Create Music for Free

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Recording Drum and Guitar Tracks

Recording Drum and Guitar Tracks
This lesson will build on previous lessons. We will use the drum track we created, 8bars.wav in Audacity. While playing this track back through the sound card (or headphones) we will record a guitar part over the old track.

  • Start Audacity.

  • Setup Audacity for Playback and Recording:

  • Click on File -> Preferences and click on the checkbox for “Play other tracks while recording new one”. Click on OK.


  • Now we will import our Drum Track, 8bars.wav. Click on “Project,” and then “Import Audio”. Navigate to the folder you put 8bars.wav in and, once you’ve found the file, click on it and click OK.

  • Your screen should now look like this:


  • Get your guitar ready, make sure everything’s plugged in. You might get a friend to help out if you want.

  • When you are ready, Click on the “Record” button. You will hear the drum track being played through your speakers. Use headphones if this interferes with your microphone.

  • After the first measure of drums, lay down a simple 12-bar blues guitar track. (There should be some tab available on the internet).

  • You should have enough time for about 2 times through a 12-bar arrangement.

  • Click stop when you are finished.

  • Your screen should now look like this:


  • Now you’re ready to hear the song coming together! Press “Play” on the controls (The round button with the green arrow) to hear your composition.

  • Save your composition by clicking on “File -> Save Project As” and naming it “8barsong”.
Congratulations, you’ve done your first multitrack recording!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home