Overdubs & Editing
Once the basic rhythm tracks are down on tape you will have to do "Overdubbing". Overdubbing is when you listen back to the instruments of the song you have recorded thus far and add your part (vocal, guitar solo, horns, whatever) alongside the others, building up a complete performance. Overdub tracks can be recorded on in groups or individually. Of course there are a million variations on this scenario but you get the general idea.
In the old days (prior to 1994) complex projects required thorough advance planning because you had 24 tracks on your tape and that was it, but in Digital Performer or any computer based recording environment, there is no limit on the number of tracks you can have (if you have the computing power at your disposal to play them all), and there is no penalty in sound quality for combining tracks since you never have to throw away the originals. Talk about flexibility! Overdubs generally will consume the single largest block of time used in an entire project.
Editing in the Digital Realm
Editing musical performances is where computer based recording truly distances itself from any linear access (tape) system. The types of edits and fixes you can do in these systems is nothing short of amazing.
This is the primary editing window in Digital Performer officially known as the Sequence Editor.
The basic premise here in the edit window is very simple: select some music (a little or a lot) and perform some kind of operation on your selection.
Some of the more popular things you can do are:
- Copy and Paste whole choruses/phrases/words/individual notes to other places in the song.
- Correct momentary pitch problems or transpose notes from one pitch to a completely new pitch.
- Time Stretch or Squeeze notes so their attacks and cut-offs match across multiple takes (great for background vocals!)
- Record multiple takes of something like the lead vocal or a guitar solo. Go thru all the takes and put the best parts of each take into one ‘super take’. This is called ‘comping’ a vocal (as in compiling)
- Edit out parts of the song you don’t want like too long intros, a solo that rambles, or a 16 bar vamp between chorus and verse that should be 4 bars.
- Apply Plug-ins to specific notes or phrases.
What’s a “Plug-in” you say? Well to understand that you have to look at the 3rd main screen, the Mixer!
