To record via your computer's microphone, you must select it as n-Track's recording input. If you don't have an external interface connected, n-Track should do this automatically.
You can make sure your built-in input is selected as an 'Audio recording device' in the Audio Devices window audio-devices-selection-dialog-box accessible via the settings menu.
Some devices only have a single headphone output. Usually these allow you to connect your microphone in as well, via a splitter cable.
To use an external audio interface with n-Track, simply connect it to your computer before or after having launched the program. n-Track should detect there is a new device available, and ask you whether you want to use it.
To change the selected audio device, open the Audio Devices window audio-devices-selection-dialog-box window from the Settings menu in the top menu bar. Here you can change the selected devices for both input (recording) and output (playback).
You can also set your preference on what should be n-Track's behaviour when you connect a new device.
If you're using a multi-channel interface, and you wish to connect multiple inputs or use the interface's different outputs, you must first enable the inputs and outputs. This can be useful to record more inputs at once recording-more-than-one-track-at-a-time , for example
This can be done in the 'Playback format' or 'Recording format' in the 'Soundcard Settings' section of the Settings menu.
Before you can record to an audio track, you must arm it first. To arm a track, click on the record button on the track's left colored bar. You will then be asked to choose which input channel to record.
The avaiable input sources will depend on your Audio Devices settings, which you can customize by opening the dedicated window in the Settings menu.
Before you start recording, you might want to hear what is coming trough the microphone. To turn on live input monitoring, click the speaker icon on the track's colored bar, which will appear once a track is armed.
Warning! Make sure you connect headphones or that the volume of your output is low to avoid feedback during live monitoring.
Once input monitoring is on, you'll be able to hear the microphone's signal through the output selected in your Audio Devices settings. This also allows you to use n-Track as an effects processor live-input-processing !
Once you have armed the track or tracks you wish to record to, you can start recording by pressing the 'Record' button on the transport bar.
If you record multiple times on the same track, you can view your different takes on separate lanes recording-using-take-lanes by clicking the 'Show take lanes' icon on the bottom left of the track's left bar.
To record a MIDI part, simply arm the MIDI track you wish to record to and start recording. Alternatively, you may wish to write notes in manually. In this case, double click on the small MIDI region created at the beginning of your MIDI track. This will open the Piano Roll.
Here you can write and edit your MIDI notes, velocities, and so on.
Quick Grooves allow you to instantly add a rhythmic section to your project. You can add a Quick Groove by clicking the drum icon on the main toolbar.
You can choose between drum loops, bass patterns and bass and drums together.
When you add a Quick Groove, Step Sequencer and Instrument channels will be added to your project.
The Step Sequencer tracks will host your drum or instrumental patterns. The instrument channels will host the software instruments which will play the patterns. This means you can open a pattern in the Step Sequencer and edit it or extend it further.
You can also decide to route the Step Sequencer tracks to other Instrument Channels, allowing you to use the same grooves with different sounds.
n-Track's main toolbar lets you quickly access the most useful functions. You can also quickly open or close other components, such as the Piano Roll, the Step Sequencer, or the level meters, and you can view automation volumes-and-effects-parameters-automation lanes for the project.
You can also customize what buttons appear on the toolbar, and group various functions to gain quicker access to the most common operations of your workflow.
n-Track's transport bar presents the transport controls for your project. Here you'll find the Play, Pause, Record and Rewind controls, as well as quick options for enabling cycle mode, opening the tuner or activating count-in.
In the main panel, you'll also find global project settings, such as the project's bpm, the current grid settings grid-settings-quantize , and global transpose and playback speed controls.
The timeline is where all recorded clips in your project will be displayed. Here you can view, edit and arrange your recordings to build your song.
On the left of each track you'll find the track's color bar, which displays information about the track type, the track's input and output settings and quick controls to arm, mute or solo the track.
Double clicking the track label lets you open the track's properties, where you can view and edit the more advanced properties of the track.
On each audio region, you'll find a series of controls to shorten, trim, move or change the clip's gain, as well as fade controls to quickly apply fades.
Right clicking on an audio region opens a menu where you can find further editing operations, most of them also accessible via shortcut methods.
The mixer is where you can control each track's level and routing in your song's overall mix.
You can control volume, pan position, effects audio-effects-and-signal-processing and routing settings for each track, which is represented by a stripe in the mixer window.
To add an effect to a track, simply click on the 'plus' icon in the effects panel. This will open the Effects Browser, where you will see n-Track's built-in effects, as well as all other available effects found on your computer.
Selecting one applies the effect to the selected track.
To send the signal from a track to another, you can add a new send by clicking the 'Add Send' button on the mixer stripe. You can then select what track to send the signal to, whether a Group group-channels , an Aux aux-channels-and-settings or another audio track.
This can be useful to create send effects, grouping tracks or routing the signal internally among audio tracks.
The Step Sequencer lets you intuitively create beats, melodies or arpeggios. You can open the Step Sequencer by pressing the the button on the main toolbar.
The Step Sequencer can be assigned to any instrument channel, so you can control a software instrument with the Sequencer's step editor. To assign the Sequencer to an instrument track, simply select it as the track's output in the track's left bar or mixer stripe
The Piano Roll editing-midi-tracks lets you write and edit MIDI data. As for the Step Sequencer, it can be opened by pressing the button on the main toolbar, and can be used to control an Instrument track.
To control an Instrument track with the Piano Roll, simply select the MIDI track that outputs to the Instrument track, and open the Piano Roll. You can change the MIDI track's output via the track left bar or the mixer stripe.
