1 man band, recording guitar, then bass, and drumming live?

dreamache

New member
I'm assuming a looper pedal would be best for this, but I'm not exactly interested in recording loops. I'd rather record guitar in 1 take, with a full song composition...

So..

Step 1: Record guitar.. guitar 1 + guitar amp = loops the whole guitar composition through the guitar amp
Step 2: Song starts over, Record bass while guitar piece is playing through guitar amp.. bass + bass amp = loops the whole bass composition through the bass amp

Step 3: By now, the goal is to have the guitar and bass looping through each respective amp, and matched up.. Then, I can play drums live to them

I'm curious if I would just need 2 looper pedals (like the Ditto loopers)?

Thanks..
 
Would it not just be simpler to record multitrack into a computer with a basic interface? Loopers are great but not really the best tool - as you said, you are not even looping? You have to record into 'something' at some point, so why not just use that?
 
Well, it's all in my mom's basement, I didn't want it at my house because I have close neighbors, and I didn't want to setup my laptop there and deal with DAW software, as I have none. I might end up actually doing this though...

If there's a simple free DAW of sorts (hm, wondering if Adobe has a product for that, as I'm a CC subscriber), then this might work... though, I have no speakers, just the 2 amps... I suppose the right audio interface could take the 2 tracks from the DAW and output them to the inputs of each amp?
 
The usual procedure is to use headphones for tracking. That lets you hear the playback and your live playing at the same time while you record. A simple 2-channel recording interface will take care of this. If the drums are acoustic then having amps for playback would cause bleed in the drum mics, so headphones are the way to go. Reaper is a great DAW you can try for free.

This is how I'd record you:

1. Set up a click track
2. Record scratch guitar to the click
3. Record drums to the scratch guitar, probably with the click as well
4. Record the bass to the drums and scratch guitar
5. Replace the scratch guitar with a keeper take
 
If you don't want to take your computer and stuff, I'd think a portable, digital multi-track recorder would be a better option for what you describe.
 
I honestly don't want to use headphones. I want others to be able to hear this stuff live :D

Well ok but for ONE thing Chucky, you cannot record a live mic AND have speakers on because you will get horrendous feedback. Then, as has been said, amps and stuff, ESPECIALLY drums will bleed into tracks you don't want them to.

I assume you have all your music kit setup at Mum's? All you need then is to lug the laptop, AI and headphones (aka 'cans') home with you and having laid down the tracks you can mix, match, modify and generally bugger them to taste back home.

Reaper is a brilliant DAW but maybe a bit boggling to start with? Not really free either. You might get on with Samplitude ProX Silver? limited to 8 tracks but totally free. There is a free version of Studio One but I have not tried it.

Other things to consider are, DI boxes, Re-amp boxes and amp speaker load boxes and (never done it but I read!) you are going to have SUCH FUN trying to get a decent drums recording!

My basic AI reccy is the Steinberg UR22 but the Native Instruments would give you 4 tracks and allow kit to be left setup.

Dave.
 
Well ok but for ONE thing Chucky, you cannot record a live mic AND have speakers on because you will get horrendous feedback. Then, as has been said, amps and stuff, ESPECIALLY drums will bleed into tracks you don't want them to.

I assume you have all your music kit setup at Mum's? All you need then is to lug the laptop, AI and headphones (aka 'cans') home with you and having laid down the tracks you can mix, match, modify and generally bugger them to taste back home.

Reaper is a brilliant DAW but maybe a bit boggling to start with? Not really free either. You might get on with Samplitude ProX Silver? limited to 8 tracks but totally free. There is a free version of Studio One but I have not tried it.

Other things to consider are, DI boxes, Re-amp boxes and amp speaker load boxes and (never done it but I read!) you are going to have SUCH FUN trying to get a decent drums recording!

My basic AI reccy is the Steinberg UR22 but the Native Instruments would give you 4 tracks and allow kit to be left setup.

Dave.

Ah, yeah I'm not interested in recording the drums. I just want to record the guitar/bass, so that I can play drums live with them. None of this (yet) is to actually record and save.

I just want to jam, and most of the people I know suck and can't do their part. This way, I can still have as close to possible a "live" gig experience, with just myself. :listeningmusic:
 
Ah, yeah I'm not interested in recording the drums. I just want to record the guitar/bass, so that I can play drums live with them. None of this (yet) is to actually record and save.

I just want to jam, and most of the people I know suck and can't do their part. This way, I can still have as close to possible a "live" gig experience, with just myself. :listeningmusic:

Once again, you can record into a DAW, get your tracks as you want them, once recorded, send it to speakers (interface out as they have 1/4 cables) and jam away.
 
Ah! Gottcha! Backing tracks for drums. Most folks are making DRUM backing tracks!

I am convinced you will still find an AI and computer the easiest way to do this. On problem I can see, conventional monitor speakers will not be nearly loud enough to compete with a live kit (unless you can afford something VERY expensive!) So, you will need to route the tracks to a guitar and bass amp and that really needs a 're-amp' kit but there are workarounds. Can you solder mayhap?

A thought occurs, you might, in THIS particular instance be better off buying a USB mixer but get a 24 bit later generation one. The A&H zed i8 is well thought of.

Dave.
 
Just to get you away from trying to use two loopers to do this - 1) the chances are that the loopers will not match entirely on internal clock, so will drift over time; 2) getting the start/stop perfect on 2 loopers requires tons of practice.
 
Looping is a "new" thing and a lot of the homerecr's here ( like me) are not "new" you are asking about looping at a recording site so you are going to get push back to use recorded backing tracks as opposed to those new dang fangled looper thingy majigs...

I am intrigued by the looper thing and it is becoming a "thing" ED Sheran is a perfect example of taking looping waaaaaay further than most of us old timers ever thought it could be taken...If we go back to Dark Horse Cherry Tree ...I'd of thought that was taking it way far...Ed goes about a thousand miles deeper...so in learning about ED and his set up I found there are looper forums and blogs..Like This one and This One and here's a great article on the subject....good luck with the looping thing ...it looks like it can be a lot of fun and entertaining if you can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time......:D
 
Once the backing tracks are recorded you could put them on an iPod and play them back from that into the two amps. Might want a couple of reamping boxes, or it might work okay straight into the amps.
 
I ended up buying this yesterday, and works exactly as I wanted!

Guitar -> Input A, Output A -> Guitar Amp
Bass -> Input B, Output B -> Bass Amp

Records up to 12 minutes of loops (up to 6 minutes per guitar part and bass part, which is more than enough)..

And, I can then take the output and connect them to an audio interface (L/R Input) and save them onto a computer. Cool beans.

Boss RC-1 Loop Station Looper Pedal | Sweetwater

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