What your process for beginning a recording session?

smck99

As there is not really a right or wrong way to produce/ engineer a session, what would you lay down first?
For example, I would throw down acoustic guitar first and then guide vocals, whereas someone else might lay down one guide track with acoustic, vocals and then acoustic etc. etc.

If you can, please keep it quite general. As, for example i might not be able to set the Threshold on my Avalon VT-737SP to 6! :P

Thanks!

studiorat

depends on the session, but I would of the opinion that, apart from the odd exception, everything you record or attempt to record could be a possible keeper, and approached as such.

DamagedTrax

depends on space available and members in band.

ideally i'd record drums/bass and guitars together with a scratch vocal. then overdubs before the vocals proper.

if space is an issue then drums and bass should be kept together. if the drums and then bass dont go down together there's no way a decent groove will happen..

smck99

sorry for the newbie question but, what do you mean by limited space? If you were recording on a system with limited tracks or disk space?

DamagedTrax

smck99 wrote: »

sorry for the newbie question but, what do you mean by limited space? If you were recording on a system with limited tracks or disk space?

no, i mean room space. if you dont physically have the space you cant record a full band. if you have a large room and some iso booths you can record the band playing together the way a band should. with a good band the groove is in them playing together.

either way works and is used in sessions worldwide but given the choice id prefer to record the band as a whole and overdub after.

if6was9

Since I'm usually recording other people not myself I start with the drums.

Almost always it's the drums playing with a scratch guitar and possibly bass with them in the room with the drummer but using amp sims and headphones. When bands are more prepared and have their heads screwed on they'll come in with a pre recorded scratch guitar and a click track that they're practised with and happy to play along with.

From there it depends on the band whether I do guitar or bass next. It's good to have the bass down before guitar so that the tones slot over each and that you don't dial in too much low end on the guitar to fill the void of the bass when done the other way around.
Often though, bassists aren't the most compentent musicians in the band so mistakes, rough playing and tuning issues are harder to spot when it's just bass and drums so when I feel this is going to be the case I do guitars next.

Then vocals and whatever extra layers need to be added like keys, percussion, extra acoustic instruments etc... This process is always subject to change and dependant on the project and band recording.

The live band recording thing works for some genres, not for others I find. Most metal genres do not benifit from this for example as it's not precise and tight enough. Sure some bands do it but most simply aren't good enough to pull off a live recording and meet the standards of tightness that the listeners have come to expect. Jazz and folk on the other hand are the opposite. Listeners expect a live, improvised and personal experience and if it was all overdubbed the life would be gone from it.

Seziertisch

DamagedTrax wrote: »

if the drums and then bass dont go down together there's no way a decent groove will happen..

That depends on the players involved.

DamagedTrax

addendum: in most cases