Songtree songtree is a tool that lets you collaborate with other musicians worldwide, and is now available directly inside n-Track. To launch it, simply hit the button on the toolbar. Any song you find on Songtree can be added to your project and contributed to via the Overdub button.
To import a song from Songtree to contribute to, simply hit the Overdub button on any song.
When you hit Overdub on a song, it will be imported to your n-Track project and placed on a dedicated audio track.
You can then work on adding your contribution to the song and upload it back to Songtree when you're done. Your addition will then appear on Songtree as a new version of the song you overdubbed, and be available for others to repeat the process.
If you wish to upload your song to Songtree, whether your own or a contribution you recorded over someone else's, simply hit the Upload button on the top-left of the Songtree window.
If you're uploading a song created over a track you imported from Songtree, and the dedicated Songtree audio track is present in your project, your version of the song will be uploaded as an overdub to the imported track, and appear as a derivative version of the one you imported in the song's "Tree" view.
Otherwise, it will appear as an entirely new song that others can discover and add to.
To change a project's sampling frequency, select the 'Recording Settings' recording-settings tab after opening the Preferences window trough navigating to 'Settings' -> 'Preferences' in the top menu bar.
Common values are 44100 HZ for CD quality audio, 48000 HZ for video quality.
If you're experiencing Latency (a small delay in your recordings), a smaller recording buffer size might fix this. To change n-Track's recording or playback buffer size, open the 'Buffering Settings' buffering-settings window from the Settings menu.
Note that smaller buffer sizes result in a faster response time but a heavier load on your CPU.
To change the bit depth of recorded files, click on 'Soundcard Settings' soundcard-settings and then 'Recording format' in the Settings top menu.
To add an insert effect audio-effects-and-signal-processing to a track, click on the 'Plus' icon on the effects panel in the track's mixer stripe. Insert effects affect the whole audio signal comingh through the track.
If you don't see your effects in the Effects Browser, make sure your VST paths are correct. To edit VST paths, click on 'n-Track' -> 'Preferences' on the top menu bar, then open the 'Paths' tab. Make sure the folders where you have your effects is added to the list of paths.
Send effects are effects placed as insert effects on an AUX channel aux-channels-and-settings , to which any audio or MIDI channel can 'send' the signal to. To create a send effect, create an AUX channel, and add an insert effect to it. Then add a send to your track via the mixer stripe, and route the send bus to the AUX channel.
The send amount, set by the send knob in the mixer stripe, will control the amount of signal going to the AUX channel, and can also be automated aux-send-return-automation .
Audio regions have a series of integrated widgets that give instant access to the most common editing tasks.
Dragging on the 'Move' icon on the bottom left of a region lets you move it up and down the timeline. Dragging the left and right handles will let you shorten a region, and clicking the top right and left corners lets you quickly apply fades. You can also change the gain of the entire clip via the widget at the top-center of the region, or mute it by clicking the icon on the bottom right.
MIDI regions can also be trimmed and moved. You may also wish to edit the MIDI notes within a MIDI region. To do so, double click on the region.
This will open up the piano roll, where you can insert, arrange and edit MIDI notes
To use a MIDI keyboard with n-Track, simply connect it to your computer, and make sure you have installed the driver needed to use it (if it requires one).
When you connect the device and launch n-Track, the program should detect your keyboard automatically. If this is not the case, make sure your device appears and is selected in the 'Midi Settings' window, accessible via the Settings menu.
To use your device with a software instrument, simply select the MIDI track that is connected to the Instrument track you wish to control, and make sure 'Midi Echo' is on on the main toolbar.
n-Track allows you to use your MIDI controller to have hands-on control on some of the interface's elements. To map a MIDI control controlling-ntrack-with-midi-faders to a parameter, select MIDI faders/control setup from the Settings dropdown in the top menu bar
Here you can select and edit your MIDI mapping, as well as save and recall stored mapping presets.
To create a MIDI track, select 'Add channel' --> 'Add new blank track' --> 'MIDI' from the top menu bar. Creating a MIDI track automatically creates an Instrument channel, which will host your software instrument midi-instruments .
You can also change the instrument channel controlled by the MIDI track by selecting a different one in the track left bar or channel strip.
MIDI editing is usually done via the Piano Roll window, accessible through the button on the main toolbar
The Piano Roll editor lets you insert and edit MIDI data, such as notes or velocity, also for multiple tracks at once.
You may also choose to play your software instrument via the built-in Step Sequencer. To do this, create a Step Sequencer track by pressing the button on the toolbar or selecting 'Add channel' -> 'Add new blank track' -> 'Step-Sequencer' from the top bar menu.
You can now assign the Step Sequencer to any instrument channel select-destination-instrument , just as you would with a MIDI track.
When you've completed your song, or wish to bounce your project to a single audio file, select 'File' -> 'Mixdown song' from the top menu bar.
Here you can name your new file, and select what audio format you wish to bounce to. In the Mixdown dialog mixdown-dialog-box , which will appear next, you'll be able to set further options, like whether you wish to bounce the whole project, a section of it or only certain tracks in it.
Warning! If you're using a Demo version of n-Track, mixdown operations are disabled. In this case you may still upload your track to Songtree.
Songtree songtree is a tool that lets you collaborate with other musicians worldwide, and is now available directly inside n-Track. To launch it, simply hit the button on the toolbar. Any song you find on Songtree can be added to your project and contributed to via the Overdub button.
If you wish to upload your song to Songtree, whether your own or a contribution you recorded over someone else's, simply hit the Upload button on the top-left of the Songtree window.