how many tracks does your average project take

[Notuern]

Shit you guys use alot of tracks!
I used 16 tracks when we recorded our bands song(No vocals though.).

 

[006]

Current black metal project is 57 tracks including aux sends and groups (busses). I will have a few more since they have synths and acoustic guitar to thrown in as well.

~006

 

[beyond dead]

probably
vocals: 10
bass: 2
drums: 12
guitar: 8-20
keys/synths/inst.: 3-10
that including synths and shit
I try to keep it simple
probably a max of 60 - 70 tracks.

 

[MetalWorks]

Holly shit you guys.

I have:

1 Master Bus
2-3 Vocal Tracks including Aux bus for effects etc
1-2 Bass
4 Guitars, 6 if capturing DI
2 Lead Guitar Tracks
1 Kick
1 Snare
1 Aux for Kick and Snare
3-4 Toms
2 Overheads
1 Highhat
1 Ride
1 or 2 Cymbal Mics if at all
1 for 808 if used
1 for Samples if used

Thats 28 at most.

And on average around 20.

I sure would like to see a screenshot of your 80 Lasse.

I have alot of tricks of the trade to learn but I can't imagine what I would do with 60 more tracks.

 

[Rex Rocker]

oh my... you guys make me realize how much of a recording n00b I am...

I'm usually running around 10-15, 20 tracks at most, if you don't count each track on Addictive Drums as an individual track. 2 for rythm guitars, 1 for bass, a couple for leads/overdubs/other guitars, all of those, but pre-reamping too. Around 5 or 6 for vocals and VERY few for synths/midi instruments. Those and the drums.

 

[Skinny Viking]

I'm in PTLE so for mixdown no more than 32 tracks plus aux tracks. When actually recording it may go up to like 48 but only as I'm working on getting everything for an instrument ... ie- I might have 6 seperate lead guitar tracks but I'll break 'em down to no more than 4 if its dual guitar leads with harmonized sections etc...

same with vocals ... might have something like 12 vocal tracks but usually no more than 4-6 during a mixdown

so my standard setup is usually:

2 - OHs
1 - Kick
2 - Snare
1 - Hats
1 - Ride
3 or 4 - Toms
1 - Drum aux (2 if doing parallel comp)
2 or 4 - Rhythm Guitars
1 - R Guitar Aux
2 to 4 - Leads
1 - Lead Guitar Aux
2 - Melody, clean, misc guitars
1 - Misc Guitar Aux
1 or 2 - Bass
1 - Bass Aux
3 to 6 - Vocals
1 - Vocal Aux

Whatever is left over is for keyboards, random sound effects, etc ...
and an Aux for those keyboards

 

[nwright]

I usually hover anywhere from 30-60 for everything.

I've never done bands with elaborate arrangements or instrumentation, and I don't track guitars seperate for each part of the song. Even if it's punched in and stuff, it's always to the same track.

The only time I don't do this is when comping solos or vocals, when having a plethora of takes allows for more selection.

 

[Machinated]

My count shoots up when I'm adding in extra lead guitars, building up clean sections, adding synths and other stuff like that.

Also, I love A LOT of vocal tracks.

 

[006]

It just ends up being a lot. I don't think it has anything to do with experience really, it's just that I add a track because I need it. Usually each project I will have set up before we begin with an estimated amount of tracks for everything. I have everything in a folder track and also all of the group tracks set up and routed ahead of time. But once the band gets there it can turn into a slew of more tracks. I usually have two tracks for every track of guitars I will eventually have. So like this current project I had them just double track, which is only two tracks of guitars...but I had 4 tracks for guitar set up so that they can "punch in", and it makes it easier on me. I do the same for bass guitar. Two tracks for bass, eventually bounced into one track. Also, I have each side of guitar going to it's own bus, since there are literally two tracks per side (two physical tracks, but only "one" performance) I bus them and pan the bus hard left or right. This way I can apply eq, etc. to one single track instead of two. Then both the left and right guitar busses go to a stereo bus where I apply EQ or anything else to both sides on one track, again instead of doing it on each individual track. Same thing with the bass, except there is no panning. With vocals I have the same thing going on. The reason I use two tracks for one is because I prefer it like that to make editing the punches a lot easier for the way I work. And like I said, once the band comes in, more tracks are bound to be added, such as an extra two-four for acoustic stuff they did not tell me about before hand, etc.

Also, I recorded a pretty artsy/ambient/jam type of band (like Pink Floyd on acid...well, more acid haha) where we ended up having over 130 tracks total, not including all of the busses going on.

