Track order

  • Thread starter Thread starter frosty55
  • Start date Start date
F

frosty55

Member
Are there any do and donts regarding what instruments go where on analogue tape?
Doing a demo at the moment and already have the drumtracks recorded, but was planning do do the following...
Trk 1 Drums
Trk 2 Guitar 1
Trk 3 Bass
Trk 4 Guitar solo
Trk 5 Vocal
Trk 6 Guitar 2
Trk 7 Back vox.

I am afraid track 8 on the recorder doesnt work and the drums only occupy one track but its not that critical. There is only us, the band, going to hear it.
I have heard things about "crosstalk" and "bleeding onto adjacent tracks" but arent sure how to best organise the proper order.
Are there any rules?
 
I wouldn't put the drums on an outside track, they're the most prone to drop outs and it's a real pain if that happens to the drums. When I had an 8 track I used to mix he drums to track two and I very rarely got drop outs. Just try not to stick anything important and fairly constant on an outside track (e.g. drums, bass, rhythm guitar). I use mine for solos and backing vocals etc. Other than that, it doesn't really matter what tracks you put them on.

Regarding crosstalk, if you stick a saturated bass drum next to a quiet acoustic guitar and vocal, you may get a bit of bleed in the guitar track though I've never found this to be a problem.
 
Soundwise I think the bass will be fine on the outer tracks if you can avoid dropouts.

Maybe the lost 8th track is caused by the heads being dirty? Today I was recording a band where the bass wasn't on the tape even though everything looked fine on the input level. After a good cleaning and a new take it was perfect even though it was on track 1 on a 1/4" 8-track.

This is just a guess but it's worth trying if you havn't been there already.
 
Could you not punch the guitar solo in on one of the other guitar tracks (or even a vocal track. After all, not many people sing over a guitar solo)?
 
Mark7 said:
Could you not punch the guitar solo in on one of the other guitar tracks (or even a vocal track. After all, not many people sing over a guitar solo)?
Click to expand...

I used to do track sharing like that quite a lot. I used to route the track into two mixer channels and adjust the sound separately for each instrument, then just switch between them with the mute switches.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top