A Lot of Data

A typical professional recording "session" often involves many days, weeks or even months of work. During this time a vast amount of data (i.e. recorded sound) can be amassed. For example, it is not uncommon for a classical session to use up 40 or more hours of recording media time. This will generally translate into a number of tapes or other removable media. So, for example, for 40 hours of recording we could end up with 40 separate tapes.

To compound the problem each tape will contain many different tracks, often not lasting more than a few bars each.

We need a way of keeping track of what has been recorded, when and by whom. This is the purpose of the track sheet.

Tracks sheets differ in type and there are no real hard and fast rules about them. They can be adapted to suit the recording media and/or circumstances.

The keeping of accurate tracks sheets is no trivial matter. It may be some time, possibly years, before a recording on tape is committed to a commercial playback format such as CD. For example, many CDs have been released that are "digitally remastered" versions of older vinyl record releases. In this case the record company has gone back to the original tapes, loaded the data into a computer and processed it for release in a digital format such as CD. Without accurate track sheets this task would be costly and difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

Track sheets are also used extensively both during recording sessions in order to refer back to what has been recorded, and for final processing and mastering purposes.

We will look at two common types of track sheet here.

Multitrack Track Sheets

The main purpose of a multitrack track sheet is to note what is recorded on each track of a multitrack device. We are generally not overly interested in the start and stop times of any track because this type of recording is generally used to record a single piece (such as a song) at a time. However, the track sheet could be amended to show start and stop times if necessary.

The data that we must note down on the sheet is:

• The artist(s) name
• The track name
• The date of the recording

We then need to list each track separately, saying what is recorded on it. The main thing to ensure here is that whatever is written should be understandable by anyone. It may be that someone else will need to understand the notes long after the music has been recorded.

Below is an example track sheet for a 24 track recording:

Stereo Track Sheets

Stereo track sheets are used for recording media such as DAT.

If we record directly to DAT we are more interested in individual takes instead of individual songs. Each take is noted on the track sheet, sometimes resulting in many hundreds of individual takes. In addition to the information essential for any multitrack track sheet, such as date etc., we also need to note:

• The take number
• The start and stop time of each take
• Possibly the bar numbers of the take (especially for classical music)
• The result of each particular take

Stereo track sheets are also used for mastering. In this case we may need to amend the sheets to show:

• Track (e.g. song) name
• Start and stop times
• Details of any processing such as reverb or equalisation

Below is an example of a standard track sheet used for noting a classical session recorded in stereo, probably directly to DAT. Note that the Greek letters alpha and omega are used as a shorthand for "start to finish" of any particular take or section.