Really confused on how to record vocals over music, how can I?

[Billfer]

Hello. I currently have the adobe audition trial it just says Adobe CC. First off I know this isn't part of my question but is CC good enough or should I look into another verision: I am trying to make songs.

I upgraded from audacity and am confused on the simplest thing. In audacity I was able to record through my mic and while recording listen to my music in the back, with my headphones and record like that. In Adobe Audition it seems I cannot record unless my input and output are my mic, which confuses me too ( im a begginer), The only way I can record is if my mic is my input and out put so I can't hear anything I record or any music I put on there.

I can hear the music if I switch my output to my headphones but then I can't record.. I am just so confused I just want to be able to listen to the music through my headphones and record with my mic but I can't record unless my output is my mic. One thing I read was to try with multitrack, but when I open a multitrack session the recording symbol fades and I cannot click it to record.

[Kowla]

What's your setup? Do you record straight to the computer or you have a converter / mixer in between? Also I'd request you to go to Edit > preferences > Audio hardware and take a screenshot of the audio in and out dropdowns and paste it in your reply.

Another possibility could be the limitation of the CC trial version. Not sure about this, haven't used CC.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Billfer wrote:

In Adobe Audition it seems I cannot record unless my input and output are my mic, which confuses me too ( im a begginer), The only way I can record is if my mic is my input and out put so I can't hear anything I record or any music I put on there.

I can hear the music if I switch my output to my headphones but then I can't record.. I am just so confused I just want to be able to listen to the music through my headphones and record with my mic but I can't record unless my output is my mic. One thing I read was to try with multitrack, but when I open a multitrack session the recording symbol fades and I cannot click it to record.

Well, if you record in Waveform view, then yes you are likely to run into problems, because there's only one track available, so there won't be anything to listen to anyway; if you want to record the way you want to, you have to record in Multitrack - no choice.

The basic idea is that if your sound devices are set up correctly, you can send a backing track to the output, and set the input to the track you want to record to as the microphone. When you've got this set correctly you can arm this track for recording, and when you start playback of your backing track, the armed one will automatically start recording at the same point - so you don't have to do the whole track in one go if you don't want to - it will stop recording when you stop the playback.

Your real issue with this will be monitoring your singing. Because of latency, ideally you will monitor yourself directly through your sound device, which should let you mix this with the playback signal. But with a lot of internal sound devices this doesn't work properly, generally because of Microsoft and their strange ideas of what people might actually want to do with their computers. So almost invariably it works better with external sound devices rather than the onboard sound.

Oh, and there are no limitations placed on the trial version of CC. And CC is professional software, unlike Audacity, and is way better, simply because it's more stable, apart from any other considerations.

[Bob Howes · Accepted solution]

To expand a bit on what Steve says...

Yes, Audition is completely up to what you want to do and, because it's professional software, a ton more.  The trouble is, this makes the learning curve much steeper than simple (but far more limiting) programmes.  Just to give an example, on my own set up I can record 32 simultaneous sources (in multitrack) and set up multiple different feeds to monitor.  With this versatility comes complexity though and I strongly suggest you spend a few hours with some of they tutorial videos available by searching.

To give you a quick overview of what you need to do to get started:

Go to File/New/Multitrack Session, set it up for the bit depth and sample rate you want, stereo or mono (likely stereo) and all that sort of thing, then give it a name.

Go to Edit/Preferences/Audio Hardware and tell Auditon to use your mic as the default input (you may need to go to your Windows Audio control and set it up there if you mic doesn't show up on the Audition list).  Then set up the default output to be your computer speakers or headphone output.

On the multitrack screen, pick the track you want to record into (I'll assume you already have a music track that you've opened in a track) and make sure the input source is your mic--input is that box with the right-facing arrow in the area to the left of each track.

Click on the red "R" at the left end of the track to enable recording--just in the track(s) you want to record to, not the ones with existing material).  If you want to hear your voice via the computer, click the small "I" next to the "R".  This routes your input back to the output but, as Steve says, your computer might introduce latency.

At that point clicking on the red record button in the main transport controls should start you recording with playback going to your computer output.

Now, that's the basics but you have a ton of options (and a ton of shortcut keys if you choose to learn them).  Why so complex for a single track?  Simply, if you have the external gear to record multiple tracks at once then you need to be able to tell Audition which source to put in which track.  Once you get going, you can create a "session template" if you want to use the same set up every time.

So...give that a try but I strongly suggest you watch some tutorials for more detail--and I'll second Steve's comment that, whatever DAW you eventually decide on, a priority purchase should be an external sound interface to bypass the one built into your computer.

[Billfer]

I did not see this post earlier, but thanks a ton I finally got it. Trust me im a huge noob at this but I want to learn the ins and outs, but I just wanted to make sure I could record before I really study up on this stuff.

Anyway I could get the original settings I had back since everything dissapeared under classic, when I open a new mulitrack under classic or default nothing comes up?

[Billfer]

Only have a USB mic. no other hardware ( i know not ideal but its a start)

Thanks for what you have said so far everyone, im still lost however. I got to this point.

Multitrack - Loaded the music on track 1, and was unsure whether to arm record on the same track or on track 2, im assuming track 2. Anyways tried both. Armed both for recording and the same problem, it let me record but I couldn't hear my music because the output is "blue yeti" so I switched the output to my headphones and once again I couldn't record.. Heres some screen shots I must be a real noob which I am so thanks for the help.

When headphones become the output

[Billfer]

edit: sigh.. I guess print screen doesn't post to the site, so I went back and tried to recreate the screenshots and now everything is just dissapeared.. I dont even know what is going on lol. Everything just dissapeared..

for what its worth heres the setup

[Kowla]

Cool, a few things.

You only arm the track you want to record on. So don't arm track 1. Arm track 2. But before that check if track 2 is a mono or a stereo track. Make sure the track you are recording on (track 2) is a mono audio track. then hit record  (shift + space) and sing

[luckylalo]

so if you could help me understand as of when I export a track I made and try to listen on my iPhone I can only hear the beat but not my vocals but when I plug in headphones I can hear the vocals

[Richard M Knight]

This sounds like an out of phase problem with the vocal track, it cancels out when listening on the mono phone speaker but you can hear it (although out of phase) on the headphones. Are you sure your vocal track is mono?

[Bob Howes]

The other possibility I've heard is that some iPhones mysteriously switch to mono and/or pan all audio to either the left or right track.  Mono would certainly have the effect Richard Knight mentions if your vocal track was out of phase--or if you had the vocal panned to one side, the L/R adjustment could be the problem.  You can check this in Settings/General/Accessibility and scrolling down to the "Hearing" section.  There's a switch for mono (it should be off for stereo) and a slider to move from left to right (which should be in the centre).

[Juliette5C25]

I've done everything you just said. Changed audio preferences on Audition, changed sound settings on my computer, even uninstalled the app n installed it again, n it's still doing the same thing. It's so frustrating. Track 1 keeps playing in track 2 when u try to record. I don't know what else to do

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

This is a significantly different issue. May I suggest that you start a new thread about it, rather than hijack a four-years-old one? And include some more information, like whether this is a Mac or a PC, what sound device you are using, etc.