Writing Instrumentals with Sonar?

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Inspired

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How do you guys go about recording an instrumental piece on SONAR? I'm using drum loops, so this is logically the first thing I would start with, correct? Would you then lay down a bass track...then a rythmn guitar track...then the lead guitar, in this order? I'm just curious as to the various methods out there.
 
I never start doing anything in Sonar until I have chords and melody mostly worked out. I think a big part of the reason so many folks have 1000 half finished songs is because it's so easy these days to put the cart before the horse when it comes to recording. Your creative songwriting gets buried by your creative recording. You end up with a bunch of well produced, guitar layered, vocal harmonized, chorused, flanged, sufflayed and delayed, but unfinished songs.

Better IMO to have the song mostly worked out before going to the DAW. THen, once you are ready to begin recording, work fast. Get your ideas in place and work quickly, without worrying too much about setting levels or getting the best tones or performances. Just get your ideas fixed in Sonar.

At this point you can finally hear your song as a whole and finish your songwriting decisions: should the intro be shorter? Should there be two verses before the first chorus or only one? Should the solo be eight bars or only four? Working quickly like this frees you up to start pushing things around, copying and pasting sections, shortening or lenghtening things until the song is right without haveing to worry that you are ruining that "perfect take" or "voodoo tone" or "awesome production" that you spent 3 hours working on. It enables you to make the best decisions for the song, without being strangled or swayed by production decisions.

Only once the song is written should you start recording keeper tracks, becuase at this point you are free to make creative production decisions without having to worry about songwriting decisions.

I know loops make certain things easy and a lot of folks like to use them, but in general it's pretty easy to tell when songs have been written around loops. I say, write your song first.... then record it.

A
 
Not the best forum to ask this question, Inspired, which is why Aaron wrote the answer he did (my reading of your post is that you're talking about recording an already written song).

Anyway, if you are using drum loops then you have no choice but to put them down first, they will give you the tempo and trying to put them in later will be virtually impossible, although you might get away with swapping a few loops around if you feel that would fit better with your completed piece.

As for the rest of it, it's very common to do it in the order you describe, but you might find, for example, that after getting a guitar part down you need to go back and record a different bass part. My approach is to get guide tracks for everything in, so we can hear how they all fit together, and only then to go back part by part to record keepers.

I always do the final bass part last, but that's just 'cos it's my bass and my PC and I can ;) (and need to.....)
 
Great point. Your logic makes perfect sense.

I'm new to the world of home recording, and consider myself long overdue at putting my music on CD. My problem with not having any complete songs doesn't stem from the recording process though. I'm an exception to that. My problem is that I have a thousand pieces and ideas for songs, but none of them are pieced together completely to make a SONG in the first place! They're like all the pieces of a puzzle scattered all over the floor. I've often thought that computer recording could help me solve this problem. I could then lay down the parts I know I want, and work from there. The computer desktop would be like my puzzle board.

I definitely agree that one should record promptly and not worry about production issues during this. I'm definitely taking all your advice to heart.
 
I share Aaron's views, but ours is only one way of looking at it. I've read about plenty of famous songs that came together in the recording studio in the sort of way that you describe, and if using Sonar as a sketchpad will let you get something finished, then go for it. Not as if it costs anything to try :)
 
I also have lots of ideas languishing around waiting to be arranged. I discovered years ago that a drum machine was the best tool at my disposal for arranging a song from the first measure to the last. That's because it's nearly impossible (at least, for me) to retrofit a drum track to previously recorded tracks.

Once the song is arranged and the drum pattern set and tracked, I usually record the guitar next since the initial ideas are born there. Only then do I even think about bass lines. But I suppose it doesn't matter what order you record (after drums) as long as you are thoroughly familiar with what you intend to play.
 
I can understand and appreciate all different methods to writing songs. I just tend to be the kind that has a real hard time making anything concrete in my songwriting. I'm always thinking, "I can come up with something better." I really think recording will help me "set something in stone", so to speak.
 
Garry Sharp said:
...if using Sonar as a sketchpad will let you get something finished, then go for it.
Click to expand...

Funny you should choose those words. There's a chapter in my book entitled "The Audio Sketchpad" that basically elaborates on what I talked about in the above post.... working fast and fleshing out the basics before putting in the detail.... just like an illustrator drawing a picture.

A
 
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