Process, how do you like to record?

[KuruPrionz]

Some of us (not me) will have great locations to record, or a budget to rent a studio. 

Some of us will have a great band to work with and others will do a solo act thing - not me again.

How we approach our material will vary. I have friends who know exactly what they want to record, every part and just so.

 

Then there's me. I am mostly solo but happy to use the contributions of others when I can. I do have a pretty clear vision for how a song goes but my usual sequence is as follows.

 

Start with a beat that "feels good" for playing over, just loop more of that than I need. I'm using drum plugins, mostly NI Studio Drummer and IK MODO Drum. 

Record a scratch track of vocal and acoustic guitar to define the track. 

Play a bass line, listen, play another bass line, listen etc. Repeat as needed while ignoring the placement of the kick drum and just laying down the bass parts that feel right. 

Go into the drum track and move the kick and/or snare until they are correct with the bass part I've decided on using.

Recut the bass track, sometimes this takes a few days and a few takes. I really want the bass line to be great in a single take, I don't paste it together from different tracks.

Go back to the drum track, find fills for places that need them and paste them in. This is a process, it takes a while but I can't imagine not doing it. Once that all grooves the way I want it I can start recording the rest of the song.

Vocal is next, then guitars. Then any backup vocals. 

 

At that point I have the basic song. Signature licks may need created, doing something completely different to give a different flavor or texture may rear it's head.

 

That's where I'm at now, you?

Bear in mind I'm almost done with the first song that I've been recording using this approach. It took a while to get here and so far the results are turning out well. 

 

And, I like stuff to be "right" but I'm not a perfectionist by any means. I think that can be a mistake as well. 

I'd love to hear how others go about this!