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How to Make a Fast Track Layout

When recording a song, it's often necessary to record the individual instruments separately. As a result, it can be difficult for players to follow the structure of the song, as they can't rely on visual clues from their fellow musicians. As the producer, you can get around this by sketching out a quick layout of the song using pre-recorded elements. This guide track is played to each instrumentalist through headphones as they record their part, helping them follow the structure of the song.

Things You'll Need

  • Multitrack recording software with a graphical user interface.
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Instructions

    • 1

      Discuss the structure of the song and identify all of the different sections --- usually an introduction, verse, chorus and middle 8. Other sections are possible, but look carefully at each and you may find parts such as breakdowns and pre-choruses are actually just slightly modified versions of the main sections. If the length and underlying scale of these sections is the same as a verse or chorus, you can substitute one of the other sections for your rough-and-ready guide track.

    • 2

      Decide which instruments you're going to use for the guide track. It's not necessary to use all of them to simulate the finished track. A skeletal sketch of the song's structure is all that's necessary. If you're working with traditional rock combo instruments, drums and a rhythm guitar usually are sufficient. This enables the other musicians to stay on time and follow chord changes.

    • 3

      Record the drums playing through each of the parts, but ignore any repetition. For instance, if the song's structure is, "Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus," you only need to record, "Intro, verse, chorus." Use a click track in the drummer's headphones to ensure he stays perfectly on the beat. This is necessary for editing later.

    • 4

      Repeat the process with the guitar part. Have her play each part of the song once, along with a click track. Use the graphical "Arrange" window in the multitrack recording application to cut the audio recordings into individual instances of each section. These blocks of recorded audio, also known as regions, can then be copied and pasted within the software as many times as necessary to create a guide track representing the song's full structure.

Recording Music

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