How to Overdub in Pro Tools

Overdubbing brought to life the age of modern recording. No longer did musicians all have to record at the same exact time. With overdubbing, a drummer in one country can lay down a drum track, send the files to the guitarist on another continent, and no one would ever know it! Overdubbing lets you record each track one by one, at whatever pace you like. We do this by using tracks. When you record, you place each instrument on its own track. You layer the instrument tracks on top of one another. This layering of tracks is called overdubbing.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pro Tools hardware
• Pro Tools software
• computer

1. Create a new Pro Tools session by choosing File - New Session from the main menu. An empty Pro Tools session will appear on your screen.

2. Create a new track. Choose File - New Track from the main menu. A sub-menu appears.

3. Select "audio" for track type under the sub-menu. A new audio track appears in your session.

4. Press the record button on your new track. Your track is now armed for recording.

5. Press record in the transport window.

6. Begin to play your instrument. This can be any instrument. Guitar, bass, vocals, drums, whatever you like.

7. Repeat steps 1-6. This time play something different. If you played a guitar on your first track, then play a different melody over the original guitar part. You can also play an entirely different instrument if you choose. It doesn't matter. The key here is that you are overdubbing, you are recording a new part OVER the original take.

8. Repeat steps 1-6 over and over until you are satisfied with the result. This is where all the fun is. Keep adding tracks and overdubbing until you are happy with the sound. In Pro Tools LE you can record up to 32 tracks. That means you can overdub 32 different parts in your song. This puts a lot of power under your fingertips! That's all there is to it. You now know how to overdub in Pro Tools!

Tips & Warnings

• The downside of overdubbing is that the more tracks you use in your Pro Tools session, the more demands you make on your computer's processing power. Be judicious with your use of tracks. Only overdub what you deem truly necessary!