Typical Studio & Rehearsal Workflows

Step-by-step guides for band rehearsal capture, 30-minute retroactive memory rescue, multi-mic drum phase alignment, overdub comping, and band mix sharing.

This chapter walks through five end-to-end studio workflows that cover the day-to-day operation of Cave Recorder: capturing a full-band rehearsal with instant stereo reference mixes, rescuing an unrecorded jam from the 30-minute retroactive memory, phase-aligning a multi-microphone drum kit and guitar rig, tracking and comping layered overdubs in Pass Lanes, and mixing with non-destructive Snapshots and Google Drive synchronization.

3.1 Workflow 1: Full-Band Rehearsal Capture & Instant Reference Prints#

Studio Scenario: A four- or five-piece band gathers for a two-hour evening rehearsal. You want to record every song run-through across 12 to 18 channels without slowing down the room, mark strong sections on the fly, and hand every band member compact 24-bit .flac and 320 kbps .mp3 stereo mixes before they finish packing up their gear.

3.1.1 Rehearsal Capture Procedure#

1. Launch the Session from Your Rehearsal Template:
   • Press CMD + O (macOS) or CTRL + O (Windows/Linux) to open the PROJECT modal.
   • Select your band's Project pill, click Template: 18ch Live Band (or your custom room template), type a Session Name (Tuesday Night Rehearsal) and Session Tag (Rehearsal), and click New Session.
2. Arm All Active Input Channels:
   • Press CMD + 1 (macOS) or CTRL + 1 (Windows/Linux) to view MIX CONSOLE.
   • Confirm that CH01 through CH18 (or all active mic and DI channels) have their red Record Arm (R) buttons engaged (click R on each strip, or select a strip and press SHIFT + A).
   • Verify that Overdub Mode (OD) in the Top Transport Deck is off (unlit) so each recording starts a fresh t = 0 Take.
3. Dial a Quick Monitor and Live Print Balance:
   • While the band warms up, verify input levels average around -18 dBFS RMS with peaks around -6 dBFS.
   • Set channel faders and stereo pans (OverheadL/OverheadR, GuitarL/GuitarR, KeysL/KeysR), blend in AUX 1 REVERB (RVB) on snare and vocals, and engage TAPE saturation, the brickwall LIM (CEIL -0.3dB), and the 2-TRK live Print button on the MST MASTER BUS strip. Because the live stereo Print records directly from the Master Bus output whenever 2-TRK is armed, this monitor balance becomes your immediate reference mix.
4. Start Recording Song 1 (Take 001):
   • Just before the drummer counts in, press R (or click Record ● in the Top Deck).
   • Cave Recorder creates Take 001 at 00:00:00.000 and simultaneously writes raw 32-bit float pre-fader stems (Rec001) into Take001/rec/ and the live stereo Master Bus mix (Print001.wav) into Take001/mix/.
5. Drop Cue Markers on the Fly (M):
   • Whenever a chorus groove locks in, a bridge arrangement changes, or a solo stands out during the performance, press M on the keyboard.
   • Cave Recorder drops a timestamped standalone marker (M005, M006, ...) at the exact live playhead sample without interrupting recording.
6. Stop at the End of the Song (SPACE):
   • When the final chord rings out, press SPACE (or SHIFT + SPACE).
   • Cave Recorder closes all open audio files for Take 001 and automatically captures a post-recording console Snapshot (Auto-Save (Post-Recording)).
7. Capture Subsequent Songs as Independent Takes (Take 002, Take 003, ...):
   • When the band counts in the next run-through or the next song, simply press R again.
   • Cave Recorder automatically increments to Take 002 with a brand-new 00:00:00.000 timeline origin. Repeat R, play the song, and press SPACE for every song of the night.
8. Tag Keeper Takes and Convert Live Prints to .flac and .mp3 (FLAC PRINT / MP3 PRINT / FLAC ALL PRINTS / MP3 ALL PRINTS):
   • At the end of rehearsal, press CMD + 4 (macOS) or CTRL + 4 (Windows/Linux) to open the SESSION REEL.
   • In the TAKES CATALOG, click EDIT TAKE 001 to assign a descriptive song tag (such as NewSong_Run1 or ChorusKeeper).
   • Click FLAC PRINT 001 or MP3 PRINT 001 on individual Takes, or click FLAC ALL PRINTS and MP3 ALL PRINTS in the Session Reel header bar to batch-encode every live stereo .wav Print to 24-bit lossless .flac and 320 kbps CBR .mp3 (with a Xing/Info seek header) and link both into <ProjectTag>/_Mixes/. (If you adjusted faders after recording and want an updated offline render instead of the live Print, toggle FLAC and/or MP3 on the MST MASTER BUS strip and click BOUNCE to render an offline Mix001.<flac|mp3> Mixdown).
9. Sync Reference Mixes to Bandmates' Phones and Browsers:
   • Click UPLOAD SES MIXES in the Session Reel header (or open the Top Deck CLOUD popover and click SYNC SESSION MIXES).
   • Cave Recorder uploads the compact .flac and .mp3 reference mixes to Google Drive in seconds so every band member can stream .mp3 mixes directly inside the Google Drive web browser preview player or download lossless .flac masters on the drive home.

