Click tracks, timing, etc.

[RideTheCrash]

Ok, I haven't been doing a lot of recording lately because I'm tired of setting up cheap 'Shack mics to my drums and keeping a crappy sound, so I plan to eventually, you know, buy some decent mics, a good soundcard, etc. Anyway, I've been sort of pondering over how you guys record.

What I've done in the past is just record my drum track just playing to the song from my memory...but as you can probably guess I can't put my full heart into the track if I'm busy concentrating on where I'd be in the song. Now if the guitar started first I'd play along to the guitar, and so on.

A song my band covers is Born To Be Wild...classic and overused. Now the drums start out with a flam on the snare then the guitar kicks in. What you guys do so that the drummer could play along to a guitar scratch track because the drums start first? Like, I would play the flam and then (I'm usually by myself) get somebody to hit play right on time for the scratch track? I don't know if my computer would be able to start playing fast enough, is it just getting the right time?

I don't know, give me your views, thanks!

[TexRoadkill]

Record a click track. That is just a sample of a metronome or rim shot, high hat, etc that plays 1/4 or 1/8 notes. Whatever you need to keep the groove. Always have at least an 8 count lead in before any music starts playing. That way you have some time for an intro or lead in.

Record a scratch track. That is a simple guide track of guitar, vocals and whatever else you need for song structure and feel.

When you start the recorder there will be 8 clicks, then the guitar starts and plays with the click. On beat 8 hit your flam and play with the guitar.

It's common to have an entire band play a song at once and have all the instruments recorded direct to their own channels. Then you can go back one by one and replace all the scratch tracks with properly miced amps and good drum and vocal takes. The downside is you need to be able to record a lot of channels at once and you need a headphone distribution setup so everyone can hear themselves.

[Jblount]

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Thats how you do it. I prefer the click track that has the beat one accented. Then you can always tell 1 when you are counting. Allow a lead in and record the guitar first. I always start with a click, then guitar, then bass, then drums, then keybords, and finally vocal. It flows pretty good that way.

[Kevin Blight]

I record identically to jblount and finds it works well for me. I usually get the drum part down first, then do a scratch track of electric guitar, if I'm adding accoustic guitar I use headphones and cut out as much of the rest of the tracks as neccesary to reduce bleed into the open mic. I haven't recorded live drums for ages, but when I did, I often used to provide a vocal without backing so the drummer knew exactly where they were in a song. It seemed to work pretty well.

K

[RideTheCrash]

Hey, I never thought of it that way. Yeah I knew I should drum to a metronome, but I never figured, you know, 8 clicks, and then on such a number of clicks I play the flam etc. Thanks a lot I'll have to try some of this stuff out. Peace.