Course 5: Basic Tracking with Your Mentor

In course five, you will learn all about music tracking. Have you ever wanted to record a complete song from beginning to end with all the professional equipment in a real studio? Of course! In this course, you will do just that. You and a professional recording engineer or producer will either work with a live band you find, or you can work on a song you wrote yourself.

If you decide to record a live band for this course, you will go through the steps of recording, starting with recording a drum track (using a click track), a bass track, a guitar track or two, a keyboard track, and vocals. If you decide to record an electronic song, you will go over the same fundamentals with professional results! In either case, you will have a professional-sounding recording ready for your portfolio.

Though every studio is different and each mentor will have their own methods, there are some fundamental elements that stay the same. Make sure to come on time and have enough hours set aside–we only allow three hours at the studio for tracking, so make sure to show up ready to work. Your mentor will guide you throughout the process, so be sure to take their advice and follow any rules within the workspace.

Before you jump into course six, make sure to spend time reviewing and listening to your tracking performances for the desired sections. You want to look for parts within other takes that are better executed than the take you were originally going to use. Writing down notes during this process will ensure that you’re prepared when it comes time to edit. Course six includes utilizing Elastic Audio in order to get drum and bass timing set up on the grid, plus we’ll be using Sound Replacer in anticipation of overdubbing with guitar and keyboard during a layer course.