Recording Help Help Please Help!!!!

[c0z420]

OK, so my band just got a "Fostex MR-8 8-Track Digital Recorder". Ok so i already have a 4 track KORG PRX4 and i have a little experience with recording. And how i have recorded in the past with an acoustic band, we did a scratch track first of the song.......then record 1 guitar with, then another, then bass, then drums, then vocals. Thats acoustic....i wasnt around for the drums and vocals, so now im lost when we're trying to do that now.

Ok, so heres my problem. What are the steps to properly record a studio quality song? We were messing around tonite and It was me and the sound guy alone....so we decided to lay down a guitar track. I played a guitar track by memory that we made up.......but ......i dnot think we did it the right way. I played the song through my half stack that was mic'd while i was in the room....and the soudn man was listening to it through the headphones in the other room......ok.....heres how we had stuff set up first

I had my Marshal half stack in the rehearsal room, mic'd to a mixer, and the mixer was running to the new recorder. Then we would adjust the levels on the recorder and mixer to sound good. We would record the song. IS THIS THE RIGHT WAY? We also tried just recording trhough my amp head so i didnt have to listen to my loud ass amp, and we were goin to try to record straight to the recorder and use the recorder's effects but they sucked so i didnt. Anyways, i gues sim just asking, how the hell do we setup our home studio, and what is the order we need to do things??? PLEASE HELP! I know this sounds like a bunch of garbage but im totally confused after tonite!

 

[ausrock]

Probably the most common sequence is to record a "click" track first, usually on the last available track (trk 8 on an 8 trk recorder), feed that to a set of cans (worn by the drummer so hopefully he will actually keep time). At this point, you can either put down a scratch/guide track which the drummer can then play along to (in the cans) while you record the drums, it can also be beneficial to record the bass at the same time as the drummer and bassist should be "working off each other" to give a solid foundation for the other instruments. Also get the drummer to give at least an 8 count lead-in with his sticks in time to the click track, this way, once the bulk of the instruments are recorded you can scrap the click track and use the space for vocals, etc.,.......actually, get him to leave the last beat before the song starts silent, that way when it comes time to mix and tidy everything up there is a bigger window for editing in silence at the start of the song. Then do guitar parts and finally vocals.

As far as quality of sound, well that is anyone's guess............start with decent instruments, good or new heads properly tuned on the drums, new strings on guitars and bass and take time to set up sounds/tones on any amps. After that you are at the mercy of the room acoustics, the types of mics and particularly their placement, the rest of the signal chain and probably another half dozen things that could limit what you will achieve soundwise. Take your time, get the sound right at the source (don't rely on EQ'ing later) and don't be afraid to tell the drummer or anyone else that they need to redo a track because they were out of tune or slightly early or late on a beat.........most of all, have fun and learn from the experience.