How to Compile the Best Music Takes

Believe it or not, musicians and singers don't always record a song perfectly the first time. What they do is sing and/or play various times and then compile their best takes into the final product. Sound engineers also take the audio and fix any imperfections that may have occurred during the take and enhance the sound quality.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Have a singer or musician sing or play for you while you record the audio onto your computer. Have them sing the same song various times so that you can choose the best of all the takes recorded.
2. Render the data on your computer in the audio software that you are using. This means that the software makes the data that has already been recorded on your computer usable for the software to recognize.
3. Open the sound box with your data. It will look similar to an earthquake scale: black lines spanning horizontally across a white page. With this you can cut the audio into different sections and work piece by piece.
4. Mix and match each take that you recorded with others to compile the best music take, using the cuts or pieces of the best takes and "splicing" them together with the software by using cut and paste commands. You can also enhance the audio using special effects that the software might have. Every software is different, so you will have to read the manual to see the types of effects your software has.

Tips & Warnings

• Some audio engineers have their music talent record chunks of the song at a time. The singer or musician records a few lines at a time several times so that the engineer has more to work with when compiling the final cut.