Sri, if you select the entire track you have, then hit Shift-R
It should play the track you have, create a new track and record everything you say into the mic on the new track.
The only problem I have with this is that I get bleed-through of sound from the headphones.
In the end, you have two tracks, your original unchanged track, and the newly recorded track.
Change your input setting. I have a Roland QUAD CAPTURE, so for me I changed it from MAIN (QUAD-CAPTURE) to 1-2 (QUAD-CAPTURE) and it only records from the 1 & 2 inputs on my interface.
Hi all,
I’m having the same issue with multi track recording in audacity. On the first track i recorded my instrument, on the 2nd track I recorded the main vocal but it also include the sound of the first track. So when I record a third track for Back up vocal, it also include the 1st and 2nd track. Is there way I can record them separately? Like the multitrack recording in my keyboard, I can record piano and string in a separate output although I’m listening to the other track while creating a new one. I’m using a laptop win 10.
Thanks,
Phil
Are you still having this issue?
For additional information, check this tutorial on overdubbing.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_multi_track_overdubbing.html
If you are still having issues, please start a new thread. What version of audacity are you on?
I had this problem too. After fuming about Audacity’s “limitations”, I realized it was just recording what it heard—the playback, plus the new part I was playing—which were both coming through the soundcard, as I was using a VST instrument on the same PC.
Apparently you need to have a way to play your new tracks on a different input channel, so you can choose that as your sound source, rather than your overall system sounds. I haven’t figured out how to do this, but there must be a way, right? Other than buying a second PC so you can play it into the 1st PC on a USB audio channel?
This is a slightly older post with a list of common ways of getting too many copes of the backing track.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/rhythm-track-being-recorded-onto-new-teacks/48340/7
Koz
And why did people stop answering you when you finally made it clear what you wanted?
It’s a forum, users helping each other, not a Help Desk. Sometimes, a response has to come from the other side of the earth, so the responder has to be awake in their time zone.
Audacity routes the existing recording(s) into the new track you’re recording, too, as if you always had to have a single track with everything recorded into it.
There’s only one Audacity setting that can do that and that’s the Playthrough setting in Audacity Recording Preferences, but there’s a festival of Windows settings which can do that.
Do you like to record internet content? Instant Problem. All of those settings and tools redirect internet sound playback to the Audacity recording system. Audacity will record everything playing on the machine including the backing track. That’s why it’s super important to be recording from a real device, hardware product, or thing, not a redirecting service, software pathway manager, or driver.
Stereo-Mix’s job is to scramble the computer’s sound pathways, for one Windows example. Run away.
Koz
And yes, you do want overdubbing. Clean copies of your voice by itself and not duplicate copies of the drum or other backing track.
Koz
Oops—I went back and edited my original (complaining) post before I realized you’d replied to it. But I wanted everyone to know I’d realized it wasn’t Audacity’s fault.
I’m using virtual instruments on a PC. Problem is, when I play back an existing track and record along with it, Audacity “hears” everything the PC’s playing—the existing track, and the music I’m now playing—and records both of those to the new track, because I can’t play the new music on a separate audio channel. It’s all internal, in the PC.
I do have a USB audio interface that I use for acoustic recording, and have also successfully used it to record synth sounds, digital pianos, etc. that I liked more than those I could get on my PC. So I guess I need to figure out how to play the VST instruments so they go in through USB, rather than being played by the PC’s soundcard. How do people usually do this? Do you really need to get a 2nd PC to play into the first one? I can’t think of any other way to do it. Thanks!
I went back and edited my original (complaining) post
Don’t do that. It makes following the conversation impossible.
You’re just concerned with your postings. We’re trying to follow all of them.
Koz
Oops—I went back and edited my original (complaining) post before I realized you’d replied to it. But I wanted everyone to know I’d realized it wasn’t Audacity’s fault.
I’m using virtual instruments on a PC. Problem is, when I play back an existing track and record along with it, Audacity “hears” everything the PC’s playing—the existing track, and the music I’m now playing—and records both of those to the new track, because I can’t play the new music on a separate audio channel. It’s all internal, in the PC.
I do have a USB audio interface I use for acoustic recording, and have also used it to record external digital devices (synth sounds, digital pianos, etc.) that I liked more than those I could get on the PC. So I guess I need to figure out how to play the VST instruments in through USB, rather than on the PC’s soundcard. How do people usually do that? Do you really need a 2nd PC so you can play it into the first one? I can’t think of another way… Thanks!
In this case, though, they were posting last year… I’m pretty sure all the time zones had chances to roll around since then. 
Sorry, but when I find out I’m wrong about something, I’m not going to leave a rant up than blames something or someone for something that’s not its/their fault—it’s just not who I am. I think I’ve made the real scenario clear enough, retroactively.
I suspect that what I (and the OP here?) were trying to do wasn’t typical of how people use Audacity—and that’s why we had the problem, and why nothing in Audacity’s documentation seemed to help.
When creating multitrack recordings, I imagine most people either:
• Record live (acoustic) music in through a USB interface—so they can set that as their recording channel, and tracks they play back at the same time don’t get re-recorded.
…and/or
• Using a multirack MIDI sequencer to record electronic instruments (where hearing playback isn’t a problem, because everything’s recorded as MIDI info, not sound), then using Audacity to record the finished arrangement.
By contrast, I was trying to record two separate tracks directly into Audacity, using a PC-based piano simulator—so I couldn’t separate the playback audio from what I was recording.
So I guess I need to record MIDI tracks after all, then play them back to record them together. The results will sound the same, it just won’t be “live”. LOL—you can probably tell I’m on the older side, thinking there would’ve been any difference, here in this digital age.
How do people usually do this? Do you really need to get a 2nd PC to play into the first one?
I think this may be just a process problem. You need to cross the Playback and Recording barrier to record your virtual instruments. After you get your instrumental backing track recorded you have to destroy that cross. No more recording from Stereo Mix or however you’re doing it.
Change the Audacity recording device to your vocal microphone and use the instruments as recorded in Audacity as the playback.
As long as you have “Playthrough” de-selected in Audacity, that should give you a clean voice track.
Koz
they were posting last year…
I think that posting is when we fall back on the forum format. Users helping each other. We should wait for someone who has the same devices, connections, and setup to help.
Koz
Thanks, but I’m not singing; I’m using stand-alone VST instruments, as I think I mentioned. (You don’t want to hear me sing!)
I need to use a MIDI sequencer, and play my “live” performances to MIDI tracks rather than recording them directly as waves. When I play it all back together, it’ll sound identical, as the same VST instruments will be responding to the same MIDI input. The difference was psychological, as I come from a generation that didn’t have all this stuff… And yet I’m not too old and senile to eventually catch on, so that’s good! 
Before I investigated more and became enlightened (as I’ve now described), I was under the impression that a very basic need—adding one track after another, listing to existing playback—wasn’t being addressed. That was as baffling as the problem itself. I now realize it was a technical limitation of the way I was using the program, so colour me humbled.
If all your performances involve virtual instruments, then the answer to your earlier post is yes, you need two machines for successful overdubbing. To record your instruments, you have to have a Playback/Record cross. For successful overdubbing you have to not have a Playback/Record cross.
The only possible alternative is software/virtual mixers or sound pathway managers such as Voicemeeter.
https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/
Koz
I have the same Problem … To make things Clear
I dont want Over dubbing
what i want is this
Track A ( guitar only)
Track B (Vocals only)
Over dub is turned off
Play through is off
The problem is whenever i am about to record my Vocals i dont hear the ( track A)
Help me please
Just to be clear… Why is that?