{"id":1859,"date":"2010-07-27T17:46:26","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T22:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.com\/?p=1859"},"modified":"2010-07-27T17:46:26","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T22:46:26","slug":"what-is-multitrack-recording-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Multitrack Recording Software?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-15160\" alt=\"multi-track-recording-software\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/multi-track-recording-software.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"226\" \/>Multitrack recording is one of the coolest things EVER.\u00a0 In the 80s when I first started recording music (okay, you can stop counting now\u2026;)), multi track recording was not something a 15-year-old could afford to do without a major record deal or a family member who owned a studio.\u00a0 But in 2010, anyone can do it, and as long as you have a computer with an internet connection, it doesn\u2019t have to cost you anything at all.\u00a0 Man, I love this century.<br \/>\nSo what is it?\u00a0 We\u2019re in the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> paragraph and you haven\u2019t defined it yet?\u00a0 Okay, I know.\u00a0 But as cool as it is, it requires a bit of care in explanation.\u00a0 First let\u2019s define what a \u201ctrack\u201d is.\u00a0 The reason why \u201cregular people\u201d didn\u2019t have easy\u00a0 access to multitrack recording back in the day was that we used <em>tape<\/em> to record.\u00a0 Try to picture a 1-foot length of that brown tape from inside those cassettes we used to listen to music on.\u00a0 If you could <em>see <\/em>tracks, you\u2019d see two parallel stripes on the tape.\u00a0 When the tape was pulled over\u00a0 the consumer player <em>head,<\/em> each track would be played separately by the a sensor on the head.\u00a0 One played on the left speaker and one played on the right (the head had two of these, in case that wasn\u2019t clear;)).\u00a0 Still with me?\u00a0 OK, moving on.<br \/>\nConsumer tape recorders\/players had enough tape for those two tracks, so we could have stereo (another article on its own).\u00a0 For 4 tracks, or 8 tracks, or 16 tracks, the tape had to be wider and wider and wider.\u00a0 The standard 24-track pro studio tape reels were 2 inches thick, a huge pancake of magnetic ribbon.\u00a0 So the tape recorders required to play and record these monsters were very specialized, very large, and very expensive.\u00a0 But If you COULD get one you could do amazing things, like record something, and record along with it, then record a third along with those two tracks, and so on, and so on.<br \/>\nFor example, you could play a song on guitar on one track.\u00a0 Then while you were listening to that play back, you could sing along and record your voice on another track.\u00a0 So now you have only guitar on track 1, and only your voice on track 2.\u00a0 Then you can add bass guitar, a piano part, more vocal parts to sing harmonies, etc.\u00a0 Then you can rewind to the start, hit \u201c<em>play,\u201d<\/em> and ALL of those tracks play at the same time!\u00a0 How cool is that?<br \/>\nNext you would <em>mix<\/em> the volumes of all those tracks individually on a <em>mixing board<\/em> so all the parts can be heard and play together like a real band would.<br \/>\nWhen I was just starting to record as a teenager, the only way I could make \u201cmultitrack\u201d type recordings was to get two tape recorders and two tapes.\u00a0 I\u2019d sing onto one tape and rewind it.\u00a0 Then I play that back and sing along with it while recording on the second tape recorder.\u00a0 Then I would play THAT back (2 versions of my voice) and record a 3<sup>rd<\/sup> part onto fresh tape back on the first recorder.\u00a0 The hiss was horrendous and I couldn\u2019t mix the volumes after I was done. \u00a0But it was still cool.<br \/>\nAll a teenager (or any \u2013\u201cager\u201d) in 2010 has to do is have a computer and download free multitrack recording software and they can do\u00a0 REAL multitrack recording, right now.\u00a0 I recommend a program called Audacity, which is open source software you don\u2019t have to pay for.\u00a0 Then go to the web and watch any of the numerous tutorials on how to use Audacity to do multitrack recording.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.com\/welcome\">Home Brew Audio<\/a> is one such site where you can find articles and video tutorials on all things audio recording.\u00a0 See you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multitrack recording is one of the coolest things EVER.\u00a0 In the 80s when I first started recording music (okay, you can stop counting now\u2026;)), multi track recording was not something a 15-year-old could afford to do without a major record deal or a family member who owned a studio.\u00a0 But in 2010, anyone can do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[62],"class_list":{"0":"post-1859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-recording-software","8":"tag-multi-track-recording","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6.1 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Multitrack recording is one of the coolest things EVER.\u00a0 In the 80s when I first started recording music (okay, you can stop counting now\u2026;)), multi track recording was not something a 15-year-old could afford to do without a major record deal or a family member who owned a studio.\u00a0 But in 2010, anyone can do [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home Brew Audio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ken\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b\"},\"headline\":\"What is Multitrack Recording Software?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\"},\"wordCount\":650,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"multi-track recording\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Recording Software\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\",\"name\":\"What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What is Multitrack Recording Software?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/\",\"name\":\"Home Brew Audio\",\"description\":\"Home Brew Audio\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b\",\"name\":\"Ken\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41257ea2a21aee8aebb7e54111a46dba8028c24ea5be4889c2d1e57500814ae5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41257ea2a21aee8aebb7e54111a46dba8028c24ea5be4889c2d1e57500814ae5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ken\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/author\/Ken\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio","og_description":"Multitrack recording is one of the coolest things EVER.\u00a0 In the 80s when I first started recording music (okay, you can stop counting now\u2026;)), multi track recording was not something a 15-year-old could afford to do without a major record deal or a family member who owned a studio.\u00a0 But in 2010, anyone can do [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/","og_site_name":"Home Brew Audio","article_published_time":"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00","author":"Ken","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ken","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/"},"author":{"name":"Ken","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b"},"headline":"What is Multitrack Recording Software?","datePublished":"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/"},"wordCount":650,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","keywords":["multi-track recording"],"articleSection":["Recording Software"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/","url":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/","name":"What is Multitrack Recording Software? - Home Brew Audio","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2010-07-27T22:46:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2010\/07\/27\/what-is-multitrack-recording-software\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What is Multitrack Recording Software?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/","name":"Home Brew Audio","description":"Home Brew Audio","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b","name":"Ken","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41257ea2a21aee8aebb7e54111a46dba8028c24ea5be4889c2d1e57500814ae5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41257ea2a21aee8aebb7e54111a46dba8028c24ea5be4889c2d1e57500814ae5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ken"},"url":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/author\/Ken\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}