Working with n-Track Studio 5.0

Several weeks ago I reported that I was unable to review n-Track Studio 5.0 due to a plethora of bugs and problems. I’m now able to report that the software appears to be working correctly and is definitely worth a look by anyone interested in this type of software.

What on earth does n-Track do? N-Track is audio multitracking software. It allows you to record multiple simultaneous tracks of audio, such as all the different instruments and voices of a rock band on your PC, and edit this data in a nonlinear manner. This means you can edit each instrument in detail, apply enhancements and effects, even fix wrong notes. Rather than give a long, abstract, confusing hypothetical example - and rather than a feature-by-feature review - I thought I’d take you throught he process as I record and produce a new logo for the Geek Top Three segment of the BostonGeek podcast. I’ll post screenshots and link to sound files so you can get a feel for the process.

Bear in mind that this is not the only way to work with n-Track. It’s not even the way I always work, but it is illustratuive of the current evolution of the manner in which I’ve become comfortable working. Also bear in mind that I’ve already gone throught the process of tweaking the preferences and configuration, so the screenshots will look a little different than what you’ll see when first launching the program.

I pour myself a cup of coffee and launch n-Track. The first thing I do is save a new song file. This tells n-Track where to store new recorded data. Now I import two .wav files. One is a straight 4/4 drum backbeat called a “click” or “guidetrack,” the other is the actual drums I’ll be using. The click will be muted (silenced) when I finally render the finished project. It’s only purpose is to fill in pauses in the actual drum track and help me keep time when I play the guitar and bass parts. Both of these files have a tempo of 150 beats-per-minute (bpm) so I change the tempo in n-Track from it’s default of 120 to 150. This changes the spacing of the grid. The grid is one of the most important tools in nonlinear audio editing. Basically, it’s like putting your wave files on a piece of graph paper, where the spacing of the squares is representative of the beat. In the screenshot below, my drum wave files have been arranged with the click on the upper track (blue) and the “real” drums on the track bleow (red). Though the final logo will only be about 15 seconds long, I’ve arranged the drums and click in a long repeating pattern to make it easier to record multiple guitar and bass takes. The grid spacing is currently set to 1 line per measure. It can be set to finer divisions, but for now, measures is fine.

Both of these drum files were created in Propellerheads Reason sequencing software, by the way. N-Track does have a drum-sequencing utility, but it is a new feature and I haven’t yet taken the time to learn to use it. In any case, I’m very comfortable working with Reason and don’t feel a pressing need to switch at this time.

Next I start laying guitar tracks down. Generally, I like to pan basic (rhythm) guitar tracks about 80% left and right, with a slightly different tone on each side. I record a number of takes with each tone and select the best. The first screenshot below shows my guitar takes (purple and green tracks); the second screenshot shows what it looks like after I’ve trimmed the first three takes off the purple and the first one off the green and moved them both in line with the beginning of the drums (red). This is why the grid is such an important tool!

This mp3 has the guitar tracks and drums, first with the click, then with the click removed.

Now I need to add some bass. I’ll copy and paste the “keeper” guitar tracks, again to make multiple takes more coinvenient. I’m a guitar player, and on my best days, I’m a mediocre bass player. Today is not one of my besst days. The best bass take I’ve got is still a little bit sloppy. That’s okay. While pride prevents me from ever doing this to a guitar track, I have no problem fixing a bass track. I move the clicktrack so it’s displayed below my best bass take, change the resolution of the grid to eighth notes and zoom in close.

Wherever the bass note isn’t quite on the beat where I want it, I cut the file and slide it so it’s lined up correctly and apply a “crossfade,” in which n-Track generates a new .wav file that blends the two pieces seamlessly. There’s four places I want to do this on this track.

Now that the bass is fixed and the music is basically how I want it for now - though a bit raw, I delete the extra iterations of the basic tracks and delete the clicktrack. Time to work on the voiceover. My voice is kind of, well, geeky. For the BostonGeek announcer voice, I record my own voice and use the Track Transpose utility in n-Track to lower the pitch by a minor third. The pitch shifing algorhythm is excellent, one of the best I’ve ever heard. I’ll apply some short reverb to thicken it, some compression and equalization to make it stand out a bit more. Reverb goes in an auxiliary channel, compressor is patched directly in the voiceover channel.

This mp3 has the before and after for the voiceover.

N-Track comes with reverb, compression, eq and other utilities and effects. You can also use virtually any third-party DirectX or VST audio plugin; there are hundreds available, including many excellent freeware titles.

I want to add some harmony guitars, so I bring the click back in for a little while, and delete it again when I’m done. I want the harmony guitars to fade in and out, rather than just being suddenly there so I adjust the “volume evolutions.” There are six tracks of harmony guitars. I’ll “solo” them as I do this so I’m only hearing the track I’m adjusting without any other interference. While I’m working on the volume curves, I also want the toms at the end of the drum track louder so I’ll work on those too. The screenshot below shows the adjusted volume curves (green lines).

I’m almost done. Now I put a reverb plugin on another aux channel. This will add a general ambience that helps the music sound more cohesive. This reverb will have a longer decay than the one I used to thicken the voiceover. Putting it in an aux channel allows me to vary the ammount each track sends to the reverb, depending on whether I want it to sound up front and direct, such as the drums, or more distant, such as the harmony guitars. I’ll also work on adjusting the volumes and EQ of each track. As I’m working on the final mix, I decide I want to space the words of the voiceover out a bit more. Rather than recording it again, I just cut the file in the track and move each word to where (actually, when, for you semantics nitpickers) I want it. Once I get the mix where I want it I render it out to a wav file and move it to Sony Soundforge for mastering - basically the final compression and tone-shaping. I could master in n-Track, but again, my work habits have evolved to prefer to do it in Sound Forge - this week, anyway.

The final finished logo mp3.

This is just scratching the surface of what you can do with n-Track. There are a lot of features I that I haven’t even mentioned. Whether you’re a music professional with lots of work to do, or an amateur just wanting to play around for fun, you’ll find n-Track easy to use and with a feature set that compares very favorably to much more expensive software.