Recording, Editing and MIDI Sequencing

Capturing and shaping musical material is at the heart of production. This lesson covers the practical craft of recording audio, editing it, and sequencing MIDI, the skills that let you turn performances and ideas into usable tracks within a DAW.

Recording audio

Recording audio means capturing sound as a waveform, usually through a microphone or a direct instrument input. Quality begins at the source: a good performance in a suitable space, captured with an appropriate microphone placed well, is worth more than any amount of later processing. Key considerations include choosing and positioning the microphone, setting an appropriate recording level to avoid distortion from signals that are too loud or excessive noise from signals that are too quiet, and minimizing unwanted sound from the ro