Hey guys! It's been awhile since I've contributed here, so i thought I would share a little trick I figured out for getting shitty bands to sound good.
I have only ever had one drummer come into the studio who could track his parts with JUST a click track. I was pumped at the time, but we ran into another common problem: Realizing after all of the instruments are tracked that a verse or chorus is too short for the lyrics to fit.
I've come up with a workflow that allows me to prevent these problems, and expedite the tracking process. Using this method I am able to track a song in an 8 hour session.
What I do first is get the drums set up, and I get the drummer and guitarist to go through the whole song part by part and I figure out the tempo and time signature, program midi drums for the track and get the guitarist to record a scratch guitar track. Then I get the singer to make sure that he can fit all of his vocal lines over the guide track. This process takes about an hour.
Once this is finished I track guitars and bass to the programmed drums. Tracking to the programmed drums gives the guitarist a good time guide which helps them play on time. If you track guitars to sloppy, unedited drums it won't sound as tight. You have to track guitars to the programmed drums for this to work with shitty bands.
I usually track the guitars direct and reamp later. This is much easier on the ears and neighbours than tracking through loud amps, especially if the musicians are sub par. This makes it easier to focus on performance.
If the bass player is like most bass players in underground bands I have the best guitarist play bass.
Next I mute the programmed drums and record real drums to the guitars. If you've ever tried to get a sub par drummer who has never played to a click to record with a click you will understand how important this is lol.
Once you have the song recorded to a tempo track you can slip edit the fuck out of it so that it sounds perfectly in time, and BOOM you have polished a turd. Make sure the band pays you at least $300 per song for doing that shit.
I hope some of you will find this useful
Peace
Liam
I have only ever had one drummer come into the studio who could track his parts with JUST a click track. I was pumped at the time, but we ran into another common problem: Realizing after all of the instruments are tracked that a verse or chorus is too short for the lyrics to fit.
I've come up with a workflow that allows me to prevent these problems, and expedite the tracking process. Using this method I am able to track a song in an 8 hour session.
What I do first is get the drums set up, and I get the drummer and guitarist to go through the whole song part by part and I figure out the tempo and time signature, program midi drums for the track and get the guitarist to record a scratch guitar track. Then I get the singer to make sure that he can fit all of his vocal lines over the guide track. This process takes about an hour.
Once this is finished I track guitars and bass to the programmed drums. Tracking to the programmed drums gives the guitarist a good time guide which helps them play on time. If you track guitars to sloppy, unedited drums it won't sound as tight. You have to track guitars to the programmed drums for this to work with shitty bands.
I usually track the guitars direct and reamp later. This is much easier on the ears and neighbours than tracking through loud amps, especially if the musicians are sub par. This makes it easier to focus on performance.
If the bass player is like most bass players in underground bands I have the best guitarist play bass.
Next I mute the programmed drums and record real drums to the guitars. If you've ever tried to get a sub par drummer who has never played to a click to record with a click you will understand how important this is lol.
Once you have the song recorded to a tempo track you can slip edit the fuck out of it so that it sounds perfectly in time, and BOOM you have polished a turd. Make sure the band pays you at least $300 per song for doing that shit.
I hope some of you will find this useful
Peace
Liam
