Want to start recording music, but don't know where to start? This three-part guide will have you making music in no time.

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Punch-In Recording
Have you ever recorded something that was almost perfect, but wished you could change a single section or one word while leaving the rest of the performance intact? That's what Punch-In recording is all about. When you have Cool Edit Pro (or Cool Edit 2000 with the Studio Plug-In), you can record over any section you want to change, without affecting the rest of the recording... In the studio biz, this process is known as "punching in".

To punch in on a track, all you need to do is highlight the portion of the track you'd like to re-record and then go to the Edit menu, and select "Punch-In". The selected portion of the track will turn red to indicate that it's ready to be re-recorded. Now, position the cursor at any point before the section that you will punch in. When you hit the record button the session will begin playing back and will automatically enter into record (punch in) at the beginning of the selected region and will likewise fall out of the record mode (punch out) at its end.

Let's say that you've punched in on one (or more) tracks and you or the artist didn't like the take... no problem! All you have to do is re-position the cursor before the region to be punched and begin recording again. As before, the session will play back and the punch-in area will be recorded over... You can do this as many times as you like.

Ok, now the magic begins! After you've recorded any number of overdubs, you can:

• Listen to each take by selecting it from the Edit Menu under Take History.
• Delete unwanted takes by selecting Delete Current Take.
• Once you've decided on a final take, simply select Merge Current Take to insert the selected overdub into the track.

Auto-recalling a session
In the pro-recording world, the ability to automatically and quickly recall all of the track layouts, mixing, group and edit settings within a session is a feature that costs big bucks! The Cool Edit family of editors will save every aspect of your session automatically... After saving a session, you can pick up from where you started a day, week or year later is as simple as calling up the session and getting down to business. All in a matter of minutes!

Backup
Once you've finished your session, it's always a good idea to back the session and Wavefiles to a backup media. The fastest, most logical and cost-effective backup media type is, of course, CD-R or CD-RW.

If a session directory is larger than a 640 or 700Mb disc, simply use your favorite burning program to split the files over multiple discs.

System Requirements
The PC: Due to CEP's low system overhead, it isn't necessary to spend megabucks on a super-PC. In fact, CE 2000 or CEP will run on almost any modern-day PC running under Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT. With the Cool Edit software family, you'll be able to mix and edit up to 64 tracks on your PC, regardless of its speed.

The Interface: Any professional multi-I/O audio interface will work with Cool Edit Pro to pass audio to disk in a multitrack setting. However, if you want to take your PC on the road, I suggest that you look into the newer-generation of USB audio interface systems (Such as the Tascam US-428, Roland UA-30, UA-100 and MIDIMAN's Quatro). For laptop owners, USB means that we can finally pass pro-quality audio to/from our laptop with very few bucks!

Dave (who is an avid techno-evangelist for Syntrillium) has finally finished the update of his best selling book "Modern Recording Techniques" (www.focalpress.com) to its 5th edition. His musical explorations can be found at www.51bpm.com
(c)2001 Syntrillium Software Corporation

 

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