Multi-track recording with Audacity [LWN.net]

Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 7, 2006 0:05 UTC (Sat) by Hawke (guest, #6978)
Parent article: Multi-track recording with Audacity

The sample representation was changed to 16 bit integer mode and the audio i/o setting was changed to 2 channel (Stereo).

The inability to record mono tracks is an obvious deficiency...

So the author found the setting used to record mono tracks and then complained that it was missing? WTF? In addition, you can split stereo tracks into two mono tracks or mix two mono tracks into one ("Quick mix").

The "Play other tracks while recording new one" setting was enabled, this is the critical feature that allows "sound-on-sound" recording.

Am I missing something or does this defeat the purpose of multi-track recording? Why would you do "sound on sound" recording when you can record each sound as a separate track and then mix them together in software? Furthermore, this seems to be the cause of the later dropouts and latency problems the author complains of. In fact, I find it difficult to get audacity to not play back the other audio tracks while recording the new one, regardless of the setting in preferences. (On further testing it seems as if the software initializes to "play other tracks while recording new one" but leaves the checkbox off; so checking and unchecking this preference will disable the feature.

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Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 10, 2006 22:15 UTC (Tue) by roelofs (guest, #2599) [Link] (4 responses)

I read that to mean that it's a playback option to simplify the recording of each new (separate) track in synchronized fashion, not that it's doing live mixing+recording of "sound on sound." The "silent" alternative (depending how you play music) would tend to result in different tracks having different lengths, which would require significantly more processing to correct without screwing up the pitches (frequencies).

But that's just the opinion of a signal-processing theorist, not of a practicing musician. ;-)

Greg

Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 10, 2006 22:48 UTC (Tue) by MenTaLguY (guest, #21879) [Link] (3 responses)

(IAAPM) To put it more simply, it lets you play along in time with the stuff you've already recorded. Very useful.

Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 10, 2006 23:19 UTC (Tue) by Hawke (guest, #6978) [Link] (2 responses)

Yeah, but that seems contrary to the author's description of it as "sound on sound". I agree that it's useful to listen to other tracks while you play the new one but describing that as "sound on sound" makes it seem like you're trying to mix the tracks such that the new track contains the previous track(s) as ambient sound (I'd call it "noise") with the new recording added to it.

Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 11, 2006 19:35 UTC (Wed) by cook (subscriber, #4) [Link] (1 responses)

The term "Sound on Sound" dates back to the multi-track reel to reel audio recorders of the late 1960s, pioneered by the Beatles and others. The ability to record a new track while listening to others (in sync) is critical for making music. My ancient Teac 3340S reel to reel recorder calls this ability "SimulSync". There is a switch on the deck for playing back previously recorded channels via the recording tape head. There is a short time delay between the signals on the record and playback heads due to the tape movement, SimulSync removes that. Playback through an analog record head tends to sound very "muddy" (think low-pass filter) but it is sufficient for making musical recordings.

When I wrote the article I wanted to see how Audacity would work on a vanilla Linux system with no special kernel builds or other tricky technology that would be difficult for the average musician to install. Except for the mono-record problem, Audacity got the job done.

Multi-track recording with Audacity

Posted Oct 11, 2006 21:22 UTC (Wed) by Hawke (guest, #6978) [Link]

You saw my comment above about the mono-record problem, right?