Audio Recording

If you want to record using a microphone, you should connect it to your audio device's Mic input. Keyboards, mic preamps, or mixer outputs should be connected to the Line input.

Input assignment

Input channel selector

A small downward-pointing triangle appears on the right-hand side of an audio track's Rec button. Clicking this triangle opens the input channel selector. The input channel is displayed on the Rec button itself. The input channel selector features small level meters.

Recording Levels

The track's Level Meter starts working when you click the track's Rec button (it turns red). You can now set the recording level. How this is done depends on your sound device:

A Recording Level Fader appears next to the Input button if the sound device supports it. This fader sets the level for all input channels.
The Input button itself may provide access to per-channel level settings if the device supports this. (*)
If the sound device comes with its own control panel, you can use that.
If you have a mic preamp or a hardware mixer, it's more convenient to use that to set the recording level (set the sound device's input level control to neutral position).

The recording level is OK if the meter reaches the yellow section during signal peaks.

Note: driving the recording level meters into the red section is definitely a bad thing in digital audio.

(*): The Input button shows the System Preferences audio settings. If your audio device comes with a control panel application, you can click the down arrow menu's "Browse for device control panel..." option to open it. You can then access the control panel via the down arrow menu's "Device control panel" option. If "Button shows device control panel" is checked, it will pop up when clicking the Input button itself.

Under the hood
The level meters read 0.1% above the actual recording level while recording, to allow the first red segment to light up when reaching the clipping level. Otherwise, no red segment would ever light, as the Audio In Device cannot output data above its clipping level.

Live Multitrack Recording

Note: these features are available in the Pro edition only.

The Pro edition offers two features that make live multitrack recording easier:

The Add Audio Track window has a "#" box that lets you specify the number of tracks to create, so you can add multiple tracks at once. The box appears automatically if the audio device has at least 4 input channels. You can press Ctrl+N to make it appear manually (this also works in the Add MIDI Track window).
The Song menu's New window has a Template box. The "Identical to current song" template creates an empty copy of the current song. A new folder will be created, with new audio/MIDI files and a new song file. This feature can be used to record another take of a performance.

Tip: you can toggle all Rec buttons at once by clicking one while holding down the Ctrl key (Windows) / Command key (Mac).

Record Master Out

Note: it's typically easier to use the Mix Down menu's "Mix down to audio file" option instead.

An audio track will record the output of the Master section if the Master Out option is selected in the input channel selector. This feature can be used to mix the song down to stereo (see mastering).

This feature can also be used to "bounce" tracks in order to reduce the number of tracks used by the song. For example: a five-track backing vocal group can be bounced to a single track by recording the five tracks to a new track (temporarily turn off all other tracks, and bypass any effects in the Master section). After that, the five original tracks can be turned off (using their Play buttons), and the new track can be used instead.

Similarly, this option can be used to "freeze" a track that uses effects requiring a lot of processing power. The new (audio) track will include the effects in its audio file, thereby freeing up the processing power used by them.

Recording Practice Mode tracks

The input channel selector features a Practice Mode tracks option. Using this option, you can record a track that is in manual practice mode to an audio track. This is useful if you want to play an instrument plugin and record the performance as audio rather than MIDI, for example.

You can set it up like this:

Double-click a track's Play button to switch it to "manual practice mode".
If it's an audio track: engage the Mon button to switch on Soft Monitoring.
Add an audio track, set its input to "Practice Mode tracks" and engage its Rec button.
Now you can hear it's working, and you can start the transport.

The audio track that's recording isn't "soft monitored" (you'd hear the practice mode track twice if it were).

Note: this doesn't work with VariSpeed.