The very first thing you will want to do is check your hardware settings. Go to the Setup Menu, click on it, scroll down to hardware and open the below box. Since our first recording will be with a mic, guitar or keyboard using the audio output, click on Channel 1-2 Analog button. Clicking on the S/PDIF button will allow you to record from a digital source such as a Dat player or other digital playback system. By default the Clock Source will be internal-leave it there for our analog recording.
Setup Menu, then choose hardware.
Create A Track
Once you have opened a new song and saved it in a session folder (see my last blog) go to the New Track menu. Click on “New” and the New Track dialog box will open. Let’s create a Master fader first.
Master Fader
Open the dropdown that says mono and choose stereo. Open the dropdown that says Audio Track and choose Master Fader. Now click the Create button and you will have a Master Fader which can be used to determine the overall level of your recorded tracks. Now we will create an input track for our instrument or mic.
Aux Input Track
Let’s record a guitar track but the same instructions apply to recording a mic as well. Go back to the Track menu and click it. Then click on Aux Input. This is the track that represents the input of the M-Box or whatever interface you are using. Hit create and you now have an Aux input track showing on your mixer screen. Double Click on the channel strip that says Aux 1 and change it to Gtr In (or Mic in).
You now want to go up the channel strip to I/O and where it says “no input” click on that and go to interface and click on 1 mono. The channel that you created is now hooked up to the input of the hardware. Plug your guitar into input 1 of the M-box. We should now hear sound. But, you cannot record onto an Aux Input channel. So go back to the Track menu and click New, then click Audio Track, then hit create. You now have an audio track and this is where we will record your music.
Bussing the Audio
In order to get the sound coming into the Aux Input to an Audio Track we must Bus it to that track. Look on the Aux Input channel strip until you locate the I/O section. Click on the second tab that says Analog 1-2, go to the Bus tab and choose Bus 1. Now go to the Audio track labeled Gtr 1 and in the I/O section open the top tab, go to Bus and click on Bus #1. Arm the record button on the audio track and you have successfully Bus’d from your Audio Input Track to you Audio Track.
A lot of people record right into their Audio track. You can do this. I choose to use the above method because when doing multi tracking of guitars or vocals I usually use a compressor or EQ inserted in the Aux Input. Doing this allows me to establish my guitar or vocal sound and then have that same sound bus’d to the other tracks. So, recording more guitar tracks…just add another Audio Track and click on the input button and then click on Bus 1 (the bus that carries the Gtr signal from the M-Box). Arm your recording button on the new track and you can now double track or do multiple overdubs using the same guitar sound.
Start Recording
Use the input volume knob on the M-Box to set your levels. Click the red record button, then the play button and you are recording. Or, use the keyboard shortcut: “Apple-spacebar.” To stop the recording, hit the spacebar again, or the square on the transport panel. I usually monitor the edit window while recording. You can see your waveform as you record.
And there you have it. You can now record multiple tracks of guitar.
