Recording

[tom9437]

Hi i recorded a cd backing track but when i play it back is very quiet?? also i play sax and i wanted to 1st record the backing track 2nd press record again and play my sax over the backing track ?? would i be right i also have an email [email protected] thanks Oh and hi i am a new guy great site.cheers Tom.

[steve]

Use the Windows Mixer to set your record levels: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues
and keep an eye on the recording meter in Audacity - an ideal level would be making peaks up to about -3 to -6 dB. Don't try pushing it beyond -3dB because you will probably get the occasional spike that will hit distortion (clipping).

If your recording turns out a bit too quiet you can use the Normalize effect to bring it up so that the peaks reach 0 dB.

Record the backing track on track 1, then record your sax part on track 2.

Check out the Audacity Help and Tutorials for general advice - the Tutorials are a great way of getting to know how to use Audacity: http://audacityteam.org/help/

[tom9437]

High Steve , thanks i know it sounds silly but how do you get the timing right if you do it separate ?? thanks Tom.

[steve]

You need a "full duplex" sound card (one that can record and play back at the same time). Most conventional sound cards can do this, but it can be a problem with some USB interfaces.

Assuming that you are using a conventional sound card, go to "Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O" and make sure that "Play other tracks while recording new one" is selected, and that "software playthrough is NOT selected.

[jan.kolar]

If your second recording is shifted in time, I think you need Latency Corection.
This is aviable in beta version (currently 1.3.5.), Edit>Preferences.

I recommend the beta version. The stability now is I think comparable or even better.
You can have installed both versions, just note you can
run only one instance at single time and the project files are only one-way compatible.