Let’s first look at the above example. What can you do? Let’s assume that the vocal track contains only the vocals (meaning it wasn’t recorded with another instrument, and wasn’t combined with another instrument during an earlier bounce). You know where you want to add your guitar solo. You have a 20-second break where it would fit perfectly. No worries. You have a 20-second gap of dead recording space on your vocal track, so why not just use it for your solo? You can squeeze it into the same track, right? But you have to be every careful here. Things can get hairy because you don’t want to accidentally ruin the perfect vocal you happened to lay down at 2 a.m. the previous morning. You only have two hands so you need to be quick. You have to play the guitar and manipulate the recorder’s buttons in order to start and stop recording at precisely the right moments. It’s possible, but there are two things that will make this a whole lot easier and less stressful. One is a having a friend in charge of the recorder. The second option is to purchase a priceless little object called a footswitch. Most four-track recorders have an input for these and they are not very expensive. Trek down to your local music store for one, or go online and visit Music123.com to have one delivered to your door for less than $50.00. This way you can play your guitar and use your foot to tell the recorder when to start and stop recording.
Employing your little footswitch gives you a third hand in a sense. Our above example was a lesson in poor planning, but you can also intentionally leave open space on a track for the sole purpose of punching in later. This skill can also help you correct mistakes. What if you hit a bad note during an otherwise pristine solo? That’s okay. There’s no need to re-record your solo. Just let it play until the point of your error, tap the footswitch to start recording, correct the error, then tap the switch again to stop recording. You may need to do this a couple of times to get it right, but the end result is a piece of music that sounds like you want it to sound without the mistakes. And vocal mistakes? This is where punching in/out is your best friend. There will be many times where you are thrilled with the vocals except for one spot where you find yourself cringing, but you know you’ll never recapture the energy the rest of the track displayed. Punching in a correction will soon become second nature. It also helps when recording vocals beforehand to know that if you make a little mistake there’s no need to lose steam in the middle of the performance since you can always go back and correct your faux pas.
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