Audio Recording

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

Input assignment (AsioSnd and VistaSound driverset)

Automatic assignment
The Input button pops up a list of audio input channels. The input channels of the audio device being used are assigned to recording audio tracks in order of appearance. I.e., with a stereo device and two mono tracks the first (upper) track will record the left channel, and the second (lower) track will record the right channel. The list can be re-ordered using the mouse.

Manual assignment

Input channel selector

Click the Input button and turn off Automatically assign channels to tracks. Now all audio tracks will show a down arrow on the right hand side of the Rec button. Clicking this down arrow pops up the input channel selector. The input channel is displayed on the Rec button itself.

Note: an audio input channel can be recorded by one track at a time only.

Input assignment (WinSound driverset)

When recording two mono tracks the first (upper) track will record the left channel, and the second (lower) track will record the right channel. When recording just one mono track the left channel will be recorded.

Recording Levels

The Level Meter starts working upon clicking the track's Rec button (it turns red). You can now set the recording level. How this should be done this depends on your sound device. If you're using the AsioSnd driverset you should use the control panel that came with the sound device. If you're using the VistaSound or WinSound driverset the Input button takes you to the recording level controls. If you have a mic preamp or a hardware mixer it's more convenient to use this to set the recording level (set the sound device's level at its maximum value).

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.

Under the hood
The level meters read 0.1% above the actual recording level while recording in order to make it possible for the first red segment to light 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

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

1. The Add Audio Track window has a '#' box which holds the number of tracks to create, so you can add multiple tracks in one go. The box appears automatically if the audio device has at least 4 input channels. You can press Ctrl+N to make it appear anyway (this also works in the Add MIDI Track window).
2. The Song menu's New window has a Template box. The "Identical to current" 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.

Record Master

Note: you can use the Mix Down menu's 'Mix down to audio file' option instead.

If this options is activated recording audio tracks will record the output of the Master section (or simply the output if the Master section has been removed) instead of the Audio In Device. This option can be used to mix down the song to stereo (see mastering).

This option 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 of all other tracks, and bypass any effects in the Master section). Having done this, the five original tracks can be turned off (using their Play buttons) and the new track can be used instead.

In a similar way this option can be used to 'freeze' a track that uses effects that require a lot of processing power. The new (audio) track will include the effects, thereby freeing up the processing power used by them.