3.2 Workflow 2: Rescuing an Unrecorded Jam with 30-Minute Retroactive Capture (RETRO)#

Studio Scenario: Between rehearsed songs, the transport is stopped while the guitarist tunes. The drummer and bassist start an improvised groove, the rest of the band joins in, and eight minutes later they finish the best song idea of the night. Nobody pressed Record.

Because Cave Recorder continuously maintains a rolling 30-minute retroactive capture memory across all armed inputs whenever RAM is active, the entire multi-channel performance is still in system memory waiting to be saved.

3.2.1 Retroactive Rescue Procedure#

1. Keep RAM Active and Channels Armed During Rehearsal:
   • At the start of your session, verify that the RAM button in the Top Transport Deck is illuminated green and all live studio channels (CH01..CH18) have their red R (Record Arm) buttons engaged.
   • Even while the transport is stopped (■), Cave Recorder continuously retains the most recent 30 minutes of incoming 32-bit float audio from every armed channel in memory.
2. Trigger Retroactive Capture (RETRO):
   • As soon as the unrecorded jam finishes (or even while the band is still playing), click the RETRO (0) button in the Top Transport Deck, or press SHIFT + R.
3. Verify the Rescued Take:
   • Cave Recorder immediately flushes the rolling multi-channel capture memory to disk as a new numbered Take (Take<NNN>), increments the Top Deck counter badge to RETRO (1), builds the multi-tier waveform overview, and switches the active console and timeline to the rescued Take.
4. Trim Pre-Jam Room Chatter into a Clean Song Take (SPLIT TAKE):
   • Press CMD + 2 (macOS) or CTRL + 2 (Windows/Linux) to switch to WAVEFORM TIMELINE.
   • Scrub or zoom (ZOOM IN (+) or =, or vertical/horizontal drag on the timeline ruler) to find the exact moment the drummer counted in the jam, and click to place the playhead just before the first beat.
   • Click SPLIT TAKE in the Waveform Timeline toolbar (or press M to drop a marker, open MARKERS & RANGES with CMD + 5 / CTRL + 5, and click NEW TAKE -> END on that marker row).
   • Cave Recorder extracts the jam from that marker forward into its own clean 00:00:00.000 Take and lets you move the earlier tuning Take to the session trash via TOMB TAKE 001 (or permanently remove an unwanted retroactive Take via PURGE RETRO 001) in SESSION REEL (CMD + 4 / CTRL + 4).

