Using your recording tracks strategically: a multi-track workflow for location sound recording

Today’s sound mixer or videographer has a choice of recording location audio to one or multiple recording tracks. In addition to being able to record sound “direct to video” -- it is pretty much the norm to also record simultaneously to a dedicated audio recorder (the process known as “double system sound”) and then to sync these tracks to the picture during the editing process.

The question that I get most often at seminars or from my college students is “What is the best way to effectively utilize multiple tracks in the field?”