~006

 

[Sloan]

I've been doing mostly live recordings the past year and usually just have about 16 tracks. When I add reverb sends and parallel compression sends, then i get around 20 tracks.
my computer is olden and can barely handle that shit.

 

[Noumenon]

hm. from the top of my head:
superior (kick-, snare-, hihat-, toms-, oh- & amb-tracks) - 6 tracks
bas (line & guitar amp. line is sent to two auxes then a group bus) - 5 tracks
rhythm guitars (two guitars + di, then bus) - 5 tracks
clean guitars (same as above) - 5 tracks
lead guitars (three guitars + di, then bus) - 7 tracks
lead vox (three tracks + bus) - 4 tracks
back vox (three tracks + bus) - 4 tracks
synth/samples (zero to four tracks, might be more; depends on the track) - 2 tracks
metronome - 1 track
paracomp - 1 track
delay - 1 track
reverb - 1 track
master - 1 track

adds up to 43 tracks :O omg.

 

[Cacoph0ny]

Why do you guys have 2-3 tracks for Bass?

 

[006]

For me, I have 2 to begin with for the tracking stage. This makes it easier to punch in than trying to punch in the middle of a part and then edit it to sound normal. Instead, I have them play along to the part before they have to punch in, and then keep going. This way, I can edit it much easier and it sounds a lot more natural. Eventually, those two tracks get bounced into one track, which I then duplicate. I take the copy and run it through a distortion of some kind, either plug-in or hardware (pedal, and then back into the interface...kinda like reamping) and also high pass the hell out of it, then low pass the original un-distorted track. Then I have two tracks of bass, one a natural sound, the other being distorted. From there I blend them together and have both going to a bus where I can compress/limit and EQ both at the same time, and adjust the level of their mix with the rest of the instruments.

~006

 

[Temps]

Wow this was a really helpful thread... never thought about doubling up on tracks for the same guitar part and using the two tracks to punch in and out. I always try and do it on the same one in Cubase and that is just always a total mess. I also see where you are getting these track counts from now with all the DI tracks and that... nice good thread

 

[-Noodles-]

I'm probably kicking 35 audio tracks, and then around the 10 bus / aux number.


I like to keep it minimalist, but yet not simple.

 

[seditz740novaprospect]

For me, I have 2 to begin with for the tracking stage. This makes it easier to punch in than trying to punch in the middle of a part and then edit it to sound normal. Instead, I have them play along to the part before they have to punch in, and then keep going. This way, I can edit it much easier and it sounds a lot more natural. Eventually, those two tracks get bounced into one track, which I then duplicate. I take the copy and run it through a distortion of some kind, either plug-in or hardware (pedal, and then back into the interface...kinda like reamping) and also high pass the hell out of it, then low pass the original un-distorted track. Then I have two tracks of bass, one a natural sound, the other being distorted. From there I blend them together and have both going to a bus where I can compress/limit and EQ both at the same time, and adjust the level of their mix with the rest of the instruments.

~006

explains how i pretty much work right here as well ,except have 3 tracks during tracking for each take , di/ 2 mics

 

[Noumenon]

Why do you guys have 2-3 tracks for Bass?

I record one DI signal and one from my guitar amp (later high passed at 200hz), then in logic I send the DI signal to two auxes, one adds ampeg svx on it (high passed at 200hz) and the other is just lowpassed a 200hz. So it's basically three tracks, DI, amp and guitar amp, but logic doesn't have post send inserts, that's why I use up one more aux.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Why do you guys have 2-3 tracks for Bass?

DI and mic. The project I just did had 4 because there were slap parts as well as pick parts and the transition would have been way to sloppy.

 

[Torniojaws]

Why do you guys have 2-3 tracks for Bass?

One single performance copypasted, and the first track has a low pass filter at around 350 Hz. That track makes the basis of the low frequencies and is kept clean of distortion.

The second track has a high pass filter at around 600 Hz or so, and it will have a very rough distortion on it. It creates the clarity and attack of the bass sound, and also mixed so that it's balanced with the low bass track so that it sounds like one instrument and not disconnected.

Sometimes I leave a third unprocessed DI signal there just for weight, however this is rare.

 

[joeymusicguy]

i have had 220 ish before... i usually have quite a few because automation is unreliable on my end. it never wants to work correctly. so i usually bounce down everything, including any vst's. need reverb on one small part? it gets its own track. thats just my work flow. when i hit play, i want solid audio, no DSP.