Tracking with DAWs: 8 Tips for Going with the Flow

Keep your tracking session on an even keel with these tips for smoother sessions

By Craig Anderton

As the all-important first step of the recording process, laying down tracks is crucial. No matter how well you can mix and master, you’re hosed if the tracks aren’t good.

But tracking is an elusive art. Some feel it’s pretty much a variation on performing; others step enter tracks via MIDI, one note at a time. Yet regardless of how you approach tracking, you want to create a recording environment where inspiration can flourish — troubleshooting your setup in the middle of the creative process can crush your muse.

There are valid psychological reasons why this is so, based on the way that our brain processes information; suffice it to say you don’t want to mix creative flights of fancy with down-to-earth analytical thinking. So, let’s investigate a bunch of tips on how to track as efficiently — and creatively — as possible.

1  HAVE EVERYTHING READY TO GO

I’m a fanatic when miking an acoustic instrument: I need one person to adjust the mics, and another to play the instrument, while I listen in the control room. But I also want all this setup to be done before the session begins, so the artist can be as fresh as possible. True, sometimes it’s necessary to make some compensations due to differences in “touch,” but those compensations don’t take very long.

2  CREATE A SCREEN LAYOUT THAT’S OPTIMIZED FOR TRACKING

Most sequencers let you save specific “views” or window sets (Fig. 1). For example, you certainly don’t need to do waveform editing when you’re tracking (and if you do, we need to talk!).

Fig. 1: Logic was one of the first DAWs to really exploit screen presets.

As you’ll likely not be sitting right next to your computer as you play an instrument, go for large fonts, big readouts, wide instead of narrow channel strips—anything that makes the recording and track assignment process more obvious.

3  ZERO THE CONSOLE

If you’re using a hardware mixer, center all the EQ controls, turn all the sends to zero, make sure anything that can be bypassed is in the bypass mode, and so on. Many mixer modules have some kind of reset option; take advantage of them. You want to make sure that any changes you make start from a consistent point, as well as insure that there aren’t any spurious noise contributions (like from an open mic preamp).

4  LEARN SOFTWARE SHORTCUTS

Anytime you can hit a keyboard key instead of move a mouse, you’re saving time, effort, and staying in the right-brain (creative) frame of mind. For example if you don’t use the top octave of an 88-note keyboard much, your software might allow you to assign these keys to the record buttons on the first 12 channels of your tracking setup—or at the very least, use the top few notes for transport control.

5  CONTROLLERS CAN BE A BEAUTIFUL THING

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, DigiTech made a guitar processor called the GNX4. One of its features was “hands-free recording” when used with Cakewalk hosts like Sonar, where you could initiate playback, record, arm tracks, create new tracks, and other operations simply by pushing footswitches. While intended for guitar players, I found it very helpful for general recording applications and never abandoned a quest for footswitches.

Fig. 2: The three jacks toward the right are for two footswitches and an expression pedal. The footswitches defaul to transport functions, but can be reassigned.

If you have a MIDI keyboard, chances are you can use a sustain pedal to do something useful, like initiate recording. The Mackie Control Universal Pro (Fig. 2) has two footswitch jacks, which default to start/stop and record, and you can take this to the max with X-Tempo Designs’ wireless POK footswitch bank.

6  KNOW WHEN TO TAKE A BREAK

If someone cutting a track starts running into a wall, it’s seldom worth continuing. It’s better to take a break and let the player (that means you, too!) come back refreshed and with a slightly different perspective.

7  TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LOOP RECORDING

Loop recording, also called composite recording (Fig. 3), can help put together the perfect performance. For more information on loop recording, check out this article.

Fig. 3: Sonar X3's "speed comping" merges loop recording with keyboard navigation.

But loop recording is something best done at one time. If you record a bunch of takes, edit the best parts together, then try to add more parts, the newer takes seldom match up well with the older ones. If you need to add more parts, consider starting over or make sure you record enough takes in the first place.

8  DON’T EDIT WHILE YOU TRACK

Because you read all the way to the end, your reward is the most important tip here. With loop recording, it might be tempting to edit the parts together right after recording them. But don’t — that can really disrupt the session’s flow if more tracking is on the agenda. As long as you know that you have enough good takes to put together a part, move on. The same applies to any editing. Even with MIDI, I’ll usually leave a track “as is,” and use real-time MIDI plug-ins (which don’t alter the file) to do any quantization if a part has some rough spots. Tracking is tracking; editing is editing. Do just enough editing (if needed) so that other players have something decent to follow, and worry about doing any polishing later.

Craig Anderton is Editor Emeritus of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.