Question about tracking (Guitars)

[Loren Littlejohn]

I tend to play straight through and then punch in where needed.

This is what I do around 60% of the time.

 

[scorpio01169]

i can play the songs all the way through, but that it will be 100% free of error i can't grantee
as for playing live, i haven't done that in about 3 years...i never played anything as difficult as what i'm doing now either; a home project with a bud since we're both fed up with local musicians
QUOTE]

i believe theres nothing wrong with a little mistake here and there....makes it more realistic. i understand you want it perfect but then thats what gets alot of these tecky bands in trouble live, is because they are exposed on stage.

 

[Traumor]

when you do that it tends to sound like a mono track, which is why generally it's not done, or the track is altered to make it distinguishable from the other

I have a perhaps related problem. Say I record a guitar part, panned left. Because I want the transition from this part to the next to be more precise, I record the next part separately and then punch the second part right after the first and pan it also left. What winds up happening is this: during the small increment of time where the tracks bleed over one another, the mix is of course out of phase. But when I moved the punched track ahead in time slightly, I instead get a small but noticeable gap in the sound. For some reason I haven't been able to punch it EXACTLY at the right spot or something. This could just be my inexperience, but can anybody relate to this and/or possibly provide a way to fix it? Thank you folks.

 

[James-Doolan]

I have a perhaps related problem. Say I record a guitar part, panned left. Because I want the transition from this part to the next to be more precise, I record the next part separately and then punch the second part right after the first and pan it also left. What winds up happening is this: during the small increment of time where the tracks bleed over one another, the mix is of course out of phase. But when I moved the punched track ahead in time slightly, I instead get a small but noticeable gap in the sound. For some reason I haven't been able to punch it EXACTLY at the right spot or something. This could just be my inexperience, but can anybody relate to this and/or possibly provide a way to fix it? Thank you folks.

I dont get it why would you be moving a punched track? its alredy in the right place.

Any way to get the transitions between punch ins to sound good make sure you play the riff before the punch out right through (i.e. play the start of the next riff even though its not being recorded) and dont stop at the last note just because it punchs out you need this last note to end exactly as if the next note was comming other wise it can sound weird.

Then you can start the next riff either from the click or you can play along with the previous riff and have it auto punch in, do what ever works best for you.

 

[Zuranthus]

aside from what actofvengence said, your DAW might not perform auto-crossfading, which makes the transition sound smooth...if you don't crossfade the two sections you will usually hear a pop or click

 

[Disconnekt]

Crossfading or ascending zero-crossing edits on the end of the first take and the beginning of the punch should take care of it.

 

[Traumor]

Hey thank you folks for the input...I'll give your suggestions a shot. As you can see from my misunderstanding of "punching" I don't have a whole lot of experience, so I thank you for clarifications and advice.

 

[MetalWorks]

I always find that it comes out sounding more natural and fluid to play it all the way through instead of punching it together.

To be honest, if you have to peice it together, you aren't a master of your own song and need to practice more. Definately brings concerns for live playing.

I would say it is completely normal to track as best as possible all the way through and come back for corrections or filling in specific parts to make sure that it is accentuated as best as possible.

But I know people that do every single change in the song riff by riff.

That takes forever. Especially when you have to listen to it back over and over.

As an engineer that becomes SUPER annoying.

I could give a shit about money at that point.

I quickly get tired of hearing the band and feel that they came unprepared.

Thats taking in to consideration that I am working with the band for close to 16 hours counting setup, breaks and all that.

Sometimes I dont take breaks, dont eat, dont shit or piss.

That becomes a long fucking day and I want to see progress so I can finally take a piss and eat a late night Wendys hamburger!