One man show: recording process?

[ankursamtaney]

Hey guys,
I've asked a lot of question on this forum that were solely to understand concepts, ideas, etc. This time, it's actually to do something myself.

Plan to lay down the music for a track that someone else will sing on once all the music is done. Have no idea where to start. In the past, I've tried recording all the music -- guitar, bass, keyboards, leads, etc (with or without a simple 4/4 beat for reference - metronome or MIDI), and adding drums last of all. Always ended up scrapping the drums coz it was awfully difficult getting every beat alligned absolutely accurately with the bass, guitar strum, the start of a chord on the keys, etc. Also, I'm sure i lost some of my hearing in the process, coz they audio had to be LOUD in my headphones, so i knew what exactly i was drumming to.

I've read from many people that they lay down the drums first. How do you do this? I mean, I'm not 100% sure of the 'architecture' (for the lack of a better word) of the song yet. Not sure how long a lead I'll have, how many bars of a break between verses, where I'd like a solid drum fill to add some energy into the track or move into the chorus (hell, i don't even know at which bar the chorus will come in, 'cos i'm not sure of how long the intro will be, how much gap between verses, etc)..

I usually plan all these things as i play the guitar after hitting record (which almost always happens to be my first track), depending on my mood and how things are sounding in my headphones. Obviously I need more planning, but do i literally need to structure the track to an extent of knowing how many bars the whole song is, how many bars of intro, how many bars break between versus, how many for the lead, etc etc.?

Is there a standard way of doing this? Any way that's more right or wrong than any other way?

[tylerxfury]

from personal experience, its much easier to layer in the order of: drums, rhythm guitar, bass, lead, then keys/extras, then vocals
usually in the case of one man band, your options are pretty limited
indeed a set structure needs to be established before you hit record on anything, however the exact counts and notes can vary
the other option is to record the parts youre unsure of with a scratch track and then go back and replace or have a friend come click that punch in/out button so you can fix what you need to
if anyone else has good suggestions, im actually quite interested to hear them
best of luck in your projects

[jjb]

I tend to either use a scratch track or, more often, record rhythm guitar first with a click. Next comes the drums, followed by the bass (like to do the bass after the drums so I can counterpoint the bass and not play over the kick, etc.). Then comes the vocals and, finally, the other orchestration (keyboard, horns, etc.). Once its all down, I usually am dissatisfied with one or more tracks, so I re-do them. I usually have about 10 to 20 tracks per song and, if I get away with recording/re-recording 20 to 30 tracks, I consider myself lucky!

jjb

[Bigduggieface]

Great comments and I'd agree with all that has been said so far. I do a lot of one-man-band recordings of my own.

Organization is the absolute key. It's pretty difficult to consistently improvise along with yourself from scratch, so you need to create a compositional structure and stick to it.

For me, I compose the entire song structure in advance. I think in terms of frameworks, or skeletal structure, and don't worry about the superficial details too much.

I usually set up a click track, and record a scratch guitar that plays through the entirety of the song I've composed and written on paper. Next, I'd add the drums. This is the basis for all overdubs.

Next, I'd remove the click and I'd use the drums and guitar as a foundation to add all subsequent parts.

All of these comments are subjective and there are no hard rules.

[bozmillar]

I'm not saying that this is a better method by any means, but I tend to write the song as I record it. I'll record different parts and them paste them together and add fillers until I'm either done or bored with the song.

Then I go back and retrack everything. So basically, I record everything twice, once to hear what it all sounds like together, and once to get my takes right.

For me, it helps me to visualize what the song will sound like before I spend hours trying to get the perfect takes.

[Bigduggieface]

Originally Posted by bozmillar

So basically, I record everything twice, once to hear what it all sounds like together, and once to get my takes right.

For me, it helps me to visualize what the song will sound like before I spend hours trying to get the perfect takes.

This is the very definition of a demo.

We piece together a patchwork of ideas, then redo the orginal ideas in order to acheive a final performance based on the developmental scratch ideas laid down in the demo.

I think demos are an absolute necessity. Almost nobody creates a successful recording de novo on their first attempt. This flexibility is directly due to the advent of multitrack technology. And it's getting more powerful and more inexpensive every day. Wooo Hoooo!

[paul999]

I record song demo's as many as 4 or 5 times before laying my own origional's down.

[ankursamtaney]

Great. What I picked up so far is that it's not wrong to do a rhythm guitar track first and then lay down the drums on that. One question on this very thing: How on earth do you listen to the guitar while playing the drums? I use my DJ headphones - the Technics RPDJ1210 (i think), coz those provide the most isolation as compared to anything else I've used so far, but I still need to play the guitar track at a deafening level in order to be able to record the drums correctly; otherwise, one hit on a crash, and I've lost the guitar track till the crash dies out. This sounds a lot more confusing in words than it did in my head, but hope you got what i mean. Thanks.

[paul999]

Play with a click and use in ear head phones to really block out the drums. That is what I do.

[bozmillar]

I use the vic firth headphones Buy Vic Firth SIH1 Isolation Headphones | Noise Canceling Headphones | Musician's Friend to block out sound when playing drums. Stick in some earplugs underneath those and you have all the ear protection you'd ever need.

As for when to record the drums, most people find it easy to record drums first because it's normally the drummer's job to keep the tempo, not to follow it. It becomes really hard to try to match drumming to a rhythm guitar that is slightly off. I think it's just more natural and easier for everyone involved to let the drums keep the beat, which usually means recording them first.