I am using Windows 7 and Audacity 2.1.2. I don’t know which installer I had. When I moved from Windows XP to WIndows 7 I lost my version of Cubasis but the website developer who changed my computer for me installed Audacity for me. I write music in Sibelius (a music notation program) and then I convert the music file into a .wav file. In the past I loaded that into Cubasis then recorded my voice onto the music. That way I had an instrumental track and an instruments and vocal track. I also was able to separate my vocal track to enhance my voice. I have tried to do this in Audacity but I always only get the vocal and instrument track. I cannot record my voice separately. I have a Behringer Eurorack mixer and a decent microphone. Am I expecting too much from Audacity?
Am I expecting too much from Audacity?
No.
Given your computer can handle perfect playback of the original work and perfect recording of the new work at the same time, you should be able to overdub just fine.
There is a tutorial and most of it is just slogging through it step by step, but there is one oddity. There’s a difference between Overdubbing and Perfect Overdubbing. The special case is being able to hear yourself correctly at the same time as you record. You can’t just plug headphones into the computer. The best way to handle that is with a sound device such as a mixer or USB interface that provides zero latency monitoring. I posted three devices which will do it and others have turned up.
For example, this is a USB interface with my analog mixer on the right. The interface monitor port will mix the backing track playback with my live voice.
No, I don’t recommend Apple earbuds for mixing music.
If I plug headphones into my mixer, I don’t hear the backing track. If I plug into the computer, my voice will be late with an echo.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_recording_multi_track_overdubs.html
Post back if you get stuck.
Koz
Thanks Koz. I’m away from home at the moment but I’ll try your suggestions as soon as I get home.