Multitrack recording
Recording separate sources onto independent tracks that can be edited, processed and balanced later.
Multitrack recording is the basis of the modern studio: instead of committing a performance to a single stereo recording, each instrument, microphone or overdub is captured on its own track so it can be fixed, replaced or remixed later. The approach was invented on tape machines with a handful of tracks and now routinely runs to dozens or hundreds. Its cost is that a performance heard as a whole is now assembled from pieces, which is both its power and its risk.
Example: Recording the drum kit on eight microphones, the bass on one track and the guitars on several more, all separately, is multitrack recording.
See also
Related
- PageOverdub
- PageDAW
- PageStem
- PageAmp mic placement
- PageAudio interface
- PageAux send
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley