Recording the drums last?

[Ronixis]

I'm doing this pretty ambitious EP project with a local metal band. Our plan is to track all the instruments with precisely programmed midi drums and as a final thing replace the programmed drums with the real ones. I can imagine that with bad luck this could go horribly wrong, yet I've also heard some succes stories. The reason we're going to record the drums last is that we want to have the freedom to work on arrangements and songwriting while recording, which wouldn't be that easy with final drums already laid down. I'd describe their music as something like the energy and speed of Lamb of God flavoured with the melody and harmonic complexity of the Still Life era Opeth. Mainly pretty straight forward riffing, so not that much of parts where the guitars or bass would really need the drum groove.

If you guys have any experiences about this kind of work routine, I'd really like to know. Thanks!

 

[JeffTD]

You just have to edit everything to the grid more or less (or be really, really tight musicians in and of yourselves!), but it happens more often than you'd think. Even Taylor Swift has drums recorded last on most stuff.

 

[DanLights]

sounds like you could do preproductions with programmed drums so you can always change anything before laying any final tracks. Of course, if the musicians are good enough you could make the tracks "keepers" instead of just Prepro tracks, but yeah make sure they are on the grid, if not it will sound weird if the drums aren´t locked in and the guitars are

 

[Lon]

sounds like you could do preproductions with programmed drums so you can always change anything before laying any final tracks. Of course, if the musicians are good enough you could make the tracks "keepers" instead of just Prepro tracks, but yeah make sure they are on the grid, if not it will sound weird if the drums aren´t locked in and the guitars are

we did this, of course i slip edited the drums onto the grid after tracking. Worked out great!

 

[Ronixis]

I feel much more confident about doing this now. Thanks for the tips!