Recording with a Screen Reader

Everything the Record Panel does for sighted engineers is done for you by the Record Panel Daemon, a background process that keeps the take counter, the session name and the schedule, and speaks the result of each action. You never need to open or use the Record Panel itself.

Before You Record

  1. Make sure every track has a recording input. Open Track Setup (C) and choose Set Inputs: Auto assigns inputs from the track names (suffixes such as "left", "R" or "Pair"), Manual lets you choose each one. If you try to record without any inputs set, you hear "No inputs set -- please assign inputs before recording".
  2. Optionally set the session details in Accessible Recording Settings (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R). It lists the session name, the take number, the scheduled start, end and duration, and switches for allowing takes anywhere, recording takes horizontally and clip reporting, plus a row to start or stop the daemon. Move with ↑ and ↓ and press Enter to change a row. Changing the session name resets the take number to 1, and switching to an existing session name works out the next take number from the takes already recorded.
  3. Select the parent track of the folder you want to record into.

Recording

Everything is driven by F9:

  1. The first press starts the daemon (if it is not running) and arms the folder. You hear "Armed for take 12", or "Folder armed" if there is no session take counter to report.
  2. The second press starts recording: "Recording take 12".
  3. The next press stops it: "Recording Stopped".

There is no need to position the edit cursor first: arming moves the recording position to after the final item in the armed folder.

During a recording:

  • Shift+F9 increases the take number, useful after a false start
  • Alt+F9 starts the next recording section. In a vertical workflow this arms the first source folder, and in both workflows it places the edit cursor 5 seconds after the final item in the project. With "record takes horizontally" on, it arms the next folder down instead
  • Ctrl+F9 pauses
  • Alt+A announces the take number, Shift+T the highest take, and Ctrl+Shift+J the timeline position
  • M adds a marker

A restricted set of keys is active while you record, so that nothing disruptive can be pressed by accident. See Recording mode.

Sending Every Take to Someone on Location

Ctrl+Shift+D (Distribute Takes) exports every take as WAV, FLAC, Opus 160 or MP3 320, to share with musicians or a producer. It has two rows, Render Settings and Export. See Distributing Takes On Location.

Ranking and Notes

After a take, select its item on the parent track and open Item Rank with Ctrl+R. The list is circular: No Rank, Excellent, Very Good, Good, OK, Below Average, Poor, Unusable and False Start. ↑ and ↓ move through it, Enter applies the highlighted rank and Backspace clears it. The window stays open, so you can rank several items in one sitting: ← and → (or Q and W) move to the previous and next item, Space plays and stops, and Escape closes it. The Terminal command ir= sets a rank too.

Item notes, project and track notes, the item name and the take number are in the accessible Notes window (N), and Shift+N opens a quick Item Name window. See Typing Notes.

Special Tracks While Recording

Add a live bounce track (horizontal workflow only) to record a rough stereo mix alongside the individual channels, or a listenback track to hear a musician far from the recording setup, from Track Setup under Add Special Track. Listenback monitoring mutes automatically during playback and recording.

Monitoring and Playback

  • Ctrl+Shift+A (Toggle Monitor) cycles input monitoring on all input tracks that are not disabled for recording, and announces the new state: "Monitor: off", "Monitor: on" or "Monitor: tape mode"
  • Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P (Toggle Playback) mutes or unmutes the playback track ("Playback unmuted" or "Playback muted"). The track is created muted. If there is no playback track you are told so
  • M adds a marker while recording, which you can later use to split a take into subtakes with Shift+S; Alt+M gives a marker a name
  • Alt+T (Take Number Display) opens a small window showing the current take number for a sighted colleague. The daemon opens it automatically

Finishing

When all recording is done, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F9 (Close Recording Session) to stop the daemon. This disarms the record-armed tracks, the same as closing the Record Panel does for sighted users. The Disarm All Tracks action does the same job for the tracks alone, and you can always switch the daemon off from Accessible Recording Settings.

Checking Your Levels and Disk Space

  • Alt+P announces the RCMASTER peak level. In Mixer Mode, Enter announces the current mixer track's status and I its input
  • The Accessible Audio Calculator works out the disk space needed for a duration of audio, or the time available on a given amount of disk, from units, channel count, sample rate, bit depth and format
  • Track peaks are announced as you move between tracks with ↑ and ↓