Recording Question

[jdrummerboy13]

I have a three piece rock/alternitive band. Bass, Guitar, and drums. When we record we do each insturment seperatly but have trouble keeping time. When we playback everything it sometimes sounds a little off. How can I keep time and beat exspeccially with drum tracks? And is doing everything seperatly the way to go?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

How can I keep time and beat exspeccially with drum tracks?

Practice, practice, practice... this has nothing to do with recording as such - it's all about musicianship.

And is doing everything seperatly the way to go?

It depends on how tight the band's playing is, and the comfort level of everyone with "live" playing.... basically, you choose whichever method works best for you and it can vary from album to album, song to song...

 

[gospel]

How about one of them click things. We used one on an accapella song in the studio on our last CD. It's just a loud click in the headphones that keeps everyone on time.

 

[dave in toledo]

click track

most recorders have a click track, learn to use it and things will go alot better in the timing department

 

[volcano_lance]

Either that, or just track the drums off the bat with everyone playing in real time, then overdub.

 

[jbgoode]

You know, I've tried doing the same thing a number of times and the only way that it has worked, is when the drum track is laid down first.
I know that we all should be better musicians and have better timing, but that isn't the case 99% of the time. For some reason, it's very hard for most drummers ( that I've worked with ) to play to other instruments or a click track - even if they are perfectly in time. I think's it's just part of the push/pull in timing that occurs when playing live.

I know that many people reading this will just say "get a real drummer" but nevertheless this is what I've found. I've had great success when putting down the drum track first. It seems to be much easier to play guitar/bass to drums, even if they are a little off time.

The only problem I've had is that the drummer has to know the song perfectly. It's pretty easy to get lost in some songs (if you're the drummer) without any other instruments to listen to. Well, anyways what we finally did is just play a guitar along with the drummer but just ran it thru a headset to the drummer to keep the drum recording clean. Then the drummer would have the appropriate musical cue's for the song, and if there were guitar mistakes we'd just re-do the guitar track.

-jb

 

[turntablist]

yeah that method is used alot. running "guide tracks" of guitar and even maybe vocals to the drummer while he drums. it makes for perfect drum recordings for dubbing over.

 

[a12stringer]

One trick I picked up from reading material written by Sir George Martin is that many times the Beatles, after they got into multitrack recording in 1965, would record a guide track with acoustic guitar or piano and vocals and then build the song around it. Once they had the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar part, they would erase the guide track to use for overdubs or vocals.
Since they only had four tracks to work with from 1965 until August of 1968, when EMI finally installed 8-track equipment, they obviously had to do a lot of bouncing down as well. But the guide track principle is still very effective regardless of the number of tracks you have to work with.

 

[glynb]

Try playing the song live all together and record all the band. Then play it back and get the drummer to play along to it and just record the drums. Then add the bass player to overdub his part and so on. Yiou may find it easier to keep time initialy if you're all playing together, especialy if your a band used to playing live together.

We have a good drummer in our band, but can he play along to a rhytm unit or click track? No, not very well.

If you have a means of isolating the instruments you could all use headphones and play live but just record the drums, then start layering oner the top of that.