22 The First Session
MD8—Owner’s Manual
An Overview of Multitrack Recording
This section describes the fundamental principles of multitrack recording.

Basic Multitracking

Monitoring—This is the process of listening to a sound as it’s being recorded or listening
to recorded sounds as new sounds are recorded to other tracks. See About Monitoring on
page 23 for more information.
Recording the first track—The first track to be recorded is typically the drum track. A
drum track that starts before other instruments makes a good timing and count-in reference.
If your song starts with several instruments on the first bar, you may find it helpful to record
a temporary count-in on another track, which can be erased later. See Recording the First
Trac k on page 17 for more information.
Overdubbing—This is the technique of recording new sounds to empty tracks while lis-
tening to the sounds that you’ve already recorded on the other tracks. Essentially, songs are
recorded track-by-track. This technique is used for most modern studio recording. See Over-
dubbing on page 20 for more information.
Mixdown—This is the final stage in multitrack recording. Here you mix the sounds from
all eight tracks, with EQ and effects, into a balanced stereo mix and record it to a stereo master
recorder, such as a DAT, MiniDisc, or cassette tape machine. See Mixdown on page 21 for
more information.

Advanced Multitracking

One-Take recording—With this technique, all tracks are recorded in one take. This is
useful for live recording and bands that like to record with all members playing together. Use
DIR recording method to record up to 8 tracks simultaneously. Punch in/out and ping-pong
techniques can be used after the one-take recording to add and correct sections. See
One-Take Recording on page 83 for more information.
Punch In/Out—This technique allows you to rerecord specific sections of a track. It’s often
used to rerecord a not-so-perfect guitar solo or vocal phrase. Punch in/out can be rehearsed
before actually recording to disc. Punch in/out on the MD8 can be performed manually or
automatically, which is useful when you are playing or singing and operating the MD8 all
at the same time. You can use either the DIR or GRP method for punch in/out recording.
See Manual Punch In/Out on page 29 for more information.
Ping-Pong—This technique allows you to mix and record several tracks onto another
track. This is often used to free up tracks for more recording. So although the MD8 is an
eight-track recorder, you can record more than just eight parts using the ping-pong tech-
nique. You can also combine ping-pong with overdub recording. For example, Tracks 1 and
2 are mixed and recorded onto Track 4 along with a new signal coming from Input
Channel 3. Ping-Pong can be rehearsed before actually recording to disc. Use the GRP
recording method for ping-pong. See Ping-Pong Recording on page 41 for more information.
Synchronization—This technique enables the MD8 and a MIDI sequencer to work
together as a unified recording tool: the MD8 for acoustic sounds and the MIDI sequencer
for MIDI instrument sounds. See The MD8 & MIDI on page 73 for more information.