Audacity How to Record Over a Track

To record your voice over a beat you just have to use an audio editing software to be able to record your voice and export the recording of your voice with the beat.

You can use Audacity if what you want is just to record your voice with the beat, but if you want to edit the beat or your vocal, or make cuts to your vocals, you should use a DAW like Fl Studio.

This way you make sure that you have to record fewer takes to make it in perfect timing.

But if you use a DAW like Fl Studio, you can record all the takes you want faster, and then cut the parts that you like the most, and also add effects to the vocal, to make it sound better.

Fl Studio is a paid software, but you can try their demo for free.

You can also make your own beat inside Fl Studio. You can check this post about how to make your own beat.

To record over a beat you can use an editing software like Audacity or a DAW like Fl Studio. With Audacity, you just have to load the beat in a track and record your voice in other track, and export both in one file. With a DAW you have more editing options, and also you can mix and add effects to the vocal.

How to Record Over a Beat In Audacity

The first thing is to connect your microphone, open audacity, and select the microphone as input.

Next, drag your beat to audacity to generate a stereo track with the beat, and go to Tracks>Add New>Stereo Track to create an empty track where you can record your voice.

If the track with the beat is on top, drag it below the empty track.

Now you can hit record to start recording while you listen to the beat.

To avoid the audio from the beat getting into the microphone, record using headphones.

You can record specific parts of the tracks, by selecting that part you want to record over the beat and pressing shift+R, and it will create another track with your voice only in that part.

So you have Two Options:

You can record over the entire beat in one track, and record everything again if you don't like it.
You can record by sections or parts of the beat, and if you don't like just that part you can delete the track with that part and record again only that part.

Once you have a good recording, you can export it by going to file>export> export as … You should export everything as wav, because it has more quality.

How to Record Over a Beat in Fl Studio

With Fl Studio you have a lot more edition features.

You can make more corrections, for example, if you didn't start in time you can make a cut until the part where the vocals start and move it to the part where the beat starts.

It's a lot easier to record a lot of takes and make a selection of the best parts, which is called comping.

Also, Plugins inside Fl Studio can help you make the recording sound better and mix well with the beat.

Recording in Fl Studio

Setting the microphone

To record in Fl Studio go to Options>audio settings, and select device as Fl Studio ASIO, click on show ASIO panel and select your microphone as input there.

Finally go to the mixer, select one track, and in the top-right select the input as in-1.

Recording into the playlist

To start recording you can hit the record button in the top-left of the screen, and from there you can click on Audio into the playlist as an audio clip to record directly on the playlist or Audio into Edison to record on Edison each take.

It's easier to record on the playlist, as each time you record it will create a new track.

The only problem is that you will listen to your own voice.

Recording with Edison

If you just want to hear the beat when you record and hear your voice only after it has been recorded, you will have to use Edison.

Load Edison in a track in the mixer, mute the track and hit record on Edison, now you can hit play and record while the beat is playing without hearing your own voice.

Hit the record button in Edison again to stop recording, and now you can drag the recording into the playlist by clicking and dragging the mouse with a file symbol.

Remember to use headphones, so you avoid leaking of the sound from the beat to the recording of your voice.

Dragging the beat to the playlist

To paste the beat in the playlist first you have to go to Options>file setting and click in one of the folder symbols to locate the folder where you have the beat.

After you have done that you can go to that folder in the left of the screen and drag the beat to any track on the playlist.

Comping

You should start recording a lot of takes, even if you think you have the good one because then you can start editing and you won't have to stop to record again.

Once you have 4 or 5 takes, you can start comping, which is just listening to each part from all the takes and rate them from bad to very good.

You can rename the tracks on the playlist, by right-clicking on them and also mute them by left-clicking the green icon.

If you right-click on the green icon it will mute all other tracks except the one you clicked, so you can listen only to that track.

Once you have the best parts of each track, you can cut them clicking the cutter symbol in the top-left and delete the rest by clicking the pencil tool and right-clicking on what you want to delete.

You can move each part with the pencil tool, so there is no silence and it's in perfect timing with the beat.

Finally, go to the setting on each part by double-clicking and select a track. In that track, in the mixer, you can load effects to make the vocal sound better and an EQ to mix it with the beat.

Adding Effects and Mixing

Reverb, Delay, Compression

You can add effects like reverb and delay to make the vocal sound bigger and also to give it a sense of space like it's being played in a concert hall or a room.

Compression can help you to make the vocal equally loud in all parts if some parts of the vocal are too quiet.

Mixing

Mixing is really important so the sound from the beat doesn't overlap with the sound of your vocals and vice-versa.

You just have to use an EQ on the vocals, remove all low frequencies below 500hz, and lower the high-frequencies above 5k.

If you want to know more about mixing vocals and adding effects on them, check this post.

Equipment You Need for Recording Vocals

You don't need to expend a lot of money to record vocals.

There are very cheap microphones on amazon that come with a stand and a pop-filter, which is all you need.

If your room is not very empty, you shouldn't have a big problem with echo, so you won't have to buy acoustic foam for sound isolation.

However, if you want to get professional results, you should think about investing some money on a good microphone to get good quality recordings and acoustic foam panels or a vocal booth so you don't get any echo.

Microphone

The microphone is the most important part.

There are two types, USB microphones that you can plug and use, and condenser that need to be powered, which are more expensive because you need to connect them first to an interface.

If you are going for the cheapest option you should go for the USB mic, and if you want to get more professional results you should get a condenser with an interface.

USB Microphone

The principal difference between expensive mics and cheap mics is the low and high-frequency response, which is better in the expensive ones.

But you won't notice so much difference in the mids, which is the range of the human voice.

You could get really nice vocals with a cheap mic.

And also USB mics are a lot cheaper since you don't need an interface, even for the same range of quality.

The NW-7000 USB Condenser Microphone is a good option if you want a cheap mic, with everything you need to record, but with good quality for vocals.

Condenser that need to be powered

This one will be more expensive, since they need to be connected to an interface or a mixer, so you would have to buy both things.

Since you are making a big purchase I recommend buying a good microphone as well.

It won't make sense expending more than 100$ on an interface for a 50$ microphone that will sound like a 50$ USB mic.

One of the best and most used mics is the Rhode NT1-A. This mic is used by a lot of producers, and this is because it has a great quality not just for vocals, but also for instruments and anything you want to record.

In order to use it, you will need a mixer or an interface and XLR cables to connect the mic to the interface.

One of the most used interfaces is the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

Pop Filter

These filters block plosive sounds, which are sound you make when you say words with "p" or "b", and that generates a distortion in the recordings.

You can get Pop Filters with stand for 38$ but usually you don't need to buy them because they come with the microphones.

Sound Isolation

Acoustic foam panels will help you to remove echo from the room you record, but they won't block sound from outside the room.

In order to block sounds from entering your room you will need big walls made of dense materials.

Because of that you should use the room in your house where you get less noise from the outside.

Having furniture in the room can also help with the echo, but if you have empty walls you should cover them with acoustic foam panels which aren't very expensive.

You can buy a 12 Pack of this panels for 22$, and that will cover a wall completly.

If you just want to record vocals or an instrument up-close with more professional result you can look for vocal booths. They are more expensive but a better option if you just want to record vocals.

Audacity How to Record Over a Track

Source: https://recording-voice.com/how-to-record-over-a-beat/