Recording Technique?

[DarkFriend]

This is kind of a weird question, so bear with me... If I've got a track in a song where the contents of the track only appear in certain places in the song, should the WAV file recorded be the entire length of the song, and muted in the places where the track isn't "active"? Or, should I record individual WAVs for each part where that track is being heard?

For example, a lead vocal track appears in most of the song, but not in all places. If the song is 3 minutes long, should the lead vocal track be one 3 minute WAV, or a number of shorter WAVs that appear only where the vocals should be? If the lead vocal track is 3 minutes long (the length of the song) there will be parts of the WAV that are silent and muted and parts where the vocals are being sung.

The main reasons I ask, are 1) because I'd think that one 3 minute WAV would be a larger file than say 8 smaller WAVs that total 2.2 minutes. And 2) because I wonder if it is easier to manipulate a bunch of smaller WAVs in the song, rather than one single WAV that spans the entire song length?

I hope I'm making sense here..

Thanks!

 

[Gidge]

I think the best thing to do is to record the track all the way thru and silence the sections that have no content....

 

[Slackmaster2K]

I think it's best to record seperate parts on the same track. For one thing you'll be using less disk space, less processor power, and you'll also be avoiding Punch in/out recording, which isn't always reliable in n-track. It will also give you more options for cheating, or it'll make it easier anyhow. You can move your vocal bits around on the song, even reuse the same ones many times.

The downside of seperate parts is that if your sng file gets corrupted, you're SCREWED. I know this from experience. If all of your tracks are solid and start at 0:0 it's a lot easier to recover.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Either way works fine. I tend to record little files, though, becuase it is easier to "punch in." Some times you just can the whole recorded phrase and redo it.

It also seems like less work than going in and erasing large spaces of silence by hand. That my personal preference though, the performance will probably be the same as if you recorded one track and CUT the silent parts out. If you cut those parts non-destructively you have the best of both worlds- you can re-build your tune easily if it crashes between saves.

If you mute the silent parts, though, you are using A LOT of resources for that silence. I wouldn't do it that way.

Another thing that you have to watch out for when recording a huge track and editing out parts with it; DON' T delete any of those parts!!! It will take the whole track with it if you are not careful- including the other parts that now look seperate.

Take care

 

[Tom Hicks]

"Best" is always subjective to what you want to do.In terms of the feel of the take,it is conventional wisdom to get it all down in one go (more cohesive,all levels and EQ match,etc.).
Silencing the middle of the wave won't save you if disk space is a problem.Cuttting and deleting silence WILL alter the wave on the hard drive.If you are not sure,make a copy of the track first before any processing (on the copy).Then,if the copy turns out OK,you can safely delete the original and free up precious disk space.
Drives are relatively cheap,though.Get a big 'un and then you won't have to worry about piddling around like this.

Tom

 

[DarkFriend]

Great comments.. I'm not too concerned about disk space, as I've got plenty to spare. My main concerns were 1) ease of recording, mixing, and other manipulation of a track; and 2) saving system resources during playback and mixdown.

Logically, it seems like the "right" thing to do, would be to record the entire track including silences, and the use a WAV editor to fully silence the parts where the track isn't making noise. This mostly pertains to lead vocal tracks, as I'm not going to record a 15 second long guitar solo onto a 3 minute track with most of the track being silent. If the track recording starts at 0:00:00, I don't have to worry about placing a separate WAV in its exact place.

Thanks to all for the great comments.