA, GBC, DSLite etc.

Changing the approach a bit to get different results...
There's nothing wrong with just recording directly even from the headphonejack, but summer is coming and I'm gonna have more time to try out new fun set-ups to produce great new lo-fi/chiptune music

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-11T18:45:56Z

I just use an aux cord and audacity. Use the amplify feature for leveling. Also make sure you don't record with the volume all the way up, as the amplify effect will fix the volume. Like that raw sound. :^)

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-11T16:50:05Z

I usually like you say, just have a noise at the start, record each track separately, then zoom in and line up the waveforms. Never had any issues at all with the tracks not being perfectly in sync.

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-11T15:19:02Z

Ah I see! But doesn't that also require like a 'start signal' or a 'clap' or does a midi slaved LSDJ start immediately at the beginning of the midi clip ? If yes, then I think I know how I would proceed. I don't have an adruinoboy but I have the USB to link cable dongle from Oliver which is mainly for nanoloop 2. Does anyone know how stable the sync is on Nanoloop 2 ? If I was to record all channels separately from a song that I've created in song mode I guess I would have to duplicate it onto four different banks and just map out the numbers of the individual patterns on each track in song mode and leave the other 3 at 0? Because there's no mute in NL2...

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T21:32:52Z

In ableton you can use warping to map a recorded tracks tempo into the tempo track for the project:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/audio … d-warping/

Im using an arduinoboy~

So record gameboy audio, make it a warp master (this can be complicated if your track doesnt have well defined beats) check that the click track and your gameboy audio is in sync, and then using the aboy, set the lsdj to midi slave and record each track one by one to ableton as sync master. You might also want to run a warp pass on each channel and make sure everything is synced for each recorded channel, then mute the reference track and mix as you like!

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T20:28:07Z

herr_prof wrote:

Tempo changes are ignored when slaved to midi.
What Im doing right now:
Record gameboy stereo track to Ableton
Make that audio the master track for tempo sync. This preserves the weirdo groove of the track and helps with tempo changes. You can also record midi out this way, and quantize it to the master track
Put your gameboy in midi slave mode, record each channel separately, with the others playing chains full of K00 commands.
Its a pain! Is it better than justa stereo master? Who knows!

Thank you! This is the kind of reply I wished for! Could you go into a bit more detail? For example, how to you send the midi signal to the DMG? Via an arduinoboy ? You mentioned 'make that audio the master track for tempo sync'; I've used ableton for several years but I don't quite follow how this achieved and then how the DMG just follows along that signal in sync. Cause the midi derived from the stereo audio recording would contain only note data if I'm not mistaking ?

Thank you all for your inputs, I greatly appreciate all suggestions/quirks/info I can get! Keep it coming!

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T18:06:06Z

Tempo changes are ignored when slaved to midi.

What Im doing right now:

Record gameboy stereo track to Ableton
Make that audio the master track for tempo sync. This preserves the weirdo groove of the track and helps with tempo changes. You can also record midi out this way, and quantize it to the master track
Put your gameboy in midi slave mode, record each channel separately, with the others playing chains full of K00 commands.

Its a pain! Is it better than justa stereo master? Who knows!

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T16:50:35Z

i wonder if it would be trickier to use MIDI sync if the song contains tempo change commands though

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T14:09:33Z

iano wrote:

Live mode doesnt compute paused channels so it could not be in sync
Best way to record separate channels in real HW is to use the mute function

i'd recommend this + MIDI sync (the MIDI sync will help stabilize the tempo)

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-10T06:43:21Z

Live mode doesnt compute paused channels so it could not be in sync
Best way to record separate channels in real HW is to use the mute function

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-09T23:07:19Z

the clock in LSDJ should be accurate according to the BPM, but the ticks can fluctuate per beat to try to keep the tempo consistent. so i think some beats may end up being a little longer or shorter. i'm not sure if that's the proper way to explain it but it was brought up somewhat recently on the LSDJ Facebook page, and that is my understanding anyway. it is possible to sync to MIDI clock using arduinoboy, which might be more accurate for use in a DAW, but i haven't tested this

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-09T22:22:42Z

Rees wrote:

I record every track separately from my Game Boy, then align the recordings in my DAW of choice (Reason) by zooming all the way in and perfectly lining up the waveforms. No guess work.

I actually tried the same, by recording all channels separately in live mode in LSDJ and putting like a 'clap' sound on the noise channel before every separate channel recording and then just line up the 'claps' of all the four recordings in the daw, but it started to sound a bit weird after a while into the song.. I don't know how precise the clock is in LSDJ... I read up on this in the forum and akira/8gb spoke about this method, except he used some kind if midiclock to get everything better synced. I just wonder how this is achieved, my guess is thanks to an andruino boy.. But I just wanted to see what methods there are, because I really don't have the time to build one or the money to buy one at this point in time..

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-09T17:36:44Z

I record every track separately from my Game Boy, then align the recordings in my DAW of choice (Reason) by zooming all the way in and perfectly lining up the waveforms. No guess work.

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-09T16:36:48Z

i hear you, i also arrange my tunes that way. i don't personally use emulators either, i just plug a pro-sound DMG into a mixer and record stereo out from that. only reason to use BGB imho is if you want to record and mix the tracks separately, but i normally just apply a bit of EQ on the mixer and maybe a touch of polishing in the DAW if i feel it really needs it. for the most part i want it to sound like it does when it comes out of the game boy.

Re: How do you arrange your LSDJ/NANOLOOP for recording/mixing ?

2017-04-09T12:33:12Z

I see! Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to sit down to try out different arrangements to find one that works for me. I'm a bit against using emulators but I guess it's great if you wanna get the cleanest possible signal..
On both LSDJ and Nanoloop 2 I like to arrange my songs into complete tracks so that I just need to press play. I have a complete song on my Nanolopp 2 that I tried to record by individual pattern from each channel separately to then be able to recreate the song manually in Ableton. But I really never got the hang of the timing.. It didn't sound right even though I think I quantized correctly.