Recording scratch tracks with laptop

[jmxdrummer]

I need some input please. Im recording a band in a couple of weeks. They want to record six songs. Im thinking of going to one of their rehersals and recording scratch tracks with my laptop (2 condensers, small mixer, firewire interface). Once I have recorded the scratch recordings (all six songs), I was going to have the band come into the studio, and lay tracks for the indiviual instruments over the scratch tracks. If figure this will help speed things up. What do you guys think?

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Sounds like a good plan.

If the drummer can play to a click track it will *greatly* improve your odds of re-laying drum tracks in time later. If not, the click will screw with the drummer's timing and make your scratch tracks useless. Chances are your guide tracks will get more and more useless as you add overdubbed tracks and timing starts to get mushy- the better the musicians the less issues there will be.

If they don't play *really* well at that practice you may not want to use those guide tracks, anyway. Doing more harm than good.

Does the band need the guide track? Do you only have those 2 mics? Do you have any way of getting 2 headphone feeds to the drummer and guitarist or bassist?

If the band is decent and you can do 2 headphone feeds, you might be able to get away with recording just the drummer while the guitarist or bassist (whichever the drummer relies on more) playing along in the cans by plugging direct in. Clean drum tracks in one pass, guide instrument for the rest of the band to lay overdubs to.

And if you do record the whole band as a guide track... for the love of god, DON'T send those tracks home with them for ANY reason. The girlfriends will think its sucks, the band will start to lose faith in you and will come back all demanding and belligerent. "Um.. the kick doesn't sound good, man. Are you sure you know what you're doing? I don't like the sound of my guitar. I can't hear myself...." etc.

Explaining to the band that its just a rough, unmixed guide track doesn't work. Ever. Don't do it!

You've been warned!

Take care,
Chris

 

[jmxdrummer]

thanks for the input. There is now away in hell the band will get a copy of the scratch recording, for the exact same reason you gave. I have explain it to them that the scratch recordings are for reference only, and will not be in the final product. I told them was I had the scratch recordings, I would prep them in the studio. I was going to have both guitarist play to the scratch recordings. Once I have the guitar tracks, I will mute the scratch recording, and resume lay bass, vocals, and drums. For the scratch recording, I wasn't planning to give them any kind of monitoring. I was going to place two condenser to record there rehersal.

 

[Vullkunnraven]

Here's one concern/possibility

To stress the last post as well... the drums need to absolutely be done to the click to see any use of those guide tracks to translate into the studio. If I were in your shoes, i would probably still record them at practice, but I would more importantly be concered about getting down the exact tempo and time signatures of each song and setting those in stone! Then I would just take the guitarists into the studio, lay down a simple kick, snare, hh, drum loop/machine to the respective song and tempo and have them record a solid-timed guide to that. Once the guitar guide is there, the drums should be easier, and the remaining instrumentation, overdubs, and vocals can follow.

But,
If the drummer can play to the click right then and there and you have two or more headphone feeds, then you're set