hey guys. i was wondering how you guys go about tracking or building up to get to your mixing/mastering stage. This is normally what i do. Feel free to critique or give ur own methods or ideas. blah.
I normally track drums first. WHILE tracking drums, i have the guitarist(s) play the rhythm guitar parts as scratch tracks. I do this because i personally feel like it would be easier to mix my drums this way i know (to an extent) what the guitars are going to sound like, and can mix the drums accordingly.
Next, once i feel that the drums are passed the "temporary" mixing stage, i start tracking rhythm guitars. I mix them as much as i can, considering i have no bass in my project yet.
Then once i get my main guitars recorded and mixed as much as possible, then i track bass. I will mix the bass as if im strengthening the relationship between the bass and the already mixed rhythm guitars. often times i will solo the guitar bus and bass bus to make changes that are not being manipulated by the drum sound.
Then once i feel that i have a strong bass/guitar relationship, i SOLO the guitar bus and focus on the bass and drums. I mix it completely and i get a nice thick balanced low end.
Once im finished getting the low-end vibe i'm looking for, i go back to the rhythm guitars, and i tweak it to relate with the bass and drums once again.
once i have the drums,bass,rhythm guitars tracked and mixed, i tweak the drums once more (very little), then move onto lead guitars.
Then after everything is tracked and mixed (and its what i want it to sound like) then i will most likely export the full instrumental, then import it into new project. in the new project, i will track vocals.
Am i missing something? is this technique "weird" i feel most comfortable when mixing and tracking like this, and often times results in better results than if i didn't follow this method. How do you guys track and mix? how do you approach your mix? Any recommendations that will make my mixing stages easier?
thanks guys
I normally track drums first. WHILE tracking drums, i have the guitarist(s) play the rhythm guitar parts as scratch tracks. I do this because i personally feel like it would be easier to mix my drums this way i know (to an extent) what the guitars are going to sound like, and can mix the drums accordingly.
Next, once i feel that the drums are passed the "temporary" mixing stage, i start tracking rhythm guitars. I mix them as much as i can, considering i have no bass in my project yet.
Then once i get my main guitars recorded and mixed as much as possible, then i track bass. I will mix the bass as if im strengthening the relationship between the bass and the already mixed rhythm guitars. often times i will solo the guitar bus and bass bus to make changes that are not being manipulated by the drum sound.
Then once i feel that i have a strong bass/guitar relationship, i SOLO the guitar bus and focus on the bass and drums. I mix it completely and i get a nice thick balanced low end.
Once im finished getting the low-end vibe i'm looking for, i go back to the rhythm guitars, and i tweak it to relate with the bass and drums once again.
once i have the drums,bass,rhythm guitars tracked and mixed, i tweak the drums once more (very little), then move onto lead guitars.
Then after everything is tracked and mixed (and its what i want it to sound like) then i will most likely export the full instrumental, then import it into new project. in the new project, i will track vocals.
Am i missing something? is this technique "weird" i feel most comfortable when mixing and tracking like this, and often times results in better results than if i didn't follow this method. How do you guys track and mix? how do you approach your mix? Any recommendations that will make my mixing stages easier?
thanks guys