3.3 Workflow 3: Multi-Mic Drum & Guitar Cab Phase Alignment (ALIGN ALL & Φ)#

Studio Scenario: You are tracking a full band across 18 channels (CH01 01KickIn, CH02 02SnrTp, CH03 03OvrhdL, CH04 04GtrAmp, CH05 TomRack, CH06 TomFloor, CH07 OverheadL, CH08 OverheadR, CH09 SpdifSynthL, CH10 SpdifSynthR, CH11 BassDi, CH12 BassAmp, CH13 GuitarL, CH14 GuitarR, through CH18 RoomAmbience). Because acoustic wavefronts from the kick and snare travel several feet through the air before reaching the overhead and room microphones, and because a bass amp microphone lags behind a direct Bass DI box, summing the raw channels causes phase cancellation that thins out low-end punch and smears transient focus.

3.3.1 Multi-Mic Phase Alignment Procedure#

1. Record a 10-to-15 Second Full-Kit & Band Reference Pass:
   • Arm all drum and multi-miked instrument channels (R) in MIX CONSOLE (CMD + 1 / CTRL + 1).
   • Press R and have the drummer play a 10-to-15 second groove that hits the kick, snare, toms, hi-hat, and cymbals clearly while the bassist and guitarist play locked eighth notes.
   • Press SPACE to stop recording.
2. Verify the Timing Reference Channel (0us):
   • Look at the phase delay readout directly beneath each channel strip's top identifier badge (CH01 01KickIn shows -2.4dB 0us).
   • By default, CH01 (01KickIn or Overhead L) serves as the 0us acoustic timing anchor against which correlated channels are measured.
3. Run Automatic Multi-Mic Phase Alignment (ALIGN ALL):
   • Click the green ALIGN ALL button in the Top Transport Deck (or Φ ALIGN ALL in the session toolbar bar).
   • To align only a single channel strip (such as aligning CH12 BassAmp to CH11 BassDi), select that strip and click its individual Φ button. Both Trigger Global Multi-Mic Phase Align and Trigger Phase Align on Inspected Track can also be bound to custom keyboard shortcuts in KEYMAP (CMD + 6 / CTRL + 6).
   • To manually flip 180-degree polarity (Ø) on the currently inspected channel strip at any time, click Ø or press SHIFT + P while in MIX CONSOLE.
4. Inspect Sub-Sample Delay (us) and Polarity (Ø) Corrections:
   • Cave Recorder cross-correlates the recorded multi-channel waveforms and engages the green Φ phase button and blue Ø polarity button where needed:
   • On CH02 02SnrTp, notice the readout updates to +1.5dB 420us with both polarity inversion (Ø blue) and phase delay (Φ green) engaged to lock the snare transient in phase with the kick and overheads.
   • On CH03 03OvrhdL, notice the readout updates to +0.0dB 1850us with Φ engaged to compensate for the acoustic propagation distance between the close mics and overheads.
5. A/B Audition the Phase Alignment (PHASE: ALIGN vs. PHASE: BYP):
   • Press SPACE to play back the drum recording through your studio monitors.
   • Click PHASE: ALIGN in the Top Deck (or PHASE A/B in the session sub-header) to toggle between PHASE: ALIGN (active) and PHASE: BYP (bypassed).
   • Listen to the low-frequency weight of the kick drum, the body of the snare, and the phantom center image of the kit snap into focus when PHASE: ALIGN is engaged. All subsequent Takes in the Session inherit these aligned delay and polarity settings automatically.

3.4 Workflow 4: Layered Guitar & Vocal Overdubs with Pass Lane Comping (OD)#

Studio Scenario: The band has tracked a solid rhythm section performance in Take 001. Now the guitarist or lead vocalist wants to loop the chorus section, record three alternate solo or vocal passes (Rec002-OD, Rec003-OD, Rec004-OD) inside Take 001, and select the best performance using Pass Lanes.

