Recording Real Instrument Tracks

When you’ve practiced a part and you’re sure you’ve got it down, you can record what you play while you listen to the rest of your song.

When you’re done, you can hear how it all sounds together and decide if you want to make any changes. It’s easy to rerecord the whole part or just change the parts you don’t like.

Tips

Cycling and recording

For real instruments, you can only record the first time through the cycle region. When the cycle region repeats, you can hear what you just recorded.

Mute tracks to make it easier to play in time

If you have trouble playing in time, you can mute all the tracks (except the basic drum track) and record again. It may be easier to hear the beat when only the drums are playing.

Reset volume meters

If you’ve recorded your instrument with too much volume you’ll notice that the meters retain small red dots to the far right. This indicates that somewhere in your track you’ve peaked the meters. This is called clipping and can cause distortion. The clipping indicators stay lit to remind you to find the place where clipping occurs. You’ll want to rerecord the track if you hear distortion. You can reset the clipping indicators by clicking them.

Steps

Record your real instrument track

Click the track header of the real instrument track you want to record to select it.
Click the Record button (the round one with a red circle). Your song will play, and anything you play will be recorded. Notice that a new region appears as you play.
When you’re finished with the part you want to record, click the play button to stop recording.