Dobro :
I've often wondered the same thing. Of course how one goes about recording depends on the type of recording being done. My work is completely PC based in Cakewalk. I work alone and play all instruments . . . sober !
While this post is long, maybe someone will get something out of it ... maybe even me, in the form of feedback. I think its a great topic to discuss ! Anyway . . Here's how I record my music . . .
Laying down a mix of recorded tracks, which eventually lead to the created song, generally follows two different paths for me, depending whether the song is an original creation or a copy of song that I am duplicating for fun. I will talk about the latter first.
For original work that I write myself, I generally start by finding a canned drum track style that fits the mood and tempo, then work from there. My drum track MIDI samples are multi-tracked , meaning, the different drum pieces are on separate MIDI tracks . . . kick drum . . . snare . . . high hat . . . cymbals . . . four separate tracks. Why this is important will be discussed later. I, then, lay down rough rhythm guitar and bass tracks . . . usually looped and pieced together. Next, I add a rough vocal track and sometimes, rough backing vocal tracks. Notice, that everything I've done so far is well, . . . ROUGH. It is after this that the real serious work begins !
Once I have a rough version of my piece and I am happy with the general feel of it, I figure that it might have a chance of surviving a detailed recording endeavor. With my setup, I'm limited to sixteen digital tracks, and up to now, I've used as many as 4 or 5 for the rough stuff. I'll save the rough copy and begin again. First, in my software, I color all the rough tracks the same so as not to confuse them with my new final tracks. Then, one track at a time, I begin recording the final tracks, from start to finish . . . . except percussion . . . I don't touch that yet. This time, however, I work hard on the final sounds and preciseness of each instrument. I create duplicate tracks and alter them, blend and pan them. I use compression for Vocals, acoustic guitars and bass. I add reverb to lead vocals and chorus, reverb, and even flanging to backing vocals. As I finish each new track, I mute the old rough track and keep on chugging. If I begin to run out of digital audio track space, I delete the rough tracks, even mix down and combine tracks together in some cases. I add lead guitar, using a looping method for practice, before attempting final takes. Then comes MIDI keyboard tracks. . . pad, piano, strings, horns, etc, if they are included. When I'm done with the digital audio and MIDI keyboard work, it's time to go back to the very beginning . . . percussion.
This fact can't be overemphasized enough. To get realistic musical results, you have to really put some time into your percussion tracks. As I said at the start, this is why I use MIDI samples on a multi-track format. At this point in the process, there is a mix of Audio tracks and MIDI tracks in your project. Before this song can be published in CD audio or MP3, all the MIDI tracks, including percussion, will be turned to audio tracks. How I do this depends on the particular song. For example, if the song has tambourine, in the end, I use a real tambourine, recorded with the large condenser mic, and replace the MIDI tambourine track with the audio track. The same holds true for Wood blocks . . . you can create some great sounding wood block sounds with ordinary household items and reverb effects. Use your imagination . . . try something strange like a spoon on a coffee cup . . . hey, use the reverse audio effect and play it backwards . . . the possibilities are endless ! I might add separate MIDI percussion tracks for extra cymbal fills and crashes, drum fills and rolls. The beauty of the separate tracks is that you can add MIDI reverb and echo as needed. Raise the individual track volume and pan. When you get all you percussion to perfection . . . well, almost . . . then you can solo all the tracks and mixdown to stereo tracks.
Now I'm at the last point in the process . . . the final mixdown. This is where most professional sound engineers will tell you to start fresh. If you're tired and your ears are worn out, wait a day or so before making that final mix. It's amazing how what you thought was in tune one day sounds out of tune the next. It's not your software, it's your ears ! They play tricks on you when fatigued.
In its last form, my project consisted of multiple MIDI and Digital Audio tracks . . . many were duplicates of one another in different forms. The first thing I do is get rid of the MIDI percussion tracks. At this point, I've got digital audio percussion in stereo tracks. I save under a new project name . . . say projectmix.wrk. Next, I begin refining the remaining MIDI tracks . . . keyboard, strings, horns. This process, like percussion, involves adding any MIDI effects and panning within the stereo field. When I'm pleased with the sounds, I mixdown to one or two digital stereo tracks and lose the MIDI tracks. Again, I save the project. What I am left with are between 1 and 16 digital audio tracks that I must bring to a final mix. If I've been at this a while, I may take a long break or even start fresh the next day. I listen to the mix . . . pan . . . add reverb here and there, add fades or rises in voices and instruments coming and going . . . get the piece to the point where I am completely satisfied with the sound on headphones as well as my stereo monitors. Then, I save the project again and do a final mixdown to two stereo tracks. I then normalize each stereo track and mute everything but them. I listen carefully and when I'm happy, I do a final save, then delete all but the two stereo tracks. I then save under another name, such as projectfinalmix.wrk. I can now export the final mix to Wave format to my hard drive. From there I can create an MP3 file or burn it to CD as digital audio. I use my CD-R to store each project file for the piece. I usually have four. The rough file, MIDI and AUDIO, project mix, and the final mix. I save them all to CD and rid my hard drive of all but the final mix wave file and MP3.
I did mention duplicating an existing song. Let's say that I wanted to do my own version of "Bad Company's Feel Like Makin' Love". I use the RONCO method. I record the song within my project as a digital audio track. It then serves as my ROUGH tracks. I play it and mute it accordingly during the duplication process until I get reasonably close to the same effect. Then, I get rid of the original and mix my version to my own personality. Yeah, it's plagiarism, but it can be a real blast . . . not to mention a way to impress your friends.
Don't forget the most important thing. Have Fun !!
Regards,
PAPicker