How do most people record: by tracking or togther

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Beezoboy

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Ok so my band is about to record its first full length album and I was wondering whether most bands record together or track seperately. For my band because of lack of gear and seperation we are going to track everything.

But in studio's where a band can record every members part in a seperate room, do they normally record together or seperate. I know on Morning View that Incubus tracked everything together and then did some overdubs, and that turned out to be an awesome album *imo*.

I know that there is a huge theoretical argument as to whether the feel can be achieved or not, but I don't care about that. I just want to know whether more of the bands YOU have recorded and also about whether big names you may know about recorded together or tracked seperately.

Thoughts, comments?

Beezoboy
 
It is quite common for the whole group to play together and cut the "basic tracks"....mostly you are going for a good drum track that captures the groove, and if any of the other parts are keepers, even better.....from there, each of the parts are overdubbed separately playing to the "basic tracks"......
 
I think it is best to record it all together if you have the means to isolate each instrument.That way you can preserve the energy and dynamics without having annoying bleed-over.I must say though that I have made great recordings tracking all the instruments in the same room(small room at that)although I lacked control in the mix.It is'nt impossible to record well in a closed environment.I have heard that Billy Corgan recorded the Smashing Pumkins first album alone so I assume that he tracked individually.(just what I heard,could be bullshit)Good luck!
 
since I dont have the space to isolate everyone, I have the gtr and bass player play direct, and the drummer listen through cans. ONce I get the Drums down, I have everybody else go back and redo what they need to redo.
 
I track as much as I can with the whole band playing live; drums in the studio, bass direct and guitar amp in another room. The dub whatever needs to be dubbed.
 
Bdgr said:
since I dont have the space to isolate everyone, I have the gtr and bass player play direct, and the drummer listen through cans. ONce I get the Drums down, I have everybody else go back and redo what they need to redo.
Click to expand...

Same here.
 
I came out of a session a little while ago where the band did not like to wear headphones (Three peice band bass player sang) Anywayz it was cool because all of the stuff was isolated but instead of having the cue / aux / monitor send hooked up to a headphone amp, we sent the entire signal (Bass, Guitar vocals minus drums) right to a mid sized rehersal PA system and had them play "live" more or less, both the guitar amp and bass amp were isolated in other rooms but routed to the PA so it was totaly like a live situation. The PA was placed in in a fashion that cut down bleed to the drum kit BUT the thing to remember is that there was always some bleed from the PA to the drum kit mics but we made sure that it sounded natural not to stand out in the mix (Which should be fun to do, the mix that is). Also a couple of room mics can add a good balance between live and studio sounding recording in this situation.

Anywayz its just another option, I usually find that this works well with bands that kill live but as soon as they get into the studio they tend to be too stiff and think too much instead of playing like thy do live or in rehersal.

Just a thought, hope this helps
Jeff.

www.reasondisappears.com
 
hi

Well I dont really know sorry I hope this was helpful and you fine what you are looking for
 
man we used to laugh at Stevie Ray Vaughan recordings because the tracks are so fucking bad. my friends album sounds that way. we call the drum tracks "flatliners". they don't go anywhere. then you listen to his live stuff and the band is great. so that is one reason to record live.

conversely, when I track my own songs, I get everything set up, bang out a quick drum part, have my girlfriend hit record, and then I play the song all the way through. no punches, no scratch tracks. but its my song - I know where all of the hits - and emotion - are supposed to go.

then there is the whole 'which school of thought' aspect of it - do you want the recording to sound like a live band or more like a collage of different "larger" than life "sounds". are you trying to be "creative" in the production? I think you know where this is going...

Then there is the question of how much editing you want to do. If you want to be copying/pasting vocal parts and such, it is best to record to a metronome, which means the drummer is playing to scratch tracks.

to answer the question, I've done and continue to do all of the above.
 
Probably more songs are tracked seperately. What i do with my band Serotone is record the drums while a guitar or bass play along.The guitar amp or bass amp is isolated from the drums but the players are both in the same room so they can feed off each other with eye contact etc. The guitar/bassa track is just a guise track and once happy with the drums everything else is tracked seperately. I usually let the guitarists/bassists sit in the control room when tracking as it is so much clearer than using headphones, plus it is more time efficient since you can talk directly to the person without using talk back.
 
Generally track seperately but it depends on the type of music and quality level wanted.

Some bands *play better* as a unit. Some don't.

In general heavier music like pop-punk, emo and metal should be tracked as seperately as humanly possible. The massive compression and EQ needed for those styles to sound "right" don't work so great if there is much bleed.
 
You can still record it at the same time but isolate the sources to avoid spill. Place amps in the corner facing towards the corner etc.
 
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