Overview & Studio Philosophy

Why Cave Recorder separates rehearsal Sessions into independent t=0 Takes, captures live stereo Prints, and keeps track-level Overdub Passes organized.

1.1 Why Cave Recorder Exists#

Cave Recorder (caverec) is a multitrack studio recorder, live mixing console, automatic phase-alignment processor, and band collaboration workstation purpose-built for rehearsal rooms, live tracking spaces, and project studios.

Traditional digital audio workstations are modeled around a single linear timeline designed for solo production at a desk. When a full band plugs into an 18-channel audio interface for a three-hour rehearsal or live tracking session, a single continuous timeline creates immediate studio bottlenecks: finding a specific song run-through requires scrolling through hours of waveforms, spontaneous jams are lost when nobody remembers to press Record, bandmates wait days for someone to bounce rough mixes, and multi-microphone phase cancellation hollows out the drum kit and bass rig.

Cave Recorder solves four specific studio and rehearsal problems:

1.1.1 Independent Zero-Based Takes Instead of a 3-Hour Linear Timeline#

In a band rehearsal or tracking session, musicians play multiple run-throughs of songs alongside spontaneous improvisations. In Cave Recorder, every time you press Record (R) with Overdub Mode turned off, the transport creates a brand-new, self-contained Take (Take 001, Take 002, Take 003, ...) that starts at its own zeroed timeline origin (00:00:00.000, sample 0).

Two different Takes are never appended end-to-end down a multi-hour timeline and are never stacked on top of one another in the same timeline view. Instead, switching the active Take in the Top Transport Deck (< TAKE 001 >) or via ALT + [ and ALT + ] immediately switches the Waveform Timeline and Mix Console playback to that song's 00:00:00.000 origin while keeping the room's microphone assignments, channel names, subgroup routing, and console mix intact.

1.1.2 30-Minute Retroactive Capture Memory (RAM & RETRO)#

The best moments in a rehearsal room often happen when the transport is stopped while the band is warming up or exploring a groove between songs. Whenever the audio interface is active and the green RAM indicator is lit in the Top Transport Deck, Cave Recorder continuously retains the last 30 minutes of live multi-channel audio across all record-armed channels in dedicated system memory.

Pressing the RETRO button in the Top Deck (or pressing SHIFT + R) immediately rescues the rolling 30-minute capture memory to disk as a new numbered Take (Take<NNN>), complete with individual pre-fader multitrack stems and a reference stereo file.

1.1.3 Simultaneous Live Console Print and Raw Multitrack Stems#

During every Take, Cave Recorder writes two distinct sets of audio files to disk in real time:

1. Raw Pre-Fader Multitrack Stems (rec/): Every record-armed input channel (CH01 through CH18) writes a discrete, uncompressed 32-bit floating-point mono .wav stem tapped directly after input gain trim and prior to channel insert processing and fader moves. This guarantees clip-free archival stems for later mixing or overdubbing.
2. Live Stereo Master Bus Print (mix/): Simultaneously, when 2-TRK is armed on the MST MASTER BUS, a dedicated 2-track recorder tapped at the post-limiter output of the Master Bus captures the live stereo console mix (Print001.wav) with automatic Plugin Delay Compensation (PDC) latency trimming, including all channel EQ, VCA compression, tape saturation, subgroup processing, and auxiliary reverb and delay returns.

With a single click on FLAC PRINT or MP3 PRINT in the Session Reel (or automatically upon cloud upload when AUTO-FLAC ON UPLOAD or AUTO-MP3 ON UPLOAD is enabled), Cave Recorder encodes the live stereo Print to 24-bit lossless .flac and/or 320 kbps CBR .mp3 (with a Xing/Info seek header for direct playback inside the Google Drive web browser player) and links it into the project-wide _Mixes/ folder. Band members walk out of rehearsal with finished stereo reference mixes ready for phone, browser, or car playback, while the engineer retains pristine 32-bit floating-point raw stems.

1.1.4 Console-First Layout and Automatic Multi-Mic Phase Alignment#

Cave Recorder eliminates nested plugin windows and hidden routing matrices in favor of a fixed, dark-chassis studio console interface. Input gain trim, polarity inversion (Ø), per-channel phase alignment (Φ), an 8-slot reorderable processor rack (12-band parametric EQ with dual-trace spectrum analyzer, analog-modeled VCA compressor, tape saturation, and CLAP audio plugins), stereo Aux Sends (RVB and DLY), Subgroup Bus routing (SUB 1..16), and 100 mm logarithmic faders are always accessible directly on the console faceplate.

When recording a drum kit or multi-miked guitar and bass cabinets, acoustic arrival-time differences between close microphones, overheads, and room microphones cause comb filtering and low-frequency cancellation. Clicking ALIGN ALL in the Top Deck (or pressing a custom shortcut assigned in KEYMAP) analyzes the recorded multi-channel performance against your chosen reference microphone and applies sub-sample time delay (us / smp) and polarity (Ø) corrections across the console in one step.

