What is a track?

[Dr.Mavashi]

Well, Led Zepplin IV, was recorded on a 4 track .... does that mean that Bonham's drumm set was recorded with one mic or several mics mixed on a mixer and outputed to a 4 track as one track?

And in terms of something like Lambda into a Cubase on a PC what is a track in this environment?
Thanks.

 

[Artie]

Re: What is a track?

The term "track" comes from the tracks, or channels, of a tape recorder. So, a 4-track recorder would have 4 physical record/play slots on the head. 4 tracks is extremely small for a pro recording. The tiny studio I worked in had 16 tracks.

On software-based apps, the term is a little more "gray". Basically, it still means the same thing, but with my Audition, for example, I can lay down a stereo track. Thats something you can't do with a tape-recorder. A "track", though, is what you record, rather than channels on a mixer. If I take an 8-channel mixer, and mix it down to stereo - thats 2 tracks. Its the smallest recorded unit that can still be individually manipulated, such as panning, level set, etc.