Guitar players or musicians: when you record do you lay down your guitar track first and then drums etc?

Question

what is your method for recording!!

i usually make a drum track then record it to but this way is making me frustrated.

Answer 1

Whenever we recorded, we would lay a really simple drum track similar to the beat you want at the end.  

Loop it and record guitar and vocals over that (or whatever your main melody/rhythm instrument will be, ie piano, guitar, flute lol).

After you have the heart of the song recorded, go back and rerecord your final drum track and whatever other tracks you need, in whatever order you prefer.

This worked well for us. Your welcome to hear a sample of our work at the link below.  

Answer 2

I dont record but the easiest thing to do would be lay down the drums first so the guitar player could keep on beat

Answer 3

Everone has different ways of tracking drums & guitars...

From my own Solo CDs.  Here's a real example. For my song "Warrior heart"...I recorded the first acoustic guitar part first in 2005 in a different studio. That is track #1

Then 3 months later in 2nd studio...I recorded the Drums ( track # 2 )  , Vocals  (track # 3) , Bass ( track # 4)  and electric guitar solos  ( track #5) on top of track # 1.

Then, later in another studio...I had the mixing & editing done to that song like 6 months later.

So, I did the guitars first....then I recorded the drums 2nd, then the vocals, then the bass...then last the guitar solos.  That song took me a long time to finally complete because I used 3 different recording studios to finish it.  You can hear that song on my Myspace page...

I'm a drummer and I recorded the drum tracks second. Everyone around me told me to record the drums FIRST.  I couldnt do that because on my songs...the drums are not the foundation...the rythym guitars are. I use the rythym guitar riffs as the driving main engine on my songs.  I always start with the rythtm guitars FIRST....and then build other tracks on top of that track to complete the song.

You can try this method and see how it goes for you. It might work or it might not...but you'll really have to experiment more to find your own perosnal tracking method. I paid other Pro Recording Engineers to track the songs.  I only played the all instuments. I didn't track, mix or edit my songs at all. Hope this helps and good luck

Answer 4

I lay down scratch of everything first. I usually will put down a pre-programmed drum track, write out a bass line (or cut a scratch with a bass myself if I can't get that certain mojo with a midi bass), then a quick guitar track that is on-time but not perfect, finally the best vocals I can muster.

Then instrument by instrument, in the same order, starting with drums, I go back and recut each instrument. That way I don't need the whole band there at once, but there's still a full framework of a song to listen to for cues, etc.

If you are recording into a computer, then make sure you have taken every step to reduce latency as much as possible. Run no other programs, disconnect from the internet, defrag your hard drive, turn off any auto-defrag software, turn off your antivirus, etc (make sure you're disconnected from the internet physically, and have already done a scan of your system to make sure its clean). If you have Vista, disable Superfetch. Finally, use ASIO drivers if at all possible - google "ASIO4ALL". These are the lowest latency drivers you can get, they make recording a lot nicer - no delay!

If you're recording to a digital 4-track, or something like that... well, that's something you're going to have to get used to. Our ears will tolerate a bit of sloppiness when we play live, but microphones don't. It's a great way to expose your weaknesses as a player, and a valuable learning device. Get good playing like this, and you become a much better player.

Good luck!

Saul

Answer 5

I haven't recorded anything in a while.

Um, I used to with a friend and basically we would use a metronome or something like that, and record that first and we loop it.

Usually, the bass line goes on next, then rhythm guitar/keyboard, then drums then lead guitar.

And vocals.. maybe