1.2 The Four-Tier Recording Hierarchy#

Cave Recorder organizes every recording into a strict four-tier studio hierarchy:

Project ---> Session ---> Take (t = 0) ---> Pass (Rec001 / Rec002-OD)

On disk, this hierarchy maps cleanly to human-readable folders and self-describing filenames inside your Cave Recorder Library Root:

<LibraryRoot>/
├── .caverec/
│   └── projects.json                      # Library project registry
└── GF/                                    # 1. PROJECT folder (Tag: GF)
    ├── .caverec_project.json              # Cloud sync manifest
    ├── _Mixes/                            # Project Prints & Mixdowns
    │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Print001_1947.flac
    │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Print001_1947.mp3
    │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Mix001_2130.flac
    │   └── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Mix001_2130.mp3
    └── GF_20261020-1_Rehearsal/           # 2. SESSION folder
        ├── GF_20261020-1_session.json     # Console, routing & markers
        ├── snapshots/                     # Point-in-time Snapshots
        │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Snap001_20261020T195012Z.json
        │   └── GF_20261020-1_Snap002_20261020T211500Z.json
        ├── Take001_1947_SongA/            # 3. TAKE 001 (t = 0)
        │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_take.json
        │   ├── rec/                       # 4. PASS files (Base + OD)
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_01-KickIn_Rec001_1947.wav
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_02-SnrTp_Rec001_1947.wav
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_04-GtrAmp_Rec001_1947.wav
        │   │   └── GF_20261020-1_Take001_04-GtrAmp_Rec002-OD_2015.wav
        │   ├── mix/                       # Live Prints & Mixdowns
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Print001_1947.wav
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Print001_1947.flac
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Print001_1947.mp3
        │   │   ├── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Mix001_2130.flac
        │   │   └── GF_20261020-1_Take001_Mix001_2130.mp3
        │   └── bounce/                    # Offline Stem Bounces
        │       └── GF_20261020-1_Take001_01-KickIn_Bounce001_2135.wav
        └── Take002_1958_ImprovJam/        # 3. TAKE 002 (t = 0)
            └── ...

1.3 Tour of the Studio Workspace#

Cave Recorder opens into a dark studio console workspace divided into three horizontal tiers: the persistent Top Transport & Session Header Deck, the Upper Inspector Wells, and the Lower Console Channel & Bus Strips.

1. Top Transport & Session Header Deck (Top): Remains pinned at the top of the screen across all six workspace views (MIX CONSOLE through KEYMAP). Houses project and session selection, Google Drive cloud sync status, 30-minute retroactive memory controls, main transport buttons, the active Take selector, high-precision digital timecode and sample counters, global multi-mic phase alignment controls, and latency diagnostics.
2. Upper Inspector Wells (Middle): Displays four side-by-side real-time visualizers and editors for the currently selected channel strip or Subgroup Bus:
   • 8-Slot Reorderable Processor Rack & Tape Controls (Left Well): Shows slots 1 through 8 (1:CLAP, 2:12B EQ, 3:VCA CMP, 4:AUX SND, ...), per-slot bypass (B), up/down slot reordering arrows, a dedicated TAPE saturator enable/bypass toggle with analog tape parameters (DRV, WRM, BIAS, HC, OUT, MIX), SWAP EQ/CMP, and channel RESET.
   • 12-Band Parametric EQ & Dual-Trace RTA Spectrum Analyzer (Center-Left Well): Interactive Bode magnitude curve with draggable filter nodes (BELL, LSHF, HSHF, HPF, TILT) superimposed over a pre-EQ and post-EQ real-time spectrum trace (20 Hz to 20 kHz).
   • VCA Compressor & Gain Reduction Transfer Curve (Center-Right Well): Displays the compressor knee and transfer curve (-48 dB to 0 dB), input/output threshold markers, sidechain high-pass filter (SC HPF), ratio presets (2:1, 4:1, 8:1), parallel blend (MIX 50%), and real-time Gain Reduction (GR) metering.
   • Upper Mini-Timeline & Multi-Tier Waveform Overview (Right Well): Displays the composite waveform of the active Take with playhead tracking, PASSES expansion shortcut, LOCK PH/CUR, -> CUR, and zoom controls (ZOOM +, ZOOM -, ZOOM 1:1).
3. Lower Console Strips (Bottom): Houses up to 18 Input Channel Strips (CH01..CH18), stereo Subgroup Bus Strips (DRUM BUS, INST BUS), dedicated stereo Aux Return Strips (AUX 1 REVERB with zero-latency convolution IR and AUX 2 TAPE DLY with capstan tape echo), and the MST MASTER BUS strip with Master Tape, Master Compressor, brickwall Limiter, live 2-TRK Print record arm, independent FLAC and MP3 format toggles, and one-click BOUNCE offline Mixdown render controls.

1.3.1 Top Deck Row 1: Session Identity, Transport, Timecode & Phase Controls#

The top row of the header deck is organized into three functional clusters from left to right:

1.3.2 Top Deck Row 2: Workspace View Tabs, Templates & Latency Diagnostics#

The second row of the Top Deck provides direct navigation across Cave Recorder's six workspace views on the left and session template and latency management on the right: