After I record an audio track, and then record another audio track, the second track ends up with track one mixed with it. They should remain separate. The metronome also gets mixed in with the tracks.

Audacity is an all-in-one multitrack recording program. You can follow below steps to do that.
The interface of it is simple, which is very suitable for beginners to use. Its ability to record multitrack sounds excellently will satisfy you to the most. The following steps show you what you need to do.
1. First, you need to make sure you have set up the USB sound card on your computer properly and you can access stereo mix in the recording properties.
2. After that, you need to prepare the multiple audios that you want to create multitrack recording.
3. Then, you can fire up the Audacity application on your computer and then click on "Edit> Preferences> Devices" tab successively.

4. Select "Stereo Mix" as the device under "Recording" menu and then select the recording quality according to your demands.
5. Finally, you can hit on the "OK" button to begin to record the multitrack audio file. Remember to play the sound tracks on your computer at the same time to allow the software to record them simultaneously.
This USB sound recorder software is quite easy for you to handle. You can also use it to mix multiple tracks directly when necessary.

For more details, check: How to Record Multitrack with USB Sound Card using Audacity

hi

Tascam Digital recording is an effective solution for broadcast-quality home recordings. The Tascam 2488 is a user-friendly tool and useful for home recording situations, especially when writing songs or cutting demos. It even has bus compression and processing for your final mix to give it that "mastered" feel. There are other recorders as well.

Instructions

1. Learn your gear. The Tascam 2488 DAW offers 24 discrete channels that can be recorded at up to 24-bit resolution. 16 tracks can be recorded simultaneously, via eight XLR balanced inputs and eith 1/4-inch unbalanced inputs. There are several high-quality built-in effects, such as reverb, delay, modulation, compression and a great tool for guitarists: amp and effect modeling. So you can simply plug directly into the console and get live amp tones.
2. Record or program the rhythm tracks. Most Tascam products offer a large library of built-in drum loops to construct rhythm tracks, so you don't even need live drums just to get a song down. You can designate the tempo of your song from the transport located on the right side of the console; this is where you would use a variety of buttons to make edits, undo or redo and automate punch-ins
3. Record your base rhythm instrument. Let's say a rhythm guitar. There is a dedicated guitar input located on the front of the console, and once you're plugged in you can use the aforementioned amp modeling features to dial up a sound.
4. Record the remaining track or tracks. This could include bass, vocals, keyboards, horns or any other instrument. The process is always the same. Arm the track you wish to record on, hold in record and hit play, and the machine begins to record whatever you are playing. When you're done, hit stop. If you want to undo what you recorded, simply hit the undo button.
5. Repeat these steps on any other instrument you want to record. Plug a microphone into one of the first eight XLR inputs, the first 4 of which have phantom power for studio condenser microphones, arm a track and record.

• If you need to punch-in a section, you can automate it by dialing up the time in the song you wish to replace using the auto punch function. When you enable this and choose the time in the song you wish to record over, once you hit record and play it'll start the track a few seconds before where it begins the punch-in and it will only go into record when it reaches the designated time stamp.

Do not rush. Proper recording takes time and patience.

hopefully this can help
regards

I think if you had the manual you would know the answer to the last question.

Tracks must be a minimum of 4 seconds long (page 118)

Register and download the manual for free at audio.manualsonline.com

Search for "Tascam Portastudio 2488"

http://music.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/tascam/2488neo.html

• To switch off the Auto Track function you have to enter
Menu mode.
If you wish to increase track numbers manually, press
TRACK INCR(ement) on the remote control. For further
instructions see Menu mode.
ON (AUTO): The track increments are automatically taken over
from the digital source material or after 2.7
seconds silence during analog recording.
OFF (MANUAL): While recording track numbers can be
incremented manually by pressing TRACK
INCR(ement) on the remote control.
(Minimum track length is 4 sec.) (This can
also be done in Auto track ON mode.)

it's not supported on that or any earlier sony software that I know of. have you tried running the program twice (simultaniously) and playing on one while recording on the other then mixing the tracks together after??

First thing is what operating system is on the computer.
Second is what does device manager say about the recording interface?
Third in audio properties from the task bar icon, what is the default device for recording?

CDs are formatted like any other format of digital audio.  One of the restrictions of a CD's formatting is a track can be no shorter than 4 seconds.  Usually this happens when there are tracks that were created as part of your project and were not recorded on.  When you try to burn a CD, if one track is shorter than four seconds it will give you that message every time. This is because the standard gap between songs is usually three seconds.  The CD burner's format requires it to check how many tracks there are (another limitation of the CD format is you can only put 99 tracks on a CD) so the burner reads every bit (literally bit) of audio for the gap between tracks.  You must determine the length of every bit of audio on your program and make sure each track is longer than three seconds.    I have been mixing and mastering records on CD for ten years and I still get this problem.  It happens to the best of us.  Don't be frustrated.  Remember a machine will only try to do what you tell it to do.  It wont always tell you what you are doing wrong. It will only do what you tell it to do, or not, if it is impossible.   Go through every track in your project and examine how long each track is.  Read your error message carefully. My burner will say "track 5 is too short". Check and double check. Make sure no track is shorter than four seconds. When you are confident you have corrected the problem. (delete all empty tracks) Then burn baby burn! 

download a freeware program called "audacity" and use that to cut toe audio file up into seperate tracks.

As the Fastrack can only receive one audio signal at a time you would have to record each track seperatly into Pro Tools.

I'm guessing your mixer is a multitrack recorder.

Solo track 1 on the multitracker and playback from there into the Fastrack, with track 1 on Pro Tools set to record. Repeat this for each or your tracks on the multitracker.

When you've finished you'll need to align all the tracks in Pro Tools so they all playback in time with each other.

how do i mix down tracks have manual but it is hard to follow taccam2488mk2 thanks