3.4.1 Overdub Tracking & Pass Lane Comping Procedure#

1. Select the Target Take (TAKE 001):
   • Use < TAKE 001 > in the Top Deck (ALT + [ / ALT + ]) or click LOAD TAKE 001 in SESSION REEL (CMD + 4 / CTRL + 4) so the rhythm Take is loaded at 00:00:00.000.
2. Disarm Rhythm Tracks and Arm Only the Overdub Channel:
   • In MIX CONSOLE (CMD + 1 / CTRL + 1), click the red R buttons on the drum and bass strips (CH01..CH03, CH05..CH12) to disarm them so they play back their PASS 01 (Rec001) stems from disk.
   • On the target overdub channel (for example, CH04 04GtrAmp or CH17 LeadVocal), engage both R (Record Arm, or press SHIFT + A while the strip is selected in MIX CONSOLE) and I (Input Monitor, or press SHIFT + I) so the performer hears their live input blended with playback.
3. Latch Overdub Mode (OD) and Low-Latency Monitoring:
   • Click OD in the Top Transport Deck (or press O) so the OD button illuminates bright red.
   • Click Low-Latency Monitoring in Row 2 of the Top Deck so any high-latency plugins on non-armed buses are bypassed in the live monitoring path.
4. Define the Section Loop Range (K, L & ⇄):
   • Press CMD + 2 (macOS) or CTRL + 2 (Windows/Linux) to open WAVEFORM TIMELINE.
   • Place the playhead two bars before the solo or chorus entrance and press K (or click RANGE START (K)).
   • Place the playhead a bar after the section ends and press L (or click RANGE END (L)).
   • Press C (or click Cycle/Loop ⇄ in the Top Deck) to enable loop playback across the range.
5. Record Multiple Overdub Passes (OD 02, OD 03, OD 04):
   • Press R to start overdub recording inside Take 001. While the rhythm tracks play back, Cave Recorder captures the new performance onto CH04 as Rec002-OD (displayed as OD 02) and automatically applies your calibrated roundtrip loopback offset (-640 smp (-13.3ms)).
   • Press SPACE at the end of the pass, return to the start of the range, and press R again to capture OD 03 (Rec003-OD) and OD 04 (Rec004-OD).
6. Expand Pass Lanes in the Waveform Timeline (E):
   • In WAVEFORM TIMELINE (CMD + 2 / CTRL + 2), press E (or click EXPAND ALL PASSES in the timeline toolbar, or click the red pass-count pill v (2) on an individual track header) to expand the track's Pass Lanes. Press SHIFT + E (or click COLLAPSE ALL PASSES) at any time to fold them back into a single compact track row.
   • The top slice of the expanded track displays PASS 01 (BASE PASS), followed by stacked slices for each recorded Overdub Pass (OD 02, OD 03, OD 04, each badged OVERDUB with its sample span Span: 0..48000 smp and net record-offset -640 smp (-13.3ms)). Notice that the Mix Console channel strip badge also updates to show OD 02 in amber when an Overdub Pass is active.
7. Audition and Select Active Pass Lanes (Use PASS 01 / ★ OD 02):
   • The currently selected pass on a track is badged ACTIVE COMP LANE and displays a green star button (★ PASS 01 or ★ OD 02), while every other pass is badged STANDBY COMP LANE with a clickable Use PASS 01 or Use OD 02 button.
   • While looping playback (SPACE), click Use PASS 01, Use OD 02, or Use OD 03 on any Pass Lane row to promote that pass immediately as the active playback lane for the track.
   • To silence a pass temporarily without changing selection, click M (Mute) on that Pass Lane row, or click Del to remove a flawed pass from the Take.

3.5 Workflow 5: Mixing, Non-Destructive Snapshots & Band Cloud Sharing#

Studio Scenario: Tracking and overdub selection are complete. Now you want to shape a polished mix using Subgroup Buses and Aux Sends, save several mix variations as Snapshots, compare a vocal-up mix against an earlier Snapshot using Present Stash, render an offline Mixdown and Stem Bounces, and synchronize the project to Google Drive.

