tracking order to build a demo?

F

flashbazbo

New member
Our band is recording demos and I was wondering how other home studio and pro's "build" a demo. We are miking up the drums (2 o/h, kick, snare) and using DI's to record base (1 track) and guitar rhythm (1 track). Our singer cues us along (unrecorder) in the mix and we all use headphones to get the base and guitar fed back. We call that our scratch track and when that is down we will layer on to that the vocals, horns and lead guitar. If needed we also replace the rhythm guitar part using an amp.
Suggestions? better ways? (other than go to megabuck medows studio) ;)
 
Hey,

If you are using a recording interface which will allow you to record 'live' meaning all instruments playing at once and being recorded simultaneously, that's the way to go when recording demos. The reason for this opinion is that demos are supposed to convey the essence and energy of a song, your demos will come off a lot tighter, punchier, and convincing, if you are all playing together as you would at rehearsal or in a live environment.

I've done it both ways with my band, and while you get more isolation of sounds with overdubbing, It also seems to make any timing issues way more obvious. Furthermore, the 'bleed' between tracks almost acts like glue for holding your mix together as well as adding a uniform 'ambience' that seems to only occur when the band is all playing together. That's just my opinion.... I'm sure others know more than I do, but I figured you wouldn't have asked here if you didn't want a variety of responses to pick and choose from...

thanks,

The Ultra Vespa
 
The liver the better! How long have you been together? Do you play out a lot? In other words, do you sound great live? Are you tight?

If so, do your best to capture that.

If you don't have enough mics and inputs to record it all at once, then record in big chunks...drums bass guitar in the first pass (preferrably without headphones), then, and I know this sounds crazy but people do it, lead vox, backup vox, lead guitar and horn, etc. in the second pass.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Ultra and Drew...... We are limited with mic inputs but we did the drums, base and rhythm guitar in one shot. We are using a small yamaha digital board with onboard disc. I need to get my RME fireface and computer over to our practice space. We just got together and are using this disc for promo, but we are tight. The three part plus layering did sound good and is clear. The separate tracks enabled us to eliminate bleed noise in the tracks. We were worried about too much bleed and ending up with muddy/phase problems doing all tracks simultaniously in our small basement practice space. Ultra, your comment on the bleed acting as glue for the demo will probably give it a better live feel, which is what we need for a promo gig getting demo, because it is almost too clean for a blues band. Thanks again!
 
How many simultainious inputs do you have? I very much agree with "the liver the better" approach, no matter how many tracks you have. My band tracks this way and I have 24 gozintas/gozoutas. With this particular band, I've settled on drums in 6 tracks, bass direct, a mic on my Rivera and the keys are stereo and direct. We monitor in headphones but still, we're pretty much "live" to recorder. The energy level and the way we play off of each other in the moment comes accross much better than dubbing the parts in. Not that I won't punch in over clams or redo a part of an otherwise great take for whatever reason. The multitrack lets me fix mistakes and mix after the fact.
 
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