Tracking tips

[Zydrus]

I'm curious how you guys go about tracking. I'm gonna take drums out of it because right now I use EZ drummer so I don't have to worry about tracking drums. But in general how do you track guitars, bass, and vocals? Do you track the entire song 5-6 or a certain number of times then cut those up to make one good take. Do you break the song up into sections and do one take, then go back and punch in any parts that need it? Does it really matter what approach you take to tracking as long as you get the result you are looking for?

Generally what I do now is break the song up (Intro, Verse, Chorus, etc) and try and nail each section. I just keep deleting and re-recording till I get a good take. Then I'll listen and go back and punch in and out any part that needs it. But I'm starting to feel this takes some of soul out of it. Maybe not my technique of it but just trying to get everything exactly perfect.

 

[TimOBrien]

It all comes down to whatever gets you the best performance.
You need to experiment and find out what works best for YOU.

 

[Jessica_X]

Well I'm new to this too but this is what I usually do: (After I have lyrics, melody and chord changes done.) I program the drums and then the bass guitar for the first verse. Then I record/program the rest of the instruments for the first verse. Then I move on to the chorus. I think of it as "arranging" really rather than recording and just get the rough idea down. I want do to the creative "writing" part first, as a separate step. Then I'll go back and clean things up or rerecord. When I have the music as perfect as I can get it, then I start recording the vocals. (Usually I have a melody placeholder using a keyboard or something to write the other music around.)

 

[snatchman]

If you happen to have the chops good enough to play through the song completely, this seems to give a natural ' flow" to the song, taking in consideration you know the arrangements of the song already..(IME)..If you're not completely sure of the arrangements/not a competant player, writing in sections helps..I really miss the days I could bring in a whole band and record everything at once tho.Good luck..

 

[MrWrenchey]

If you happen to have the chops good enough to play through the song completely, this seems to give a natural ' flow" to the song, taking in consideration you know the arrangements of the song already..(IME)..If you're not completely sure of the arrangements/not a competant player, writing in sections helps..I really miss the days I could bring in a whole band and record everything at once tho.Good luck..

Yeah that's what I do. I mean, usually you just write a song that you can play, right? xD

 

[Dogbreath]

..... trying to get everything exactly perfect.

don't.

I used to spend all sorts of time on songs, getting shit as close to perfect as I could til one day I looked at a counter of how many listens my songs were getting and the one that I spent a total of 3 days on was getting way more listens than all of the others.
Lyrics, drums, bass, 4 guitar parts, lead and BU vocals....3 days.

Basically what that told me was it's about the performance.

If you've got a groove going, roll widdit. Don't sweat small shit. Most people won't know, or care, about small mistakes in playing as long as it's not stupid.

Basically, these days I'll lay down a basic beat to jam to, do a scratch rhythm guitar, then a bass and a real rhythm. From there, who knows?
I stopped being all orderly n shit.
It's more fun to just play and keep it light. Better performance comes thru too.

 

[mjbphotos]

A lot depends on the type of music, too. Ambient/electronica can easily be done in pieces. Other types of music need to flow from one section to the next and don't necessarly work when done in pieces.
If you can't play the whole song in 1 take on a particular instrument, practice practice practice before recording.

 

[grimtraveller]

Quite simply, there are a number of markedly different ways of tracking a song and they are all excellent and once put together and mixed, very few people could tell how it was put together unless it sounds rather clunky and put together.
So much is dependent on your particular circumstances, the kind of genre, the actual mechanics of the song, how many people are going to be playing on it and their availability, the instruments, the overall arrangement.......and as such you may well find that each song, while having similar elements and processes will have differences in how you track.
I record in all kinds of ways. I'm fortunate to have friends that help out sometimes with instruments and singing and being housewives, students, working people, people that live in different countries etc, I'm subject to their availability. For example, in 2012, my mate Ray was over for a few months from Zambia and over a two month period, I got him to track about 25 songs as I like his drumming. Some of the songs we just played straight through. Some of the long ones we recorded in sections. Some of the ones with slightly complicated changes we did in sections {I was usually on bass, sometimes guitar}. If we had had time, we could have spent hours rehearsing but years ago, I got out of that because time just isn't there. I'm a hobbyist and endless rehearsals ain't it for me ! Been there, done that, never going back there again.
When I've written a song, I work it out in such a way that the thing can be played and recorded on bass or guitar, even if there will be no bass or guitar in the song. True, whoever is playing drums or percussion on the initial tracking can't hear the song in it's understandable form but as long as I know where all the points are, that's something they have to live with. I generally will show the kind of feel I want, with any specifics and we'll play through a few times just to mesh then we'll record till it's satisfactory. I don't think any particular way takes the soul out. For the last 50 years, that's how the majority of songs have been recorded. Part of the skill actually, is in keeping the illusion going, however you track. So if I'm recording in sections, we'll do each section until we're happy then move on. Once it's all put together, even God would have a hard time telling where the joins are {unless I told him !}.
Once I have the basic outline, that's when other instruments or voices can get added. That could take a week or a year. I haven't always written other parts before getting the bare bones down.
Some songs come together far quicker than others.