What order should we record in?

[g1xster]

Hey all - awesome site, my 1st post. I'm here because our 3 piece is going through the learning pains of recording. We're stumbling over our varied ideas and opinions, none of which are based on very much experience. If we're going to record bass, drums, vocals and guitar separately, what order would be best and why? Also, do we need and want a scratch track and should we all be on it? Thanks in advance! -The G1xster

 

[Rokket]

Hey all - awesome site, my 1st post. I'm here because our 3 piece is going through the learning pains of recording. We're stumbling over our varied ideas and opinions, none of which are based on very much experience. If we're going to record bass, drums, vocals and guitar separately, what order would be best and why? Also, do we need and want a scratch track and should we all be on it? Thanks in advance! -The G1xster

Most will tell you to record the drums first, so that the rest of your tracks will have the proper timing. This can be done several ways:
1. Record the drummer to a click track.
2. Record the drummer playing with the group, but only record the drums (requires isolation of the drums or mic bleed will be a serious issue)
3. Record everyone at the same time, and the rest of the instruments will be scratch tracks (you can save the "keepers"). This method will also require a bit of isolation to avoid mic bleed).
4. Do it old school and record everyone in the same room, at the same time, gives you a live jam feel. Mic bleed will not be as much of an issue, but you will lose a lot of control over the final mix.

Good luck with it...

 

[Rokket]

Oh, and welcome to the board!

 

[KeithCF]

Recording

I'm sure you'll get lots of responses on your question from people a lot more experienced than me. That said, my opinion would be to record everyone instrumentally at the same time if you can. Then you can overdub vocals and guitar parts later. You'll want to sing a scratch vocal track when you lay down your instrumental tracks too so everyone knows where they are in the song. I'd suggest actually recording the scratch track if you have room cause sometimes those scratch vocals can be gems (yeah -- if you're singing with the band you'll get bleed into your vox mic but you might get a great take and wish you'd recorded it).

If you can't record everyone at the same time.....can you at least play together while recording each instrument separately? In this scenario, I'd do drums first, then bass, then guitars, then vox. Lay down the foundation first of drums and bass and build on that. I don't have a great rationale for doing guitar before vox, but that's how I've done it in the studio and it works well.

Also, have your drummer play to a click track. Have he/she practice to a click if they haven't played to one before so they get used the feel of it before recording. It's not hard, but does take practice.

Im doing a project where the singer/songwriter created a drum MIDI part and we're tracking everything to that, then I'm recording the drums last. It's not an approach I'd recommend to anyone -- no one creates the "groove" for the song, and as a result the songs lack character and soul.

Hope you learn a lot here -- I have!

Keith

 

[shiatzu]

or conversely, get a guitar practice amp w/ a headphone output. get a splitter and 2 pairs of headphones and have the guitarist play along with the drums so at least he'll have an easier time putting down the track. Don't even bother trying to record the guitar at that stage.

 

[g1xster]

Hey thanks! We did try the all at once approach and didn't get the quality we'd like to have. But at the same time, we used minimal mic'ing and our space is super tiny. With more room and the right mic approach, could we get decent results doing it "live"?

 

[g1xster]

Whoa. 2 more replies while I'm writing the last one. You guys are good. More info - I'm the drummer. Some of our tunes have tempo changes, so we'd have to program the click track to each song first. That may take weeks for us neubs to sort out...I think our best bet may be to see what we can do "live", but I don't think we can adjust the levels for the final mix as well? If anything, I'm thinking we have to be able to do vocals separately.?.

 

[AlexW]

Yep, do the vocals separately so they're not blaring out over a PA or something. Monitor over headphones if you can. Also run the bass guitar direct into your recorder--this will eliminate a significant source of bleed and low frequency buildup in your drum mics. A few gobos/blockers around the guitar amps can help somewhat. The best setup is to get the guitar amps in a separate room, mic them, and have everyone wear headphones for monitoring. Depending on your room/setup this may or may not be possible.