Waves Tracks Live Setup

***Watch the Video Walkthrough on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5OpzHBqwg&feature=youtu.be ***

Waves Tracks Live is a FREE, efficient, and rock solid digital audio recording program designed specifically to record and playback mulit-track performances. If you are looking for a reliable program to record performances that can be mixed at a later date or can be used for virtual soundcheck, Waves Tracks Live is a great option designed to be easy to setup and use trouble-free.

You can download it for free from the Waves website:

https://www.waves.com/mixers-racks/tracks-live#presenting-tracks-live

***10% off Waves Plugins with the following code: https://www.waves.com/r/uwnbel ***

Waves Tracks Live is a great recording program for all of your multitrack and virtual soundcheck needs so it is defiantly worth the price of admission, which happens to be free.

The program loads to the window shown above. Before opening or creating a session we can see the system settings showing the interface- in this case a Behringer WING mixer, as well as the sample rate and the number of inputs and outputs. This is all based on the previous session, but it allows us to see the settings and change them before creating a new session.

Select “System Settings” to change these settings.

From this window we can select the interface including an X32 or WING mixer if one is connected.

We can select how many inputs are active. They can be set individually or as a global all on or all off.

The outputs are the same way except there is the option for a stereo or multi-output setup. You can set the amount of outputs for the multi-channel setup and switch back and forth between stereo or multi. The picture above shows the stereo output. Below you can see the same window but set for multitrack output.

You can change the buffer setting, a longer buffer time is going to be better for older or slower computers, but for recording or virtual soundcheck you should be fine using the highest buffer setting.

Once you are happy with the settings you can create a new session and choose a location for it.

When the session loads you can see settings along the top, the meter bridge below that, and then the tracks shown below the meter bridge.

In the top right corner there is a tab to select between Stereo or Multi Output.

There is a meter showing the resources being used by the program as well as the recording time remaining on your disk. The recording time will recalculate as you arm or dis-arm tracks.

Below that that there are settings to adjust the track height, track time base left to right, and waveform height. See below:

You can record-arm one track at a time or globally arm or disarm all tracks. To globally arm or dis-arm all tracks click on the Record icon next to “Global Tracks.” You can arm or disarm tracks one at a time by selecting the Record Icon on each track.

Once the tracks are armed you can see any signal present on the meter bridge to make sure that all of your channels have signal.

It is a good idea to disarm tracks that are not being used so they do not record empty tracks for you to try to sort through later.

Name the tracks if you know what the channels will be. Click on the track name and type the new name, then hit enter to store it. If you name the tracks before recording the files will be named after the tracks, if you do not name them the files will be named “track 1” “track 2” etc.

Hit the record icon when you are ready to record

Confirm on the meter bridge that you are getting signal on all of the channels that you are supposed to.

After recording you can disarm the tracks and then the program will switch into playback mode.

You can set a playback loop which is helpful for virtual soundcheck when you need to focus in on a source or section of a song as long as needed. Click and drag to create in and out point for the loop (red arrow) and select the Loop Icon to put the transport into or out of Loop Playback Mode.