CAKEWALK Cakewalk SONAR, User Manual

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Tutorial 3—Recording Digital Audio
To record digital audio, you need some sort of device hooked up to your sound card's line or mic input—
an electric guitar, a preamp, or a mixer, for example. If nothing else, try playing or singing into a
microphone!
If you have never connected an instrument to your sound card, see “To Connect an Electric Guitar to
Your Computer” on page 30.
This tutorial covers these procedures:
• Setting the sampling rate
• Setting the audio driver bit depth and recording bit depth
• Opening a new project
• Setting up an audio track
• Checking the input levels
• Recording digital audio
• Listening to the recording
• Recording another take
• Input monitoring
• Loop and punch-in recording
• Recording multiple channels
Setting the Sampling Rate
Each SONAR project has a parameter that specifies the sampling resolution for all digital audio data in
the project. You should set this rate before recording any digital audio.
To set the sampling rate:
1. Choose Options-Audio to open the Audio Options dialog box.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Under Default Settings for New Projects, select a Sampling Rate. For CD-quality sound, use 44100
Hz.
4. Click OK.
Lower sampling rates will save disk space but will result in lower-quality audio. Before embarking on
any major project, consider what media your project will eventually be stored on, and what sampling
rate is best for that media.
Setting the Audio Driver Bit Depth and Recording Bit Depth
The drivers for most sound cards use anywhere from 16 to 24 bits to play back recorded data. CD’s use
16 bits. You can possibly get better sound quality by recording at a higher bit depth and converting to 16
bits when it’s time to master your project, but keep in mind that 24 bit audio takes 50% more memory
than 16 bit audio, possibly straining your computer’s storage capability and speed of operation. Your
sound card’s documentation could have some advice on choosing an audio driver bit depth.
You can record audio data at 16 bits or 24 bits. It usually makes sense to record and play back at the
same bit depth.
To set the audio driver bit depth: