Recording - June 2018 - 64

STUDIO 101
generally in a standard uncompressed
format like WAV or AIFF, and are stored
in a location that is part of your DAW
project folder. Since there will be one
file (at least) for each of your tracks,
a large amount of disk space will be
consumed by the recorded audio files
for your project.
If you peek into the folder containing
project files, you will probably see files
that look like audio files, but there may
be some other files-things that don't
look so familiar. These are files that
help the DAW work as efficiently as
possible, storing waveform drawing
information and other software-specific
information that must be saved within
the project.
Here's a "Pro Tip" that can save you
some headaches down the line. You'll
notice that the name of each audio
file is normally the name of the track,
along with some version information.
Therefore, if your track is called "Track
1", your first recording on the track
might be named Track 1-01.wav, the
second is Track 1-02.wav, and so on.
This is convenient, but when you get
40 tracks in, remembering what's
what can be difficult.
If you record a guitar but name its
track "LeadGuitar" before you start
recording, the tracks will be named
LeadGuitar-01.wav, LeadGuitar-02.wav,
and so on. When you've built up your
song, resulting in a complicated set of
tracks, recording takes, and other files,
you'll be glad that you followed a good
naming convention before you started!
This also opens the door for reusing your
audio files-whether for use in variations
on your final mix, providing content for
remixes, or simply archiving the variety
of tracks you capture.

What about MIDI?
While working with audio requires a
lot of planning (and data storage), MIDI
recording is much simpler: you select
64

RECORDING June 2018

PART 6

Let's Get Recording!

an input instrument, assign it to a MIDI
track, and hit Record. Since MIDI is a
set of events, you don't need to worry
about processing the signal as it is being recorded. And since MIDI is only a
small data stream, the MIDI events are
normally stored as part of the DAW
project rather than having their own file.
As a result, there isn't anything to worry
about regarding track naming (other
than for your own project organization),
input channels, or other processors. The

One of the issues that you
will face when recording
is widely debated: should
you process sounds as you
record them, or should
you do your processing
during the mixing phase?
real work on MIDI tracks will come
during playback-which we'll look at in
a future article!

Templates
Beyond track naming, there is another
area of preparation that will help you
enjoy working with your DAW a lot
more: creating useful project templates.
Virtually every DAW has a way of creating
a default template that is automatically
used for new sessions; some even let
you store multiple templates to choose
from when starting a session.
The easiest way to do this is to create a "maximum session" template as

a default. Typically, it's much easier to
delete tracks that you don't need (normally by selecting a track and hitting
the Delete key) than it is to add new
tracks, which requires a menu selection,
track renaming, and track input routing.
I've seen people that have default
templates with 64 tracks predefined;
they start a new session by getting rid
of the tracks they aren't using, but all
their track naming, routing, and coloring is all in place-allowing them
to get a quick start on recording
new material.
Additionally, you can save a lot
of time by having default routings,
including any pre-tracking processors (particularly EQ), ordered in a
convenient way. If you take the time
to set up and maintain your default
template, you will find that the time
to get a new session started drops
to mere seconds-a crucial detail
when inspiration hits!

Process on input?
One of the issues that you will face
when recording is widely debated:
should you process sounds as you
record them, or should you do your
processing during the mixing phase?
While the ultimate flexibility comes at
the mix, many engineers like to use
input processing to provide compression,
EQ, and even artistically-desirable overdrive. This commits the processing to the
recording, but often provides direction
and limits the decisions that must be
made to get a reasonable mix printed.
If you aren't sure, you can almost
always route one input to two tracks:
one with processing, and one 'raw'.
This way, you have the freedom of an
non-effected signal, but the commitment
of the processed sound.

What about clips?
Another recording structure isn't yet
common throughout all DAWs. This is
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2018
