Reusing Choruses in Modern Rock Songs

phriq

phriq

Freon Productions
Hey everyone,

I was just curious if you guys reuse choruses when recording a full song. Basically, after you record the first chorus, do you use the exact same material for the second chorus (sure you may add different harmony or something), but do you reuse the same instrumental recording, vocal recordings, and so on or do you record all new music, vocals and what not for the other choruses?

Does anyone know what standard practice is in the industry on this?

Do you reuse instrumental recordings for verses too?

I am just curious what the standard practice is. Thanks in advance!
 
Yeah I do everything fresh. I just like it that way. There's nothing wrong with copying and pasting though if that's what you want to do. I bet it happens more often than not.
 
Never an entire chorus for me, it's usually way too obvious-sounding. If I'm recording an nstrument part where the performer just can't get through it for whatever reason, and we're up against the clock, I'll reuse what I have to to get it done, but only on a per-track basis, not a while mix section. And even then only as a last resort.

G.
 
I'll re-use certain parts, like a group of back vocals. But I'll drum all the way through the song. I might copy and paste bass, but only if I've made a conscious decision and decided the bass part can be the same on all of them. Most of the time, though, I'll play all the choruses. Lead vocals, I never copy and paste, even if I'm singing pretty much the same part.
 
I'll play and sing everything through. If I flub a part in a chorus (which happens often) I'll most likely cut and paste from a good section. I'm lazy about retracking, punching in, etc.
 
I was curious, because in comercial rock and pop songs, verses sound congruent. I have never tried layering them to see if they are or not, but was just curious if was a common practice. I have always tended to record everything straight through. Choruses in commercial mixes sound always the same it seems though.
 
I don't generally do standard choruses, so have saved myself angst on this issue.

I'll cut and paste instrumental and / or vocal sections if I have to but prefer not to. Depends upon who I'm tracking and how much patience I have... if you're tracking someone who can't repeat things with any skill then the cutting and pasting factor goes up.

I can understand why drummers RAMI and Gerg wouldn't do it on drums however - be a bit of a nightmare I'd imagine...
 
phriq said:
I was curious, because in comercial rock and pop songs, verses sound congruent. I have never tried layering them to see if they are or not, but was just curious if was a common practice. I have always tended to record everything straight through. Choruses in commercial mixes sound always the same it seems though.
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One thing to remember is that circumstances and influences in recording a pro label album are not the same as they are for self-recoding at home. With the exception of the biggest names (your Springsteens, Rihannas, Gagas, and such) who can get everything they want when they want it, label artist productions are often subject to both money and time budgets which don't always allow perfection on every track. If you're recording yourself at home, you probably have no such constraints, as you're not paying for studio time and have no album tour coming up in three months that you *have to* have the album ready for and released by.

So in that way at least, we can actually have greater, and not less, latitude and luxury in our production decisions. We may not have to make some shortcuts in recording and post that those under budgetary pressure may sometimes have to make. In that way, almost ironically, using their practices as a model for ours is not necessarily a great idea.

G.
 
Armistice said:
I can understand why drummers RAMI and Gerg wouldn't do it on drums however - be a bit of a nightmare I'd imagine...
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If you record to a click and play tight, it's actually really easy to cut and paste entire sections of drums. If I'm playing with the arrangement of a song, I'll record scratch drums and snip out entire sections of say, a verse drum pattern, and move it around to see if I like it better somewhere else. If I like the changes, I'll record it that way for keeps.
 
Greg_L said:
If you record to a click and play tight, it's actually really easy to cut and paste entire sections of drums.
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True, that would actually be easy.

If I'm playing with the arrangement of a song, I'll record scratch drums and snip out entire sections of say, a verse drum pattern, and move it around to see if I like it better somewhere else. If I like the changes, I'll record it that way for keeps.
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Yeah, I do that with all my instruments when working on an arrangement. My pre-productions are a shoddy mess of badly cut and pasted guitar and bass parts.
 
...can't believe I used the word "shoddy". I've never used that word. :eek:

On the other hand, I don't often have to describe my own music. :D
 
Greg_L said:
If you record to a click and play tight, it's actually really easy to cut and paste entire sections of drums. If I'm playing with the arrangement of a song, I'll record scratch drums and snip out entire sections of say, a verse drum pattern, and move it around to see if I like it better somewhere else. If I like the changes, I'll record it that way for keeps.
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That's interesting... I thought it might be a royal PITA, espeically if you have cymbals still ringing out etc...

Ya learn something every day around here... :laughings:
 
Armistice said:
That's interesting... I thought it might be a royal PITA, espeically if you have cymbals still ringing out etc...

Ya learn something every day around here... :laughings:
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Cymbals ringing could be a problem. That's another reason to just record it all the way through like a man.

In the unfortunate event that I need to do a punch-in, I set the auto-punch region to make sure I don't interrupt any cymbals ringing or toms booming out. Sometimes that means punching in a larger section than you really need to. Or I just re-record the whole thing. Like SSG said, with home-recording there isn't usually any timetable, deadline, or rush, so there's no excuse to be lame. My shit is legit. :D
 
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