Soundtrack Media is not "all digital" but I find it useful in many situations. A recent example: I had an "impossible" deadline and did not have time to sequence and edit through MIDI. A digital recording, in my case, was a quick and dirty way to get a great recording. The only down-side is that I had to do it "live" and re-record until I got it right. I did make the deadline!

May "old-timers" frown on digital recording and claim that it is cold and lacks the fullness of analog recording. My opinion is "garbage in, garbage out". It only sounds cold and calculated if you put it in that way. Once you have a good master, you can still mix with analog. I prefer to sequence and edit through MIDI but when time is the big issue, digital is the way to go.

I use an AKAI DR-16 for mastering and mix through a Soundblaster Extigy for the EAX effects.

I agree with you completely, garbage in, garbage out. Recording using midi and then quantizing as most do, sounds too fake and square. Recording real live audio, allows you to add the feeling that a real live musician would add.

I would only ever record live audio - never used a midi sequencer in my life and wouldn't know where to start!

Good posts, I hope it will encourage others to bring their opinions out. I personally record midi but never quantise (as you say it sounds false). If I record with the Motif XS then I have the ability to 'clock shift' tracks, ie the drum track is retarded slightly (like drummers ) and the bass track advanced. I find this gives a more realistic feel even if those tracks are quantised. Plus adding the odd drum beat or bass note.
I'm hoping to get into audio recording with my Fostex MR16, it's just finding the time, it would be worthwhile maybe getting a thread going on recording this way - ie a beginners guide. As you say you've got to keep doing it until you get it right which is I suppose the attraction of midi and it's easy editing.
Cheers
Spike

Ahh you have a Yamaha Motif - I have never played one, but they look interesting. One question though, can you load backings, drums etc into it? or is it just a plain synth.

As for the recording, years ago, when i pressed the REC button, i used to go to pieces, fingers all over the place, but now, its just like pressing the on button, with practice and time, it does not worry you!

So come on, tell me, what made you buy the Motif XS6? and more importantly, when can i FEED TONTO's HORSE! hahah.

Last question first - you feed the horse when you have enough posts
Now why did I buy the Motif (SWMBO asked the same question) well in a nutshell it's a fantastic workstation with better voices then the Tyros some of which are XS (hence the name) ie expanded articulation which give you the most realistic sounds I've ever heard, they have velocity switching which means they sound different depending on how you hit the note. There are no styles as such but rhythm patterns are made using one to four of the 7000 arpaggios built in. You can load midi files as backing if necessary but you could only load them as songs to which you can add further tracks.
Multitrack recording is the easiest I've come across - you can make up to 16 patterns consisting of up to 16 tracks each per song, you can chain them together in any order you like, convert them to a song and add further tracks.
Patterns are loop based but songs are linear.
'Performances' are the nearest thing to styles and you can record them into patterns or songs. There are hundreds of performances, all editable.
There are thousands of voices and sampled voices. You can make , edit and store your own samples. The voices some of which have 8 layers of sampling can be controlled by the 8 sliders and knobs in real time, ie ADSR and DSP can be altered. They also act as drawbars on organ voices.
The Motif comes with Cubase AI4 and when connected via USB to the PC can be used as a remote control for the DAW. The is also an editor for the PC so you can edit sounds on the Motif.
Yes it can be used as a straight synthesiser too, I sometimes have midi'd it to my Tyros so that the Tyros R1 voice plays a voice on the Motif. You have to connect the 2 via audio too.
It's a fab piece of kit - the Yamaha site will give you a better description than me - I've only just scratched the surface of what it can do. I have uploaded a couple of songs recorded on it - nothing special just experiments .
I'm not a pianist (I can't even read music ) but the Motif Grand Piano is a belter.
Cheers
Spike

I'm very envious of Spike's Motif as I think it does a lot more than the Tyros however for many people, especially the solo giggers, the Tyros is probably perfect. Although multi-tracking on the Tyros is fairly straightforward, editing can be a pain, e.g. looping tracks, fixing bum notes in chords, etc. and ideally you'd need to take the midi into a PC sequencer to do the biz, whereas the Motif seems to be able to manage much more.

I've never tried recording in audio but can see this having a much more natural sound, and I usually attempt to sound 'live' when I do my normal midi recordings, (by playing sloppy - and that's my excuse!).

Agree with the earlier posts about quantizing, which is one of the reasons I don't normally use styles. They're just too perfect for a sloppy player like me. Plus I like to hear the notes I've played, not someone elses although styles are great for trying out new ideas.

Cheers

Paul

Must go and feed the horse!