Rec'ing a Track - What first?

[luink]

My band and I are trying to record a demo at home. We have a couple of dynamic mics, an m-audio, Acid, and a laptop.

I am guessing you should lay the drums down first. What is the best way to do this and make sure they are in time with the actual song and the other instruments?

I am guessing it'd be safest to have the drummer and guitarist play their bits, and only mic the drums, so then everyone stays in time.

Any tips on how to do this best, and on how to proceed, would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Ed/luink

[mikemorgan]

My suggestion would be to have a click track to which the singer and guitar player can track simultaneously. Then you'll have a vocal/musical reference for all the overdubs later. If your singer is also a guitar player, just have him chunk along on an acoustic while he sings a throwaway track.

[tourettes5139]

Originally Posted by mikemorgan

My suggestion would be to have a click track to which the singer and guitar player can track simultaneously. Then you'll have a vocal/musical reference for all the overdubs later. If your singer is also a guitar player, just have him chunk along on an acoustic while he sings a throwaway track.

+1 Best way to do it. Then you have something for the drummer to play along with. IME, drum tracks always turn out better if the drummer gets to play with the songs, instead of just a click track. It always helps me when I am laying down drum tracks.

[luink]

thanks for the tips, def. makes sense. will be using this in the future.

[MadAudio]

Getting a balanced drum sound is going to be crucial, since Acid can only record one track at a time (whetehr it's mono or stereo). This will limit your ability to, say, bring up the kick during mixing, for example.

[jkokura]

I agree with the click, and I think someone also alluded to the 'scratch' track. I usually have the primary instrument and singer play a basic, use one mic run through of the songs...a 'ignore minor mistakes, don't eq, don't do anything to' track that you can delete later. This allows a drummer to not only follow the tempo of the song with a click track, but also to follow where he is in the song! Lots of pros can do that without a scratch, but most little bands I know don't have that ability yet! Ask the band what they want first...

Jacob

[Niimo]

if you invested a bit of money into a mixer you could avoid the problem madaudio brought up. run all your mikes into the mixer before hand where you can bring up the kick or something.