Question on order of operations . . .

[nate_dennis]

I'm in the planning stages of recording a piece but I need some help on logistics. The instrumentation will be as follows; Acoustic Guitar, Electric guitar, Drums (via drum machine,) Vocals, Cello, two violins, and viola. The strings will be done via midi and I plan on playing in each part individually and mixing them accordingly. I'm working with eight tracks of tape and am new to this realm so my question is this; which six tracks would you record/mix/bounce first? My first instict is to record the drum machine in stereo (rather than using the two additional outputs) and the four strings first, then bounce that to stereo. Then add the guitars (which will probably take up four tracks leaving two for the stereo bounce.) And then add vocals last. Like I said, I'm new to this, so I could have this wrong. What do you all think? how would you approach this?

 

[greyharmonix]

what you said seems like a logical way to approach it. drums first is usually the route to go if you know what you want the drum pattern to be. if i'm recording an unrehearsed song usually i don't know how i want the drum pattern to be, so i record a guitar and bass and then add drums so know better how i want the drum pattern to be. then rerecord guitar and bass if i think its necessary. vocals last is the norm. it's obviously easier to sing with emotion when you have a background of instruments to sing with.

 

[mjbphotos]

Sounds like you've got it planned. Start with your rhythm section first, add the lead sounds after.

 

[nate_dennis]

Cool. I'm glad that I guessed right. Thanks for the responses!