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Tutorial 3 – Recording vocals and musical instruments

In Tutorial 1, you learned about opening project templates. Let's open a blank project for this tutorial:
1.
On the File menu, click New.
2.
Select the Normal template and click OK.
3.
Do one of the following:
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Click Insert and then click Audio Track.
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Right-click on the Tracks pane and select Insert Audio Track on the pop-up menu.
6.
Click the Input drop-down menu to select the track’s input.
7.
Select the physical jack that your instrument is plugged into. If you know, for instance, that your guitar is plugged into input 1, click the Input control and select the first option. Some audio interfaces refer to their stereo inputs as pairs, like 1/2, 3/4 or 5/6. Most often left channels are represented by odd numbers and right channels are represented by even numbers.
8.
Click the Output drop-down menu to select the track’s output.
10.
Click the track's Record Enable button .
11.
Click the Input Echo button if you want to hear the input during recording. Many sound cards and audio interfaces have an option to do this automatically at the hardware level. If you can already hear the input signal, simply move on to the next section.
If the meter never even comes close to the maximum, increase the input level. If the meter even occasionally reaches the maximum, decrease the input level. Input levels are usually adjusted via a knob next to the input jack on the sound card, but features like this may vary slightly between devices. So, if you have never recorded an instrument or microphone with your sound card, you may want to read about doing so in the device's manual.
Now that everything is set up, let's record something! Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Metronome to access metronome settings. You can also right-click the Playback Metronome on/off button or Record Metronome on/off button in the Control Bar’s Transport module to access metronome settings.
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Click Use Audio Metronome, select the Recording check box and set Record Count-in to 2 Measures. For details about each metronome option, click Help.
13.
Make sure the track has been record enabled by clicking the track’s Record Enable button. The Record Enable button on the track should be lit in red like this: .
14.
Click the Record button in the Control Bar’s Transport module, or press R on your computer keyboard.
15.
When you finish recording, click the Stop button or press the SPACEBAR.
16.
Press Play to play back the project. If you would like to redo the take, go to Edit > Undo to undo the previous recording, then repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 above until you get a perfect take.
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