Audacity Forum

Hi.. What I'm trying to do is record a soloist playing an instrument, in this case a harmonica, with a backing track. I've opened the backing track from it's file on my computer into the Audacity window. The sound will come through the mixer. My mike is a Shure SM57 plugged into a Yamaha MG16 board. My speakers are off. I have earphones to listen from both the amp and mixer. I click record, a track opens and the backing track plays and starts being recorded onto the track. The soloist plays, also listening to the backing track with earphones, and is recorded in the same track as is the backing track. The problem is to maintain the correct level between the recorded backing track and the soloist. With what I'm doing they are both on the same track and can't be seperated. Is there some way to open a second track to record the soloist? In this way both tracks could be edited for sound level. In finality the new tracks would be saved in MP3 format to go onto a CD.
I can't seem to get the 2nd track going. I'd appreciate whatever help I can get. Thanks

What you're trying to do is called overdubbing (Transport menu -> Overdubbing). From your description you seem to have it enabled. I just don't understand how it can be recording over the first track. It should start a new track and you should have two tracks in the end. Make sure you have software playthrough off (transport menu also) and that you're recording from the mic and not from "stereo mix".

Which audacity version do you have? And which windows version? You posted in the 1.2.x section of the forum, do you really have a 1.2.x version of audacity? (you can check your current version number in the Help menu -> About)

Thanks for the quick Reply... 1st, I have version 1.2.6. There may be soome confusion as to what is happening. Please read this quote from my posting: I click record, a track opens and the backing track plays and starts being recorded onto the track. The soloist plays, also listening to the backing track with earphones, and is recorded in the same track as is the backing track. The problem is to maintain the correct level between the recorded backing track and the soloist. With what I'm doing they are both on the same track and can't be seperated. To clear this up, the soloist recording is going onto the new track that opened. It's being recorded with the recording of the backing track. I do have two tracks at the end. 1 is the original backing track. 2 is the newly created track which has the recorded backing track and the soloist. So now both the soloist and the copy of the backing are on a new seperate track. Playthrough is off. There is no way to identify my mike other than the channel of the Delta 44 sound card. In this case it is Delta 44 3/4. The mike is connected to the mixer and all input/outputs of the mixer go through the Delta 44. So my basic question is how can I record the backup onto one track and the soloist onto another so each can be edited for sound level?

My apologies for not reading your post accurately. What's happening is that the mixer is sending both the backing track along with the recorded audio to the soundcard. There's nothing you can do on the computer to avoid that. It's the mixer you have to configure in order to send only the sound coming from the mic to the computer's sound card.

Thanks... I see what you mean. It may be possible. I probably have to get to a delta techie.

SabaRaba wrote:Thanks... I see what you mean. It may be possible. I probably have to get to a delta techie.

I think it's the mixer (Yamaha) manual that you have to go through... not the sound card (Delta).

From what I could understand the sound of the backing tracks is going through the mixer too right?
If that's what's happening, don't put the backing track going to the mixer. Connect the headphones to the Delta output instead, then the mixer will get only the signal from the mic and will send only that to the Delta.

Thanks to all for your suggestions. The problem is still there but some refinement to details has come about as a result of many tests. 1st, the sound has been better defined as tremelo. 2nd, as the pitch increeases from low to high the tremelo gets worse. Volume doesn't seem to be important. 3rd, the sound can come through just by recording through the microphone alone. Nothing else is playing. The backing track isn't involved. 4th, and especially important, the Delta 44 can be configured so the backing track will come through in/out 3/4. The recording can be configured for in/out 1/2 for the left side. In this way there is no crossover via the sound card or mixer. The backing can be heard with earphones via the mixer and/or amp. While the backup is playing I can record onto the next track. Only what goes through the mic is recorded. At the end I have two tracks; a stereo with the backng track and a recording via the mic. Both tracks can be edited for proper audio levels. However, the [email protected]$^&&(&%7huc tremelo is still there. Somewhere there is an explanation and a cure.