How do you track guitars

[HandsOfDespair]

Riff by riffs?

Or you let the guitarist play the whole song a couple of times then you do some comping/edit?

 

[muckypup1]

I do it riff by riff

 

[professorlamp]

Whole song, keeps the live feel a bit more, but im not doing tight mechanic stuff.

 

[ahjteam]

more like section by section.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

more like section by section.

Yeah thats what I wanted to say, should have written section instead of riff.

 

[Ermz]

Lots and lots, and lots, and lots..... and lots..... and a really freakin lot of punch-ins. Saying 'riff by riff' would imply that we don't punch in every 2 or 3 notes, which would be misleading.

Then some editing.

 

[muckypup1]

Yeah thats what I wanted to say, should have written section instead of riff.

Thats what I meant when I said riff by riff, more like verse, then chorus, then breakdown

 

[Seth Munson]

to be honest. i actually do it riff by riff.

record one guitar, then record the second guitar in the riff, then edit, then copy and paste throughout the song.

then onto the different riff.

 

[greyskull]

i tend to try and do it section by section.
Cutting and pasting is not allowed. (unless you REALLY suck)
I can tell the difference.

 

[jipchen]

riff by riff.
I only keep perfect takes, having 4 or 5 one-take-tracks of a song and then looking for at least one perfect take takes hours and sounds shit.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Come on, if you've got a chorus, then a chorus 30 seconds later, then a chorus another 30 seconds later, etc. if it's played tightly once, how could anyone possibly say they could tell the difference between copy/pasting and re-recording it to the same standard of tightness? Obviously variety is good, changing notes up here and there, but that's where punch-in's come in Copy-pasta ftw!

EDIT: However, after reading Carlos' post beneath mine, I realize I should add that I pretty much always work with programmed drums, which I guess makes something of a difference

 

[Skinny Viking]

section by section here and 99% never copy and paste. Reason being that I never have copy/pasted drum sections. Even when recorded to a click I edit drums within their own sections to help keep more of a natural feel so there's a good chance one verse section may be pushed a little more than another ... that being the case pasting a guitar section over the next repeated part probably won't line up with the drums. Besides, not that I'm "The Man" or anything but I'll fly through tracking the sections of my own songs a lot faster than trying to paste parts in, even when quad tracking

 

[JeffTD]

My immediate answer to the question was gonna be "super fucking tightly."


Section by section, only copy-pasting if the drums are the same (same riff with snare on 2 and 4 will 'feel' very different over a snare on 3 beat). This means most choruses get copy/pasted, as do most verses, but things do change up depending on the drums.

When I'm tracking myself, I play every riff at least twice through, and I only edit for silences/stops.

 

[53Crëw]

As much as possible, I like one continuous take for each section. I try to avoid copy/paste, too.

 

[dmmi]

I loop a section to be recorded with a drum loop for timing. Turn on layers then record the same section within the loop over and over. Once done I have a bunch individual recordings of the section all individually soloable. I then create 2 more audio tracks and copy all of the layers to the new tracks (i use a track template for this to quickly bring up a new audio track with identical Fx etc).

Then I pan one left, one right, and one center. Then I go through and solo the individual layers with each other to get the tightest 2 layers for double tracking, then go on to find the tightest for the center beef track (what I call it anyway).

Then I delete the remaining layers (not totally gone out of audio folder in case I want later). Then add my cross fades with the previous section.

Then repeat.

This method really cuts down time when trying to find the tightest double/triple/quad tracked performances. With all the layers there, you can easily pick out a different take for identical parts of the song.....eg verse/chorus/verse/chorus type thing.

 

[cloy26]

note by note.

 

[dmmi]

note by note.

I know thats a joke......but it got me thinking.

What if someone tracked 3 takes for all notes of a power chord (R, 5, O)?

Anyone tried that?

 

[Seth Munson]

i should add, when im recording myself playing. i usually go through the song twice then do punch ins. only because i know my playing style and i know i can play the parts tightly.

but i dont ever have time to record myself anymore.
im always recording some other band and they usually arent that great. and they dont have the money or time to sit there to record each part again and again. thats why i pretty much copy and paste as much as i can, to save time so i can get onto the next project im working on.

 

[shred101]

Totally depends on the song and the player(s)... I reaaally love to play the whole thing super tightly in one take but I think theres a threshold where you need editing and punches... I cant imagine getting through some of my stuff in one take to the standard im after with no punches or editing but at the same time for the simpler stuff then theres just no point. It ruins the vibe for some stuff completely.
I prefer punches to copy n pasting any day because it sounds more natural..
Maybe its just me but I kind of have this expectation of myself and other musicians to be able to play what you track so...

What if someone tracked 3 takes for all notes of a power chord (R, 5, O)?

Anyone tried that?

I may do kinda like a death metal symphony. I really like counterpoint anyway but I don't get much of an opportunity for it in a lot of stuff...

 

[cloy26]

I know thats a joke......but it got me thinking.

What if someone tracked 3 takes for all notes of a power chord (R, 5, O)?

Anyone tried that?

it as only half joke.

The band I just did was bad. Really bad. I would record say a regular chugging riff, you know the typical metalcore, but they were incredibly weak, so the non-chug notes wouldn't come through. So I would punch in the melody notes one by one.