Simultaneous Tracks

[tonyA]

I would like to get everybody's opinion as to their preference when recording a five piece rock band with regards to the number of simultaneous tracks to record them with. I understand that you could do one, two, three, etc, tracks at a time, but doing so, you tend to loose spontaneity in the sound, if not more. Given that you are allowed one scratch vocal track during recording and that you are allowed to do the vocal tracks at later recordings, how many simultaneous tracks to do wish to record with? What instruments could you do away with for later?

You see, this has a lot to do with the type of equipment one needs to buy. How important is it to have have 9,000 simultaneous tracks at mixdown, if you could only record 1 or 2 tracks at a time, as opposed to a machine that could do 4, 8,16 tracks at a time?

I haven't really read all the threads in this section, so forgive me if this had been covered previously.

My minimum is 6, preferrably 8

drums: 2 tracks (although i prefer to have individual tracks for each piece, with limited equipment, 2 is my minimum for stereo. Must capture it perfectly, as there are no post fix except for eq)

vocal: 1 track (scratch track only)

bass: 1 track (must be recorded initially)

rythmn: 1 track (must be recorded initially)

lead: 1 track (depends - could be recorded later, but some rock piece movements are very much dictated by the lead direction)

keyboard - could do later

back up vocals/vocals - could do later

others/effects - could do later

 

[dachay2tnr]

The biggest problem with simultaneous recording is bleed from one track to another. Most musicians (or maybe just the ones I know) have trouble playing an entire song completely clean. If the tracks aren't seperated than a single mistake (drummer hitting a snare too early) ends up on all the other tracks.

Most recordings therefore are "built". Drums and bass first. Rythym next. Soloists. And lastly, vocals.

You may lose spontaneity (probably overrated anyway IMHO) but you will find patching mistakes a whole lot easier. By recording each track separately, the tracks are clean of all bleed from the other instruments. Therefore you can deal with each instrument individually when mixing - from volume level, EQ, amount of FX's, etc., without effecting the other instruments at the same time.

BTW, this approach would also allow you to individually mic your drum kit.

 

[elbenj]

Here,s something to try..get the whole band together and lay down a "scratch track" of the rythem section and the lead vocal.
You will need only one track to do this..take your time and nail the performances like you want...

Then, starting with the drums began to overdub every component of the song...mic the drums with as many mics as you have mic pres and have the drummer play along with the previosly recorded master scratch track ...depending on how good he is..will dictate how long its gonna take..do the same for the bass..the other elements that you mentioned earlier that could be done later ..like all lead elements, backing vocals and any other fills you might want to add..this might take a while but if you are at home then..you have alll the time there is! right?

Mind you..I would not recommend this procedure in a pro studio because you might be broke after the first 3 days

This will also eliminate the excuse that everyone needs to play together to get that feel.....

 

[junkyardearl]

I think Elbenj is really on the right track here.

I remember being in a band when I was younger and hating when studio people tried to get us to record one instrument at a time. I think there is something to say for recording a band live, there's something that's missing if you don't have that. My idea would be to get the band together and record all of them live. I'd get a decent live mix on the drums, put that on a track, then get the guitars and bass down on two or three tracks, and have a scratch vocal. So now you have like 4 or 5 scratch tracks. Now you can really mic the drums and put those on as many tracks as you can. Then you can do the bass, and then the guitars, having the musician listen through the headphones to each the sratch tracks as you go along. That's how I'd build the final tracks.

You could just take the live recording and put it to a pair of tracks, stereo, but I'd recomend having each instrument with it's own track, because from my experience in the studio every musician wants to hear more of a different instrument. Our drummer always wanted to hear a lot of vocals to cue him, and our guitar player always wanted to hear more drums,etc.

Just my opinion as a person who was in a band who didn't want to be from the 60's school of recording where the band comes in after all the tracking is done and records the vocals.

~james

 

[Tekker]

You could just take the live recording and put it to a pair of tracks, stereo, but I'd recomend having each instrument with it's own track....

Yeah, definitly have each instrument on it's own track. That way, as each person is overdubbing their part you can just take there scratch track completely out of the mix so that they feel like their playing with the band and also so that their "other self" isn't throwing them off. This is especially true for the drummer if he tends to play different fills and such each time he plays the song.

-tkr