Questions on tracks?

[ChadP56]

I'm pretty new to this. I am going to record my acoustic guitar by micing it and sing lyrics through my sm57 mic put through my mackie mixer to my computer. I'm using cool edit pro 1.2. I really just want to record some songs I've written in descent quality.

What I'm wondering is how I should split up the tracks. Should I record all the guitar the whole song through and then all the vocals. Or should I record the chorus and then the verses and splice them together? Or should I use some other way. I'm hoping to be able to record these songs in as little time as possibe without having to do it a million times for the perfect recording? Thanks for the help.

 

[bennychico11]

Whether you should record it all at once or verse by verse, just depends on your ability as a player. If you can play through all the way without botching anything, then go for it. But if you feel like you usually miss a beat or a chord on the chorus or something, then try doing a verse, stopping, pressing record again, the chorus, stopping, etc. As far as doing vocals seperate....generally songs are recorded like that to help prevent bleeding from instrument into the vocal mic. Because then later we can EQ and add effects to one instrument or voice without effecting the other one. Cool? Cool.

 

[ChadP56]

Thanks

I appreciate the reply. That makes sense!

 

[TimOBrien]

Whatever works for you.

Remember that in the OLD days before multitrack tape machines, they'd get a bunch of guys together in a room and put up one mic that led to a machine that cut directly into a wax disc. That was used as a mold to make records.

One take..... Pure talent. (We got it easy today.)

 

[Cyrokk]

Based on your desire to cut the songs as quickly as possible, I think you'll work most efficiently by recording each instrument separately. Also, instead of focusing on one part until you get it right before moving to the next section, you may record better tracks faster by running through the song all the way through several times until you get to a point where you have one really good take with only a small number of mistakes here and there. Then go back to those sections and re-record. It wears on your patience less when you only have to nip and tuck in a few places of a completed track, not to mention the consistency of the vibe is maintained.