3.5.1 Bus Mixing, Snapshot A/B & Cloud Sync Procedure#

1. Organize Channels into Subgroup Buses (DRUM BUS & INST BUS):
   • In MIX CONSOLE (CMD + 1 / CTRL + 1), click the output routing selector (OUT: SUB 1 v) on all drum channels (CH01..CH08, CH18) to route them to SUB 1 (DRUM BUS).
   • Route synths, bass, guitars, and keys (CH09..CH16) to OUT: SUB 2 v (INST BUS), and route lead vocals (CH17) directly to OUT: MST v (MASTER BUS).
2. Apply Bus Processing and Spatial Aux Sends (RVB & DLY):
   • Click SEL on the DRUM BUS strip to load its 8-slot processor rack into the Upper Inspector Wells.
   • In the 12-Band Parametric EQ well (2:12B EQ), sculpt a low-shelf boost around 60 Hz and a gentle presence lift at 4.5 kHz while watching the pre/post Dual-Trace RTA spectrum.
   • In the VCA Compressor well (3:VCA CMP), select a 4:1 ratio, engage the sidechain high-pass filter (SC HPF), and set MIX 50% for punchy New York-style parallel drum compression.
   • Use each channel's RVB and DLY send sliders (toggling PST for post-fader send operation) to feed AUX 1 REVERB (EMT 140 Plate zero-latency convolution reverb) and AUX 2 TAPE DLY (CAPSTAN TAPE echo with WOW 18%, DMP 4.2k, and PP ping-pong stereo widening).
3. Save Named Mix Variations as Manual Snapshots (SNAP MANUAL):
   • Press CMD + S on macOS (CTRL + S on Windows and Linux) from any workspace view, or press CMD + 4 / CTRL + 4 to open SESSION REEL and click SNAP MANUAL in the HISTORY toolbar, to capture your baseline mix as Snap 004 [MANUAL].
   • Return to MIX CONSOLE (CMD + 1 / CTRL + 1) and try a more aggressive mix variation (for example, pushing DRIVE +4.5dB on the Master Tape saturator and riding the lead guitar +2.0 dB).
4. A/B Compare Historical Snapshots with Present Stash (A/B PRESENT STASH):
   • In SESSION REEL (CMD + 4 / CTRL + 4), scroll to the SNAPSHOTS & PRESENT STASH table and click AUDITION SNAP 001 (or AUDITION SNAP 004).
   • Cave Recorder automatically backs up your live, unsaved console adjustments into the Present Stash and displays the AUDITION MODE: SNAP 001 control bar.
   • While playback is rolling, click A/B PRESENT STASH repeatedly to toggle instantaneously between the historical Snapshot and your live working mix with zero audio dropouts.
   • Click RETURN TO PRESENT (or press BACKSPACE) to restore your live working mix, or click COMMIT SNAPSHOT if you prefer the historical Snapshot and want to adopt it as the new working session state.
5. Render Offline Mixdowns and Stem Bounces:
   • When your mix is finished, select FLAC (24-bit lossless), MP3 (320 kbps CBR), or both on the MST MASTER BUS strip in MIX CONSOLE (CMD + 1 / CTRL + 1) and click BOUNCE to render an offline stereo Mixdown (Mix001.flac / Mix001.mp3) linked directly into <ProjectTag>/_Mixes/, or trigger offline per-track Stem Bounces (Bounce001.wav) for archival delivery.
6. Synchronize to Google Drive (UPLOAD SES MIXES / UPLOAD SES FULL):
   • Click UPLOAD SES MIXES in SESSION REEL (CMD + 4 / CTRL + 4) to push all stereo .flac and .mp3 Prints and Mixdowns to Google Drive for rapid band review.
   • Click UPLOAD SES FULL to synchronize the entire session folder (including 32-bit float rec/ stems, snapshots/, and session history) so remote bandmates who have linked the project can open the full multitrack session on their own studio workstations.