overdubbing order - drums

  • Thread starter Thread starter guttapercha
  • Start date Start date
guttapercha

guttapercha

New member
I play all of the instruments, and I'm trying to figure out the best approach to getting a drum track down. What I was thinking of trying first is this: recording a "guide track" on acoustic guitar to a click track. Once that's down, I'll add the drums in. The reason that I want the guide track is so I know where I am in the song without having to use any notation. Does this sound ok?

Thanks,

JD
 
Sure. That's about the only way I could approach building a tune one instrument at a time.
 
when we've recorded our band at the practise before we've simply wrote out the timings for the song...

"Four bar intro", "8 Bar Verse", "4 Bar Bridge", "Whatever..."

and stuck the click track on using the timing sheet so that he doesnt get lost.

it works for us... but then again, our drummers not just a drummer (he plays real notes as well :p ;) ) so he does know the songs quite well, rather than simply playing along to the melodic instruments... and i suppose he's rehearsed the songs (i'm guessing if you're a 'one man band' you don't write/rehearse using the drum kit, but have used piano/guitar etc, are are now adding the drums for the recorded version of that song...)

hope that helped,

Andy
 
I guess I'll just have to play around

I'm actually just another frustrated guitar player, with rudimentary drum skills.
Somehow I don't think I could pull-off playing the song on drums with out some sort of guide to know where the crashes and fills are . This will definitely be an exercise in "not rushing" the time, as neophyte drummers are inclined to do. If only I had a bass player, I could lay down the drums and bass simultaneously.

Can anyone think of any artists who play all of the instruments themselves in this manner? The only one that comes to mind for me is the late Elliott Smith.
 
guttapercha said:
I play all of the instruments, and I'm trying to figure out the best approach to getting a drum track down. What I was thinking of trying first is this: recording a "guide track" on acoustic guitar to a click track. Once that's down, I'll add the drums in. The reason that I want the guide track is so I know where I am in the song without having to use any notation. Does this sound ok?

Thanks,

JD

I also play all the instruments. However, due to limited space I use an Alesis SR-16 for drums. My approach is fairly simple. I don't even start recording until I have the song completely worked out in my head. Then I create the drum track from beginning to end complete with intro, fills, etc. Then I just hit record and play the drum track as programmed. Then I am able to add the other instruments with no problems. It's kind of a round-about way to get it done but it works for me.
 
guttapercha said:
I play all of the instruments, and I'm trying to figure out the best approach to getting a drum track down. What I was thinking of trying first is this: recording a "guide track" on acoustic guitar to a click track. Once that's down, I'll add the drums in. The reason that I want the guide track is so I know where I am in the song without having to use any notation. Does this sound ok?

Thanks,

JD

That's what I typically do. It works well for getting the feel of the song when you have to track one instrument at a time.
 
guttapercha said:
...Can anyone think of any artists who play all of the instruments themselves in this manner?...

Dave Grohl did that on the first foofighters album.

The idea of using a guide guitar track recorded to a click is the way to do it mate, you could also just learn the whole song on drums so you don't need any guide tracks at all, i've done it both ways, but i really like to record drums and bass at the same time.

just my 2 cents.
 
Back
Top