This tutorial will cover the basic general steps that are needed to start recording, completely independent of the recording application you are using. The same procedure will then be shown for the most popular free and very inexpensive recording applications:
Reaper ($40),
Kristal Audio (Free), and ("
possibly")
Audacity (Free).
NOTE: I recommend reading through the general procedure first and then move onto the procedure for your application of choice, because deeper explanations will be given in the general procedure and much of it won't be repeated in the application tutorials.
Reaper Plug:
If you are undecided on which recording program to use or even if you're using one of the freebies or another inexpensive recording program, I
HIGHLY recommend checking out Reaper. I've used a lot of recording programs (I try everything I can legally get my hands on), and Reaper is the best inexpensive program I've seen and I even like it better than a lot of the "much" more expensive programs I've tried. You can download the demo from the site above and the demo version is completely unrestricted and never expires. So while you could just keep using the demo forever, the developer does ask that if you like it to pay for it. It's nice to know that you can try it out for a while without fear of the demo running out to see what you think before committing money to it. Hopefully this tutorial will help get you started on the right foot also.
Contents:
• General Procedure
• - Procedure for Audacity
• - Procedure for Kristal Audio
• - Procedure for Reaper
General Procedure
Starting A New Project:
[1] Start a new blank project and save it with a title (usually the name of your song). The way I go about organizing my projects, is on my hard drive I have a folder dedicated to my recording software and within that folder I
create a new folder for each individual project (song). Then all of the audio files that I record for the project are saved in this folder so that all of the files associated with this project are kept together in the same folder.
[2] Add a blank track (or several) to the project. Some programs automatically have several tracks setup. If not, you will have to add them so that you can start recording.
Here is a blank project in Reaper:
One track has been added to the project:
Sound Card Setup:
NOTE: THIS A ONE TIME PROCESS!
Unless you change these settings or some other weird thing happens (you know how computers are 
) then your recording program should remember these settings and use them on future projects.
Depending on the program, the sound card setup is usually done in the program "options", "preferences", or something along these lines. This can be found in one of the menus, and again which menu they put it under depends on the program.
[1] Select sound card driver. The three main driver types are ASIO, WDM, and MME:
- ASIO is the best choice, it uses the least amount of resources, has the lowest latency, and some extra functions (like VST monitoring). This driver was created specifically for the purpose of audio recording.
- WDM is the next best choice, it has low latency but not as good as ASIO. It does not offer the VST monitoring like ASIO does. It's the newer "improved" driver to MME.
- MME is the last choice, uses the most resources and has the highest latency.
For playback any one of these drivers will work because they all sound the same, but for recording the choice of driver becomes more important.
[2] Select sound card.
- If you have only one sound card installed on your computer, you probably won't have to worry about this part as this card should already be selected for use. So you can skip this step.
- If you have 2 or more sound cards installed in your computer then you'll want to verify that both cards show up and then select which one you want to use.
- If you have a multiple input "recording" sound card, you may need to enable all of the inputs so they will be accessible. Sometimes only the first two inputs will be enabled by default.
Recording One Track:
[1] Pick the track that you want to record onto and name the track according to the instrument/vocal you are going to be recording. This will allow you to easily identify each track.
[2] Choose your recording device (sound card input). This will depend on which sound card input you are plugged into. One each track there will be a way to select the recording input. This way the software will record from the input that you have your instrument/mic plugged into.
The two general types of inputs are "mono" and "stereo". Mono inputs use only one input and don't have separate "right" and "left channels. Stereo inputs on the other hand combine two inputs together to create separate "right" and "left" channels on one track. So for example, inputs 1 and 2 could be recorded onto a single stereo track where input 1 would be the left channel and input 2 would be the right channel. You can also split up a stereo source and record it on separate mono tracks and then pan these two tracks right/left to get stereo.
[3] Create a name for the wave file you are about to record and choose it's location on your hard drive. On each track there will also be a way to name the file before you record. After recording the file with the name you specify will be created in the folder location that you give it.
NOTE: Some recording programs may wait until AFTER you record to let you give the wave file a name and choose it's location. So you can either check the manual/help files or just do a short test record and see what happens.
[4] Arm the track for recording.
Arming is just a fancy term for
selecting which tracks will be recorded onto. Any tracks that are armed will be recored onto when you press the record button, the tracks that are not armed will not be recorded onto and will be completely left alone.
[5] Press record and play!
[6] After you stop recording you will probably want to un-arm the track (so you can't accidentally hit record and record stuff you don't want to). If no tracks are armed for recording, then nothing will happen if you accidentally hit record.
Recording Additional Parts ("Overdubbing"):
After you have recorded one track you can record onto another track by simply repeating the process above with a different track. Remember to un-arm the previous track you recorded onto before or it will be recorded onto again (another reason I suggest un-arming the track as soon as you're done recording, so you don't forget and leave the track armed when you record onto another track).
NOTE: Depending on the program, you may have to enable an option in the settings so that you can hear previous recorded tracks while you record your new track. On some programs this is the default setting, on others it isn't for some strange reason.
You can choose which tracks you want to hear while recording by muting all of the tracks that you don't want to hear while you record your new track(s).
Recording Multiple Tracks At The Same Time ("Multi-Track Recording"):
If you have a sound card with multiple inputs you can record onto multiple tracks at the same time. This is very similar to the procedure described above. The only difference is you will arm multiple tracks before hitting record instead of just one. You will have to assign a different sound card input to each track.
NOTE: A stereo input (like the line input on standard PC sound cards) can be used to record two different tracks at one time. This is because the stereo input consists of a "right" input and a "left" input and these can be recorded onto separate tracks in your recording program.
EXAMPLE: Now for an example on multitrack recording. Lets say you have a backing track loaded onto track 1 in your recording program and you want to record your guitar and vocals at the same time along with the backing track.
You also have a sound card with two inputs on it (Inputs 1 and 2). You can plug the mic into Input 1 on your sound card and the guitar into Input 2. Then in your recording program you could assign sound card Input 1 (mic) to Track 2 and assign sound card input 2 (guitar) to Track 3.
So what you end up with is:
Track 1: Backing Track
Track 2: Vocal
Track 3: Guitar
The great thing about multitrack recording is that even though you recorded the vocal and guitar at the same time, they have been recorded to separate tracks so you can make additional adjustments to each track in your recording program after you have finished recording. Everything that is one its own track can be adjusted individually without affecting any of the other tracks. This way you can get the levels just right so the vocals and guitar fit with the backing track.
You can repeat this process as many times as you like. Each track that you record onto a new track it will be kept separate from the others so you can make adjustments to each track ("Mix") after the recording has been completed.
Conclusion:
This concludes the basic process for recording. While this process may seem kind somewhat long, I took the scenic route and tried to include every aspect of the process. When you actually do it on your own and get the method down for whichever program you are using, it will go very quickly.
You can even save templates, or "blank projects" that have tracks added, armed for recording, and sound card inputs assigned to tracks. Then all you have to do is re-save it in your project folder with the correct name for your project and this will save even more setup time.
The following sections will demonstrate this same procedure using a few different recording programs.
