Stereo or Multitrack? Why, and which is better?

Damir

Hi all , I would love to hear from people using multitracks to what they find are the biggest advantages of multitrack apart from the very obvious, is the audio quality in the final listening environment better then a well mixed stereo track running through the same gear?
Is the effort of preparing a multitrack song worth doing for the solo artist that needs no click or does not change band members.
The reason I am curious is I have the time and knowledge to go multitrack with my 450 song repertoire but need some feedback from multitrack users that have experience in ST3 multitrack use to convince me to go that way as it will be a big job to do if I choose this path from now, especially with ST4 with hopefully lots of improvements in this area.
Reasons I have not chosen multitrack in the first place.
I can not easily manipulate mutes/solo of tracks while performing.
Loading multitracks in to a song is a big pain and can’t be done in one go.
Naming all the necessary tracks within a song has to be done carefully as not to interfere with other songs , this should not be the case, each song should have its own folder with its own tracks.
I can’t think of all the reasons right now but there are more, so my feeling was IS THIS WORTH IT?
So I have used Stereo tracks.
Can the multitrack users give me the positives please , perhaps I am missing something.
If I had an easy way to manipulate the mutes/solo buttons on stage I think it might be a good reason to go multitrack just like Audio segments which make a big difference when performing , this feature alone is worth buying ST3 10 times over.
But multitrack is not there yet in my opinion it does nothing for solo users that don’t need click.
Can the multitrack users shoot me down please , I can’t think of any advantages , is the audio mix down better at the end by using ST3 software , I don’t know , please help if you have the knowledge.
Cheers Damir

peter

My take: I run Stage Traxx in different setups with different musicians. So while I don't need multiple outputs, I need multitrack playback so that I can just mute the tracks of the instruments that are present. Changing the track balance is also something I love because preparing the tracks on studio monitors or headphones the levels sound different than on a PA system. So I like to tweak these during rehearsals and sometimes even during a gig.

AnthonyB

While I have limited experience with ST3 specifically, I have a lot of experience with backing tracks, playing live, studio engineering, etc. In my band scenario which also doesn't have changing musicians, I've gone for stereo backing tracks, but am using multitrack songs in ST3 as I also have Clicks/Cues tracks for the band.

Based on the parameters you defined:

Solo musician (or at least, never changing musician line up)
No Click needed (and I assume that also means no benefit in a 'Cues' track? E.g. in your IEM "Verse in 1 2 3 AND")
Well mixed stereo backing track

..on face value, I can't see much reason.

The only caveat that comes to mind, and it is along the same lines as what Peter mentioned, comes down to the types of venues you are playing in acoustically. If your FoH/PA operator (or you if you are setting levels and then performing) only have a stereo backing track, and then have a venue that is either soaking up a lot of the bass (or conversely, is really boomy), then with stereo backing tracks your only tool to deal with this is EQ'ing your entire stereo backing track. This might actually be fine in many scenarios, but if you give the FoH/PA operator a separate Drums channel, and Bass channel, separate from the rest of the backing track, then they could EQ AND balance levels, thus giving them more control.

As I said, that really only applies if you are playing in such a variety of locations that the above is a problem you may be running into AND can't be solved by simply EQ'ing the entire mix/room.