ThismethodwillworkinanyDAWand
requiresnospecificfeatures.Startby
recordinga fewmultitracktakesoneafter
theother.Ideallyrecordtoa clickor
timingreference,asit’llhelpwhenediting
multipletakestogether.Themethodwill
stillworkwithouta click,butjoiningtakes
willbelesspredictable.Theotherformoftakehandlinggoes
bydifferentnamesindifferentDAWs,
buttheideaisthesame.InLogicProX it’s
called‘Alternatives’andyoucanactivateit
atanytimebyselectingShowTrack
Alternatives. You’llseeeachtracknow
hasanAlternativessubmenuwhereyou
canselect,createanddeletealternatives.1
1
Playthroughthetakes,highlighting
andseparatingthesectionsthatyou
like.Ideally,groupthetrackssoyoucan
editthemcollectively.If oneofthetakes
standsoutasa goodone,useit asthe
master,thensimplycopyoversections
fromothertakestocreateyourfinaltrack.Startbyrecordinga multitracktake,
thensetupa groupfortherecorded
tracksandmakesurethegroupediting
optionsincludealternatives.Nowselecta
newalternative.You’llseethetracksare
clearedandanalternativehasbeen
createdforeachofthegroupedtracks.
You’rereadytodoa newmultitracktake.2
2
Alternatively,grabthesectionsyou
wantandmovethemtoa separate
sectiononthetimeline.Thisworkswell
whenthetakeshavebeenrecordedwith
loosertiming.Finishupbycheckingthe
editpoints.You’renowreadytooverdub
additionalinstrumentsonnewtracks.Repeatthisstepforeachnewtake,
thenusetheShowInactiveoptionto
viewalltakestogether.Listentoeachtake,
editingthesectionsyouwanttouse,then
movethemontoa freshalternativestrack.
Hidetheinactivetracksandadjustor
crossfadethesectionjoinssothatthey
soundnatural.3
3
> Stepbystep
13.Handlingmultipletakes:theuniversalmethod
Step by step
- Handling multiple takes: the ‘alternatives’ method
With your mics set up and cue mix monitoring
sorted, you should have everything in place to
start recording. You might be recording a song
from scratch to a click track or reference beat, or
adding live instrumentation to an existing track.
Either way, this is the point at which it really pays
to have an understanding of how your DAW
handles tracks, overdubbing, alternative takes
and all the rest of it, so you can keep everything
organised. This might sound a bit on the
unnecessary side if you’re simply recording one
track, but the unlimited track count found in
many DAWs can result in an abundance of takes,
and the more you record, the more you have to
sift through later, so any streamlining features
are surely welcome.
Different DAWs handle multiple takes and the
ongoing compiling and editing of them in
different ways. We’ll be looking at compiling on
the next page, but first, let’s consider how they
might handle a few takes.
Let’s say you’re recording a song from
scratch. You’re recording to a number of
individual tracks and want to do a number of
takes. The obvious method is to record one take
after the other sequentially in the arrangement
window. You can see the takes laid out in front of
you, and you can edit sections together for a
master take if required. It’s a universal approach
that does the job. However, some DAWs provide
a virtual layer system that lets you stack takes
on top of each other. Returning to our initial
example, as long as you record the takes to a
click and start at the same position on the
timeline, this should be a more elegant solution.
Plus, if you want to spin through and change
your initial master take, even after you’ve
continued overdubbing onto it, you can.Recording, overdubbing and multiple takes
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