Yamaha's QY700 sequencer can be sync'ed to a digital multitrack to play back MIDI sequences and backing vocals in time.
For my next project, a theatre musical, I am currently writing MIDI backing tracks in Cubase, which will then be converted to Standard MIDI Files and played 'live' using a Yamaha QY700 hardware sequencer. However, I will also need to record some backing vocals, which will support the on‑stage live vocals. What is the best way to achieve perfect sync with the sequencer? Should I buy a digital studio like the Korg D16 or Roland VS1680 to record the vocals, then clock this from the QY700 to keep everything tight?
I should add that ideally, I want to be able to record a 'live cast album', which would mean that the recorder needs to be capable of playing back pre‑recorded audio whilst recording other tracks (four submixed stereo pairs) simultaneously. Will the D16 let me record vocals for, say, 12 different songs in one session and then allow the QY700 to access the start of each song as required (maybe using MMC?) without too much faffing around in between songs? Or, as a friend suggested, should I abandon the whole idea and record the backing vocals to a sampler, then trigger this from the sequencer using simple MIDI?
Miles Forman
Assistant Editor Mike Senior replies: It should certainly be possible to record eight tracks of audio while playing back your backing vocal parts on either the D16 or the VS1680. Both machines are capable of recording eight tracks simultaneously and of playing back 16 in total, and both support sync via MIDI Time Code and MIDI Clock. My instinct is always to clock from the audio recorder to the sequencer, though I believe the 1680 at least will let you do it the other way around.
As for allowing the QY700 to access the start of each song without faffing about, there's nothing to stop you having each song's backing vocals on different virtual tracks within one D16 or 1680 Song. In this case, all you'd have to do is switch between virtual tracks between each number. This would also have the advantage that you wouldn't have to program timecode offsets into the QY700, as you would if you had all the backing vocal tracks recorded consecutively.
I wouldn't really recommend triggering your backing vocals from a sampler, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you'll run out of memory pretty quickly recording backing vocals, and loading up new samples can be a time‑consuming process; there are systems that can stream samples directly from hard disk, but they are expensive. There is also a more important question of synchronisation: a sampler triggers samples by firing them off at a set time and then letting them freewheel after that. If you're using long samples, then, there's a danger of them drifting against the MIDI. If you were to keep the samples fairly short it would probably be all right, but it would probably be tedious to record them all in short sections and program them up on the sampler. The sampler also won't be much good for doing a cast recording later on, so you might be shooting yourself in the foot going down the sampler route when the hard‑disk recorders you've mentioned ought both to work just fine live.