Lesson 10 - Multitrack Recording; Putting It Together
OBJECTIVE: This unit will take many of the concepts you have learned throughout the course such as sequencing, MIDI, Garage Band, Reason, effects and microphones and apply them to an original composition. This will give you some experience with the actual recording process involving a project from start to finish and will utilize modern recording techniques. In addition, you will learn the terminology and techniques used in supporting the multitrack recording process.
Recording Audio
1. Assign sound source - Real instrument/vocal or software instrument.
2. Before recording check levels to make sure you are not clipping in the red or that your incoming signal is too low. This will produce an unwanted signal to noise ratio when you have to increase the volume of the track to an acceptable hearing level.
Maximum recording levels for digital audio should not exceed zero on the record meter. It is always best to make sure that the record level of the loudest passage is set a few decibels below Zero on the meter.
3. "Arm" track - Put into standby recording mode.
4. Check monitoring setting.
5. Begin recording.
Punching In/Out
Punching means to drop a track into record.
You pick and choose spots to record new material (or fix mistakes) and "punch" the record button at those exact moments.
There are a few different methods for achieving this:
Manual punching
With a footswitch
Automatic - One pass or Looped
Multitracking
Overdubbing - Is when you record over something that has already been recorded such as recording vocals over a previously recorded rhythm track.
It is also used when fixing spots on specific tracks on which you've already recorded such as re-recording a bass line in a song's second chorus.
Submixing - Is a grouping of instruments or tracks that are inserted or mixdown to a one or two channel composite that can then be brought in to the recording or main mix. Ideal for situations where there are not enough channels to handle all of the input sources.
Bouncing - Used for combining multiple tracks into a single track or stereo track. Similar to "export song as audio file" found in most sequencing programs.
Problems with bouncing tracks: Once tracks are mixed and bounced together into the new track, it is not possible to work with any of them independently from that point - they have become a single track.
For instance, if three tracks were already recorded on a four-track recorder , these three could be bounced to the fourth track, thus freeing up all three of the original tracks to record new material.
Checkpoint Review
What famous guitar player from the 1940s and 1950s developed the concept for multitrack recording?
Digital Audio Editing
Advantages of digital audio editing over analog tape:
Nonlinear.
Nondestructive
No more razor blades and adhesive tape.
Where the phrase "left on the cutting room floor" comes from.
Copy
Cut/Delete/Erase - Behaves differently on different systems
Insert
Paste
Move
Undo
Finding the edit point(s)
Aurally
On the fly
Scrubbing
Visually - Looking at the audio waveform
Digital Audio Editing Examples
Replacing a bad note
Copy and Paste
Even out a performance
Raise or lower the volume of a note
Mitigating distortion
Cutting out noises (chair squeaks, coughs, etc)
Pitch correction
Assembling composite phrases or sections
Other Techniques
Time stretch
Reversing
Crossfade
And much, much more