Phases of Recording

[tddrummer]

I decided that this was a newb question because I've gone almost a year wondering about this. What are the phases of recording? I've heard the terms mixdown, tracking etc..What do these terms mean (this is where I'll probably be linked to some sort of online dictionary). Also where do you add in effects throughout these phases. My usual setup with say, drums...I will record them through a mixer, into line in on my computer.Then I will add effects, and do whatever editing is called for with my sound program. In my opinion I tend to get fairly good sound, I just want to be doing things right, there is always room for improvement. Some of you are probably cringing by now so go ahead and tell me what I'm doing wrong if I am. I'm not only curious about drums, I also play guitar, bass, and sing, so any input on the phases for these (if not the same for drums) would be helpful. Thanx

 

[mikeh]

Here is an overly basic and simplistic reference to phases of recording.

Phase 1 - Pre-Productiom
This is writing songs, preparing arrangements, etc and if the recording project is a "professional" or "label" release could also include choosing musicians, producers, studio, setting a budget, etc.

Phase 2 - Tracking
This is the actual recording - or "laying tracks". This is the performance of material and capturing the performance on some recoding media (tape, hard disk, etc). Often this can be broken down to 2 sub- phases

Base tracks (or rhythem tracks) - normally drums, bass guitar, rhythem guitar, etc.

Over dubs - This would be recoding vocals, lead guitar etc. over "base tracks" that were previously recorded

Phase 3 - Mixing
This is the process of taking all the recorded tracks and "mixing" then to get volume levels proportionate and would also include adding audio processing (reverb, EQ, etc)

Phase 4 - Mastering
This is were the song order is established, where the volume levels and EQ levels for each song are set (so all the songs sound like a consistant recording. This is also where the overall recording gets whatever processing is required to establish the recording to a specific CD standard....and/or to make the recording "radio ready"

While effects can be added at any point during tracking and mixing - it is normally best to track "dry" (without effects) - because you can't remove effects that are already recorded - so it's better to add later. Notable exceptions to this would be 1) adding compression to control the volume peaks while tracking - in particular on vocals, drums and bass guitar 2) adjusting EQ while tracking to get the tones you want - although it is always better to work on tone before tracking, to track the cleanest, preferred tone, rather than trying to tweak something 3) guitar - many guitar players want to dial in "their sound" and have it tracked and if that is what it takes to get a good guitar sound, so be it.