Recording Order

[jndietz]

I'm in the process of re-recording a song where the timing was off pretty bad.

In this re-recording, what should I record first in order to make the timing better? The drums? And have them play with metronome and then play my guitar into his headphones or what?

 

[legionserial]

If you record to a click it won't matter.

 

[therage!]

Throw it away and start over. It sucks but it's a learning process. When you start it again have the drummer play to a click. This may take some time and may show that the drummer has timing problems. Those timing problems need to be resolved, no way around it.

 

[Myriad_Rocker]

Here's what I do and what I expect A LOT of others do.

1) Record a scratch guitar and bass to a click, paying attention to any tempo changes and making necessary adjustments to the click.
2) Have drummer play to the scratch and the click.

Optional: Have scratch vocals recorded if the drummer needs them. If no lyrics are written but there is a melody, hum it. If none of this is complete and the drummer can't follow, get a different drummer.

 

[Todzilla]

Ideally you want everyone playing together, in isolation, with the notion being you're keeping the drums and bass (bottoms), while other instruments are just scratch tracks. Once the bottoms are tight, it's easy to put down the other instruments for keeper tracks. That, IMHO, keeps the groove going best.

and yes, play to click

 

[mrface2112]

here are a couple questions to ask, lest ye end up in frustration:

can the drummer play to a click in the first place? if not, the studio is not the time or place to learn.

how important is it that they play "live" as a band?

are they good at layering parts to a prerecorded track?

it may be better to get them in there to lay it all down "live", click be damned. in that sort of case, timing is in the hands of the band and you're more documenting things than constructing things. this may turn out a better end product and is almost always better for the "younger" or "less experienced in the studio" sort of band.

if they can play to a click and prerecorded tracks with some proficiency, then by all means go that way......but sometimes....


cheers,
wade

 

[Vagodeoz]

What I do, is this: In songwriting/preproduction process I always work the songs in midis, so when it's time to record I record on top of the midis plus a metronome. IMPORTANT: I always use a batch encoder to turn the midis into an audio file, since when you have many midi tracks playing at the same time, latency between tracks and notes can be a real pain (especially if you play symphonic black metal like me and use 16 tracks, and pretty fast songs)
If you don't have midis, you could make them pretty fast (considering the time it will save you)
So then the order usually is:
Drums
Bass
Guitars (bases)
Keyboards/Samples/Others
Leads (Vocals and Guitars)
Overdubs (extra vocals, extra arrangements...)

 

[Micter]

It really depends on the musicians involved. With my band we usually play all together but everything is scratch tracks with the exception of the drums. We map out a click track with tempo/time changes. Then I lay down the guitar parts. I would normally say put the bass next but our bass player needs to hear the guitar in order to get into the feel of the song. Then keys, vocals, BU Vocals, lead guitar etc.

It's sort of whatever works. I would advise to lay the drums first then after that whomever has the most ability to play to the drums. Again no right or wrong way to record.