Ableton Forum

Why can't I record additional tracks along with a saved recording? It's destructive; that is I get one chance and then I can't record or overdub instruments with the original recording. This doesn't seem right. In cakewalk I can overdub. Can someone explain this? Thank you.

Hi, are you talking about audio or MIDI?

For MIDI, the + button in the top bar turns on Overdub, which allows you to record extra notes into the same clip.
For audio, if you want both recordings to be audible at the same time, you're talking about multitracking. So just create a new track and record into that.

(About recording being destructive: if you've accidentally recorded over part of a clip, your original audio is always preserved. Just drag the edge of the clip back to its original length and it will still be there.)

Thank you for your response. I'll try the + button.
I'm not clear on this:
"For audio, if you want both recordings to be audible at the same time, you're talking about multitracking. So just create a new track and record into that."

Also,
"About recording being destructive: if you've accidentally recorded over part of a clip, your original audio is always preserved. Just drag the edge of the clip back to its original length and it will still be there."

I assume that I would have to be in a different view, as all I see now are tracks sample adjustment.

Regards.

this forum takes forever to do anything, and it didn't attach the screenshot here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TL_Da5 ... drive_link

The screenshot didn't attach correctly because it requires Google Drive access rights, which is also why I can't see it when I click on it.

It sounds like you're looking at a specific view of your recorded audio that's unfamiliar to you, but without that screenshot, I have no idea where you're stuck.

So I can only say in general: if you want to record different layers of audio (like a microphone and/or guitar) and you want them to be heard together, you have to record them in different tracks, not over one another in the same track.

If you've worked in other DAW's, Arrangement View will be most familiar, where you can see the different tracks running left to right with the clips recorded into them. You can switch between Session View and Arrangement View with the Tab key.

Check this video from Ableton's Get to know Live Lite page:
https://youtu.be/riOD-fnyCsg