Multi Take Mixing

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miracles83

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Hello everyone, I am new here even though I have lurked for a little while.

I have been playing for more than 20 years but just started to record and mix (I don't even really know which forum to post this). I have a very basic question about recording/mixing. I am recording a version of Black Crowes She Talks to Angels basically for myself so that I can practice the process. I am recording myself with both the vocals and acoustic guitar. They are both on different tracks.

My question is it bad to record parts of the song, Stop and then record other parts or should I force myself to play all the way straight through?

My problem comes in with that I'll be recording the guitar parts and then I'll play the verse or chorus too many bars which messes the vocals. I also like some parts of a recording track better than others so what I'll do is cut and paste parts of a track. You probably see where I am going with this.The final result begins to sound like a kid's collage they made in art class.

Before I rip my hair out trying to make it sound smooth, I wanted to ask if this practice should just be avoided or it is common to take parts of a particular track to mix with another track of the same instrument.
 
People do punch-ins all the time. The trick is to match the sound from various takes. If it's just a matter of timing, lay down a scratch track first - sing and play together with 1 mic. Then use that as your guiding track when you record the good guitar track.
 
Lots of pros record certain tracks bit by bit, but those are usually in songs with more stuff to hide the edits and a solid rhythm section to follow. Your project leaves the guitar pretty exposed so any imperfections are hard to hide.

Try recording the song through once, playing and singing all the parts, then go back and play along to that using it to cue you on the changes. If you have to go back and retake a part at least you'll have a predefined framework to guide you. You could even include spoken cues in the scratch track, like "bridge coming up, 3, 4...."
 
Thanks guys for the tips.. Glad I wasn't alone on an island with the idea of taking pieces of tracks. I like the ideas of having 1 master track to help guide me.
 
I just usually walk into a session, sing all the vowels and consonants separately, and when I come back the next day, my engineer and producer have the final vocal comped together. I don't know how they do it!

In all seriousness, do whatever it takes to get the song completed. But just keep the flow of the song in mind. As soon as you notice an edit or punch-in, it's bad and probably worth doing over.

Cheers :)
 
bouldersoundguy said:
lots of pros record certain tracks bit by bit, but those are usually in songs with more stuff to hide the edits and a solid rhythm section to follow. Your project leaves the guitar pretty exposed so any imperfections are hard to hide.
Click to expand...

this ^^^^
 
There's nothing wrong with doing that if you need to.

Personally I'd recommend overlapping slightly.

Like, if you have two chorus and you're going to drop a verse in between, start singing at the last line of the chorus, do the verse, then continue into the chorus.

Very few people just jump into the take on their first word. A little runup helps a lot of the time, plus it gives you multiple crossfade points if something happens to turn out awkward.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Lots of pros record certain tracks bit by bit, but those are usually in songs with more stuff to hide the edits and a solid rhythm section to follow. Your project leaves the guitar pretty exposed so any imperfections are hard to hide.

Try recording the song through once, playing and singing all the parts, then go back and play along to that using it to cue you on the changes. If you have to go back and retake a part at least you'll have a predefined framework to guide you. You could even include spoken cues in the scratch track, like "bridge coming up, 3, 4...."
Click to expand...

Pretty much what he said...Rhythm tracks are the hardest to do in multiple takes. I usually have to get them in one take (which takes forever). But solos, lead parts etc, and especially vocals are pretty easy to comp...I'll sing the same thing or play the same line 4 or more times, then cut and paste the best parts from each take. It's what almost everyone does to get the best or coolest performance.
 
Do enough tracks at the same time so that you have enough good parts to comp...Tune your guitar after every couple takes...
 
If you play to a click track, editing becomes much easier. You can cut and paste from better performed parts of the track that are the same. You can edit on the grid, then fine adjust your edit location and use cross fades to blend them together. You can do the same with multiple passes on separate tracks of the same part. Take all of the best passes and build a comp track.Yes, exposed acoustic parts are more difficult, but with some practice they can be done without being noticable.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
Rhythm tracks are the hardest to do in multiple takes. I usually have to get them in one take (which takes forever).
Click to expand...
Interesting......being used to long pieces, down the years I've found it sometimes profitable to do multi~part songs in sections. I'll always start those with guitar/drums, bass/drums, guitar/percussion {either congas or bongos} or bass/percussion. You can never tell the joins. Even in the days before digital editing made the process so much easier, sectioning was a good way to go. I do like to capture things in one go but sometimes, there just wasn't the time.
I remember doing one piece that was a 7 part tune. My friend on drums {I was playing bass} and I had 3 of the sections down and we decided to tackle the final 4 sections in one go. It took us weeks ! It was a complex bit in all kinds of odd time signatures. But it was never right and we kept coming back to it. On one particular day when we had a go, we did nearly 40 takes and we were shattered. And it still wasn't absolutely as I heard it in my head. Eventually we got it 95%. It was a long time before I could listen to it again !
 
it's mostly just guitars i do in one take.

drums sometimes too.
 
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