8.) Producers – the one who is responsible for approving and disapproving the recording take. Sometimes the label hires producers or it can just be the artist themselves.
9.) Studio – name of the recording studio.
10.) Engineers – the name of the recording engineer in-charge; including the assistant if applicable.
11.) Operating system– the OS used by the computer to record the tracks.
12.) DAW– the recording software used e.g. Reaper, Pro tools, Cubase, etc.
13.) Bit depth– e.g. 24-bits, 32-bit float. Never use 16-bit when tracking.
14.) Sample rate– e.g. 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz, 96 KHz, 192 KHz. Never use less than 44.1 KHz.
15.) Audio Interface – the analog to digital hardware interface used, e.g. Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or DigiDesign Mbox.
Then this is how the tracking details would look like where you can give proper credits to all musicians in the project:
The track # is the numbering of tracks. For example Track #1 for first track, etc. Some multi-track project can have less than 10 tracks and some have more than 20; it depends on the production style and genre.
For the track name, you need to be specific. For example “lead vocals”, “solo guitar”, “snare”. The date is the date of the recording. The difference between the finish time and start time is the number minutes or hours that is used during the recording of the track. Longer number of hours indicates that the track is difficult and has a number of re-takes (e.g. lead vocal).
Indicate the full name of the musician with signature besides it. This is the documentary evidence of the musicians involve in the tracking/recording. This will be different for every track, for e.g. different musician for bass, drums, guitars, etc. This includes the session players (paid to play in the studio). This section is very important for giving musician credits.
The filename is the final take that is approved by the producer that will be submitted for mixing. Be specific and make sure it aligns with the track name, e.g.:
leadvocal.wav
leadguitar.wav
Finally the main parties would now agree by signing at the last section of the document:
Signatory in the recording
The engineer signature confirms that the data provided are accurate and the producer signature signifies that the musician, tracks, filename are final and for audio mixing. It also shows the total cost of the recording which will be used by the producer in any financial auditing. This document would now be submitted for audio mixing along with all the recorded files. Read this tutorial on how to prepare and send recorded tracks for audio mixing.
Content last updated on July 28, 2012