Tracking Steps

[Mica]

I am about to start recording my band. I've done lots of solo recordings to loops, but I'm green with regard to recording a full band and I'm wondering in which order should I do the tracking?

I believe it should go like this:

1. Scratch guitar track to metronome
2. Scratch vocal
3. Bass
4. Drums
5. Rythm guitar
6. Vocals
7. Lead guitar

Does this look right?

Thanks

 

[Fletcher]

How about constructing a percussion loop for the song then track the rhythm section to that percussion loop. Unless your drummer is really good it's tough to get a good feel when doing drum overdubs even to a guitar that was played to a click track. It's usually a good idea when doing a band to get the rhythm section [bass and drums] recorded first with a good feel to the rhythm section then build from there... but it certainly has been done in the order you described with excellent results.

Best of luck with it.

 

[Mica]

Makes sense - thanks.

 

[Nicole_Rose]

i find that the order in which things are recorded is often dependant on the band itself. though normally things are done a certain way, sometimes the needs of the band, or the skills of the band, require a different approach.

 

[Elton Bear]

I'd flip the Bass and Drums in your list, otherwise that's pretty much how I do it (although I don't tend to bother with a guide vocal or 'scratch' as you call it).
It's all down to personal taste though, I doubt it makes much difference what you order you record things in really...

 

[Middleman]

If the whole band is resident, I prefer bass, drums, one chordal instrument and a scratch vocal at the same time. The chordal instrument should be either a keyboard or guitar which sets up the foundation of the song along with the bass and drums. No lead instruments until the end. So tell a busy keyboardist or lead guitar player, or flute player whatever, that excessive notes are not needed during the initial tracking session. (The only exception is if the vocalist is not present and you have to record the melody so people can keep their place in the song) Make sure the drummer gets all the transitional drum parts right and have him underplay not overplay them at this point. You can always come back and track overplayed transitions and fills. This approach gives you some mix options i.e. plain & fancy.

After this point it’s pretty much an open field on what comes next. If there are keyboard pads, you can do them here. Alternately if you are working on a wall of guitars you could start here. Another option is background vocals then fill in musically around these.

Once you have the foundation and it sounds right, you can move to tracking the main vocal. Some people wait to the end for this so the artist draws more of a feel of the song in their performance, your call on this.

If you want a lot of options in the mix, track the main vocal twice matching the performances as close as possible. Then add some octave versions high or low depending on the key and the vocalist. Next try some 4ths, 5ths, 7ths etc on key phrases. This will give you some tonal options which you may or may not use but at least they are in the can.

Have fun, no drugs or alcohol while recording, and you may turn up with a classic!

 

[RAMI]

I have to say that there is no set right or wrong way. Alot of people think I'm nuts, but I do my drums last. I do all the other tracks to a drum machine, and then use the drum machine "track" as my click whie playing to everything else. Whatever works.

 

[Mica]

Thanks, guys.

Middleman, when you record bass, drums, instrument and scratch vocal at once how do you deal with bleed problems - like guitar getting in the drum track? I guess I should have metioned that our recording space is one room with no booths.

 

[Middleman]

Spread out as far as you can in each corner of the room. Have bass amp and any other amps facing one of the corners of the room with blankets on the walls. Put up a blanket wall between the drummer and everyone else but leave room for the drummer to see the bass player. Mic up everything. That should give you decent separation, but hey some bleed is good. Let's call that the gel for the mix.

Rent or buy a Behringer headphone amp. $50 bucks max on eBay. Run headphones to everyone. Plug a mic into the headphone preamp so the singer can be heard by everyone. Just send his vocal through not the entire mix. If you can split this vocal mic to your recording setup, all the better and you can record the scratch vocal. If not, no big thing. All of the musicians can see each other to keep things decent, and you can surely all hear each other.

Extreme isolation is not mandatory or even desirable. You can EQ out undesirable bleed if things go bad to some extent. All of this is just for the foundation tracks. After they are down you can build a headphone mix of the foundation and feed it to each person who needs to add a part.

Guerilla recording, I love it.

 

[TommyJ1112]

when you record bass, drums, instrument and scratch vocal at once how do you deal with bleed problems

Another way to approach this (not necissarily better or worse, just different), would be to focus on getting your drum sounds to be the best they can, and then record the other instruments direct. It's fairly common to record the bass direct anyways, same with keyboards. And with an electric guitar, you could record using a POD, or even simply recording a direct signal that feeds an amp simulator like Amplitube 2 or Guitar Rig (assuming latency doesn't become an issue).

You should have no bleed at all.

Now, with that direct guitar track, you could...

1. play around with your amp sims settings and audition different sounds to see how they fit in the mix
2. send that signal back out and re-amp it
3. Just use it as a disposable guide track to play along with once you've tweaked your amps, pedals, & mics/room placement to get the perfect tone you are looking for.

Just another option that might help you, especially if you don't have a lot of physical space to work with. Best of luck!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

In general, I find that the better the musicians, the more likely everybody on both sides of the glass will be happy if rhythm/percussion track(s) go down first. As the experience level of the musicians goes down, the more they may need to gravitate to letting whoever the the relatively best musician play first. Either way it comes down to who can keep the beat the best.

G.

 

[ofajen]

If it were me, I'd start by approaching it much the way Middleman suggests, which is to try to get the drums, bass and rhythm guitar down live in the same room. Except that I probably wouldn't work so hard to avoid bleed and I'd probably close mike most or all the stuff with omni mikes so the bleed won't suck so bad. Probably run the bass direct and record that, too, while I'm at it. I like the sound and feel recording the rhythm tracks live gives you. Try it, you may like it, and it won't take a lot of time, either way!

Have fun!

Otto