Basic setup of recording software project before recording anything...

S

stratmaster713

New member
What is common practice for setting up the recording software before anything is even recorded?

Lets say you wanted to produce a full album, would you record ALL the songs in 1 project file so then you can have a rough mix for everything?

Then do you split these into seperate files and customize the mix for each song from there?

OR

Keep it all in one project, start to finish?

OR

Just start a new project each time?

OR

some other method?


I use cubase, and I was just curious what is the best way to go about this.

Thanks!
 
I would think that really depends on the way you like to work. Me, I like to focus on one thing at a time. Each song is recorded separate and in its own project. Only once it came to mastering would I bother to put them all together. Studio One has a great way to work with that too, but it's really not at the level I'm at right now.
Just for mixing, all songs separate for me. Mix them separate of each other. Eventually bring them together for mastering.
 
Basically, it's what fits your workflow best.

Typically, I'll create a main "Project Folder" then make subfolders within that for each individual song. When I have finished mixes, I might create another sub folder to store those in, if only for the convenience when it comes to burning CD's etc.

As for the choice of doing all the recording then all the mixing or not, it really depends on your mood and the circumstances. In my case, I'm not a musician and I'm recording other people--so typically the recording time depends on the availability of the people actually performing, meaning I often jump back and forth between recording and mixing.

It can get even more than that--I may have the basics for several songs down, then we decide we want to add, for example, a keyboard to several tracks--so we bring in a musician and record the keyboard part to several tracks in a row.

There's no "right" or "normal" way--it's just what works on the day.
 
I don't know how advisable it is, but I almost always work inside one session.

Say I have a four piece rock band and every song is gonna sound the same, setup and tone wise, I keep them all together so that identical processing takes place across the board.

If anything needs changed out for one song like a reverb or something, that's what automation's for.

Also means i can flick between the songs very quickly on demand, or if i want to check something out for reference.
 
Do what works best for you. This is the way I do it...

I have a projects folder. Under that is a folder for each song. Each song folder has all the files related to the song - project file itself and all audio files. When I export to a wav and convert to mp3, those files go in their proper song folder too.
 
Personally, this is the way I organize per song, this song title folder is inside album folder if its an album project:

SongTitle
|-------RecordedTracks

|-------Raw MixDowns
|------------OriginalMix
|------------Remix1
|------------Remix2

|-------Masters
|------------24bit/96KHz masters
|------------CD audio masters
|------------320Kbps mp3 masters
 
For cubase I use standard templates for recording and ditch anything that wasn't used later in the mix stage. (like unused tracks etc...)

So my template would go like so:

Drum Tracks: kick, kick sub, snare t, snare b, hats, tom 1, tom 2, floor tom, OH (I group the OH tracks), room.-------> put all tracks inside a folder track.
All of the above would be setup to thier correct input busses so it would just be plug and play. Some tracks might not be used if it was a 4 piece kit for example. Folder name would be "Drums"

Guitar tracks (if I go over 4 I just add more as we go): guitar 1, guitar DI 1, guitar 2, guitar DI 2, guitar 3, guitar DI 3, guitar 3, guitar DI 3------> put all in folder track. Folder name "guitars"

Bass Tracks: Bass DI, Bass Mic----> folder track named "bass"

Vocals: I just setup 14 vocal tracks and name them 1-14, I add a generic compressor to the insert of each track and leave it unactivated till it's needed (for playback having a comp on the vocal tracks is a must for me, I don't track with it and at the mix stage they definitely change but for playback it's usually nice to hear the vocals up front). I put those inside a folder track and name the folder track "vocals" I also route all the vocal tracks to a vocal group bus because I normally do this at the mix stage so I just do it early for the sake of getting it out of the way.


The folder tracks make it so you can arm all of the tracks quickly (since the arm button on the folder track arms all tracks inside the folder track so the workflow is sped up).


When all is done, I save as a project template and I'm good to go whenever I need to track someone.
 
One song after another in the same project file is the way to go if you're looking to do demos with the same selection of instruments. That way of doing it reminds me of when I was in a band and we recorded with Iain Wetherell, when his studio was still fully analogue. He recorded the songs one after another on the tape, mixed the first song and consequently the donkey work of the mixing for the subsequent three songs was done instantaneously!
 
Guitargodgt said:
For cubase I use standard templates for recording and ditch anything that wasn't used later in the mix stage. (like unused tracks etc...)

So my template would go like so:

Drum Tracks: kick, kick sub, snare t, snare b, hats, tom 1, tom 2, floor tom, OH (I group the OH tracks), room.-------> put all tracks inside a folder track.
All of the above would be setup to thier correct input busses so it would just be plug and play. Some tracks might not be used if it was a 4 piece kit for example. Folder name would be "Drums"

Guitar tracks (if I go over 4 I just add more as we go): guitar 1, guitar DI 1, guitar 2, guitar DI 2, guitar 3, guitar DI 3, guitar 3, guitar DI 3------> put all in folder track. Folder name "guitars"

Bass Tracks: Bass DI, Bass Mic----> folder track named "bass"

Vocals: I just setup 14 vocal tracks and name them 1-14, I add a generic compressor to the insert of each track and leave it unactivated till it's needed (for playback having a comp on the vocal tracks is a must for me, I don't track with it and at the mix stage they definitely change but for playback it's usually nice to hear the vocals up front). I put those inside a folder track and name the folder track "vocals" I also route all the vocal tracks to a vocal group bus because I normally do this at the mix stage so I just do it early for the sake of getting it out of the way.


The folder tracks make it so you can arm all of the tracks quickly (since the arm button on the folder track arms all tracks inside the folder track so the workflow is sped up).


When all is done, I save as a project template and I'm good to go whenever I need to track someone.
Click to expand...

Ok sounds like i will do this idea for the most part, but I will use some other suggestions you guys said too. Thanks!
 
Ok, I open each song in a separate session. Best way to do it IMO.
In each songs folder I create a folder for the original audio files and put them in there. Then I import the audio files into my session and then save the session as the name of the song.

I then rename the tracks (in capitals for ease of reading) to desired names like SNARE TOP, SNARE BOT, etc.
Then I colour code my tracks. For example for Kick I make it Orange, Snares lighter Orange etc.
I then set up my reverbs. I create an FX track and add a reverb to it. I set the reverb to 100% wet. I then create sends on the tracks I want reverb on to the reverb FX track.

I then create groups. I route the output of all my drum tracks to a group I create called DRUMS. This way you can mute and unmute all the drums at the same time which saves going through each track separately. And also this means I can add compression to the DRUM group aswell as the separate drum tracks if need be (parallel compression/New York compression).

I create groups for bass and guitars synths etc.

Then I level the tracks by going into the edit window and dragging each waves line up or down so they are at a decent level. Around -10 to -15dB peak.
Then I bring all the faders down to about half way so this means there is plenty of headroom so I wont clip any of the tracks or the stereo output.

Now I save the session again. I tend to save the session every few minutes just in case my computer crashes, so I always have an up to date save of the session and I don't loose any information. I also have auto backup on to save a backup of the session every 15mins which acts as a second safety net against loosing information.

Then that's me ready to Mix.

G
 
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