recording techniques

[jeffsttop]

Hello everyone,
I've just joined the forum and i hope theres someone out there willing to share some knowledge. I'm sorry if this has been discussed here before, ive been searching and havent come across what i'm looking for.

Here's what i have anyway.
Tascam us-1641 interface into my laptop running Cubase or Sonar. Cubase SE came with the device but a friend sold me his Sonar stating it was far better. a bucnch of sm57's bunch of senheiser mics, drum mics etc. equiptment isnt my problem lol. How to use it really is where i'm trying to find the most info.

I'm not really sure how to go about getting the best sound from all the instruments and keeping noise out. I have tried micing and recording all the cabs and drums and doing it all in one shot. I find this just sounds hollow because there is so much bleed. I took what we had there and thought i'd use that as a "guide track" to play back into the headphone while i only recorded one intrument being played listening to it... this seemed like the bbest solution as long as the guide track was completely solid.

I tried recording rhythm guitar first to a click track, this just frustrated my guitarist. whiney bugger, but what ya gonna say.

anybody wish to chime in on a proven method here..
oh and i just have to use this smilie

 

[bouldersoundguy]

With a whole band playing in a room together you have to really close-mic everything. That can mean eight or more mics on the drums. Dividers (gobos) between amps and other stuff can help reduce bleed.

What I usually do is record the band with guitars etc. plugged into the system direct. Then I go back one by one and replace the scratch tracks with keepers using amps or whatever.