Technique Articles

When FireWire (IEEE-1394) connections first made the scene, one of the claimed advantages compared to the squirrely SCSI protocol that preceded it was that you could “hot plug” them—in other words, while power was on to a computer and peripheral, you could unplug the FireWire connection and plug it into a different powered-on peripheral. If you tried that with SCSI, it was fryin' time for sure. But can you fry FireWire?

Layering vocals is a common technique to thicken a vocal part, whether applied to a solo voice or to a massed group of backing vocals. However, there are certain considerations with layered vocals that don’t apply to single vocals, as layered vocals need to have a coherent, solid vibe. Words can’t start or end at different times, unless you’re going for a certain looseness. For tight vocals, though, there are several DAW techniques that can give the kind of feel you want.

Back when I first became interested in recording, most projects required two tape machines - a multitrack deck for capturing the performances and production, and a second two track recorder for capturing the stereo mix. Even well into the digital era, a second machine has remained popular with many engineers. However, most modern DAW programs can render a stereo mix from the internal tracks and mixer.