How do I record audio in Neutral Tracks?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

How do I set up input monitoring in Neutral Tracks?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

How do I record multiple takes in Neutral Tracks?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

Why can't I hear myself while recording in Neutral Tracks?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

Why is my recording quiet when the track fader is up?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

Does recording a new take overwrite the previous one in Neutral Tracks?

Create an audio track, pick your interface's input channel (mono or stereo), and arm the track. Input monitoring turns on automatically. Press R or hit record; a count-in of 1–4 bars is available with the metronome. Each pass lands in its own take lane.

Record audio

Create an audio track, pick the input channel your source is connected to (mono for a single mic, stereo for a pair), and arm the track. In Auto monitoring you hear yourself right away, without touching anything else. Press R to record; each pass lands in its own take lane, so nothing is overwritten.

What you need

An audio interface with your microphone or instrument connected to one of its inputs.

Record a take

Create an audio track.
Select the input channel in the track’s channel strip: the one your source is connected to. Choose mono for a single microphone or instrument, stereo for a stereo pair.
Arm the track. In Auto monitoring mode, an armed track monitors whenever you’re not playing back. You hear your source as soon as you arm, with nothing else to set.
Set your level at the interface’s gain knob, not in software. The track fader doesn’t change what’s recorded.
Toggle the metronome with K and choose a count-in of 1 to 4 bars, so you’re ready when recording actually starts.
Press R (or the transport’s record button). Audio appears on the timeline as a live waveform while you record.
Record more passes as you like. Each take lands in its own lane, and nothing is overwritten.

Monitoring modes

Monitoring has three modes: Off, Auto, and On. Auto monitors an armed track whenever you’re not playing back, which is why arming is all it takes to hear yourself. On always monitors the input; Off never does.

What you have now

Every pass you recorded, each in its own take lane on the track. Picking the best sections from each pass (the verse from one take, the chorus from another) is comping.

Troubleshooting

You can’t hear yourself: the track isn’t armed, or monitoring is set to Off; in Auto, an armed track monitors whenever you’re not playing back (step 3).
The recording came out too quiet or clipped even though the fader looked right: the track fader doesn’t change what’s recorded; set the level at the interface’s gain knob (step 4).
Recording starts before you’re ready: choose a count-in of 1 to 4 bars with the metronome (step 5).
A new pass seems to have replaced the last one: it didn’t; every pass lands in its own take lane, open the lanes to see them all (step 7).