Korg OASYS: Recording multiple combis to audio tracks

Note: should also apply to the Korg Kronos.

Scenario

You want to create a song that features more than one combi by using only the internal sequencer on the OASYS. (This is of course easy to do if you are using an external sequencer on a computer.)

Procedure 1: Multiple audio bounce-downs

One way to do this is by recording a midi performance with one combi, moving that performance into 2 audio tracks, erasing the MIDI Tracks, copying a new combi into the song, and repeating this process as follows.

Stage 1: Record the first Combi - MIDI, then Audio

1. Let's copy Combi A000 Particles & Waves into the Seq, using Auto Song Setup from Combi Mode: ENTER + REC/WRITE. Metronome starts clicking, Song01 is created, press START/STOP, and record some button pushes and keyboard playing as an example.
2. Now, verify the MIDI pass is recorded by playing it back. OK?
3. Set the Rec Status of all MIDI Tracks back to PLAY, on 0-1 [MIDI Prog/Mixer]. Note that a really easy way to do this (turn off all REC-enabled tracks) is to uncheck Multi REC at the upper right, then turn it back on.
4. On 0-2 [Audio Track Mixer], create a stereo pair by selecting Page Menu > Stereo Pair > set 1-2, Pan Mode: Balance.
5. Pan Audio 1-2 to L/R (0/127) by panning track 1 to 000 (since we used Balance Mode, they are linked), set REC Source to L/R.
6. Set Rec Status of Audio 1-2 to REC.
7. You turn the Metronome Off at the top of the sequencer page. I don't know why it still clicks in count-off when it's turned OFF, but whatever - it's silent when the song is playing and when you're recording, with it set that way. Note that you can also bus it to some bus that you're not listening to, on the Preferences Page, or turn off the Precount.
8. Press REC and StartStop, and it plays back the MIDI Tracks while recording the Audio 1-2 Mix. You can watch levels on the Preferences Page.
9. Now, test playback of the Audio: Mute all the MIDI Tracks on 0-1 (or solo the audio tracks on 0-2).
10. set the Record Mode of the Audio Tracks back to PLAY. Playback and confirm that you have the stereo audio tracks recorded. Now we've got Combi 1 mixed down to a stereo pair of audio tracks.

At this point, you would find the recorded tracks in a folder named TEMP, on your hard drive. This is because you haven't saved the song yet. I saved SEQ in the Disk Mode, named it TESTREC.Sng, and the TEMP folder disappears, to be replaced with a folder named TESTRE_A, which contains the audio tracks I just recorded.

Stage 2: Recording another Combi on top of this (MIDI)

Now, to record another combi on top of this: several ways suggest themselves to me, but here's one way that I tried that seemed to work (go back to the same song, erase the MIDI Data, and copy a new COMBI in on top of the other one (keeping the AUDIO Tracks). You would want to back this up in case you need to come back to the first pass some time.

1. Go to 4-1 [Track Edit], Page Menu > Erase Tracks > All MIDI Tracks. Now the previous MIDI Data is gone.
2. On page 0-1, Set all Timbres back to PLAY before the next step, if they are not already (not sure this is necessary, but one time I tried it didn't get the correct Mult-rec setup from the next step).
3. Go to 0-1. Page Menu > Copy From Combi. I selected, as an example, Combi A003 Locale 5. I set to [x] IFX All, and [x] Multi-Rec Standby. It replaced the previous combi. (Note: I didn't have a problem with this - it didn't create a new song, I don't know what problem you were having up above). I checked it by turning KARMA On and playing the keyboard.
4. Set tempo back to 120 BPM. Why? Note that at this point, the Audio tracks have been recorded referencing the first Combi's tempo, which was 120 BPM in this example. If you copy in something else, with a different tempo, it's not going to adjust the audio tracks tempo, but it will change the Song's tempo. After copying in Combi A003, the tempo is set to 159 (the Combi's tempo). So you must set the tempo to be the same after copying in a new combi. So I set back to 120.
5. Now, press Record and Start/Stop, get the metronome count off, and record MIDI for the second Combi, while listening to the Audio for the first Combi. It works (sounds like a gawdawful mess, but this is only an example. )

Stage 3: Recording this second Combi's pass to audio

1. Now, to record the results of this second pass to a stereo pair of audio tracks, I'm going to again follow the procedure above:
2. Link a stereo pair for audio tracks 3-4, Pan L/R, set Rec Source to L/R, set all MIDI tracks back to PLAY using the check/uncheck Multi Rec trick, REC enable Audio 3-4, etc.
3. IMPORTANT: Now, mute the audio tracks 1-2 so you don't record them into the 3-4 pass.
   • (Note to self: perhaps theres a way to route this second pass (all of it) into a difference Rec Bus so that you don't have to mute 1-2 while recording.)
4. Record the second combi's MIDI data into Audio 3-4, while listening to only it.
5. When finished, solo Audio 3-4 to verify playback.

Anyway, you get the idea. Now I have this new MIDI pass recorded onto Audio 3-4. I can mute the MIDI Tracks, play it back, unmute Audio 1-2, and I have the two combi passes, on separate stereo Audio Tracks.

Another way to do this, at the (B) section, might be to Copy another Combi to a *new* song, then Import the Audio Tracks 1-2 from the first song to the Second Song. That way you could keep the first pass in the first song, make a second song to hold the second pass, etc. See a couple of messages down from here for the next part of the tutorial that explains this concept.

Procedure 2: Importing stereo audio tracks from one song into another song

In this alternative method for accomplishing this type of goal, you record a midi performance with one combi, move that performance into 2 audio tracks, and then import the audio tracks from this song into a new song and repeat as needed.

Say that you have performed Stage 1 from first procedure listed above. You now have the results of one Combi's MIDI recorded into a stereo pair of audio tracks 1-2, in Song001.

1. Create a new song (hilight the Song's Name, enter a number such as 05, press Enter - it asks to create a new song - OK).
2. Go to 0-2 [Audio Track Mixer]. Use the Page Menu > Stereo Pair to create a stereo pair in Audio 1-2, Pan Mode: Balance, OK. Pan Channel 1 to 000 L, thereby spreading them out (since we used Pan Mode Balance to set them up). You've now got a stereo track to hold the results that we are about to import.
3. Go to 4-1 [Track Edit]. Select the first Audio Track: an easy way is to hilight the Track field at the top (which is on MIDI Track 01 by default), enter "18" and press Enter. This takes you to the first Audio Track.
4. Select the Page Menu > Audio Event Edit. You will see an empty track, with only "==Track Start ==" and "== Track End ==" events.
5. Select "== Track End ==" and press the INSERT button. You will be taken to the Select Region dialog.
   • Regions are not Song Specific. Therefore, you can use Regions in one song or another. If the [x] Song checkbox at the top is checked, you will only see the Regions in the current song (none). But if this box is unchecked (default), you will see all regions that are currently in the Sequencer Memory RAM.
6. So, we can see two regions here, corresponding to the Audio 1 L and Audio 2 R tracks we recorded in part (A) of the tutorial. Select Region 1 Track 1 by touching Index #0000 (or anywhere in the first row). Hit the OK button.
7. Since this has been set up previously as a linked stereo pair, it will immediately ask you to pick a region for the R side (Audio 2). So now touch row 2, Index #0001. Press OK.
8. Now you'll be back to the Audio Event Edit dialog, where you will see the results of your selection. Press Done.
9. Now, play the song - you will have the stereo audio track you recorded in the first song, inserted into a completely new song, ready to record new tracks.