Recording Workflow

[Nick Ryder]

Hi all.

Once I have written a song and then worked out in my head what the format is, this is how I start to build the production.

1. I set the temp of the song in my DAW (Logic)
2. Record a guide MIDi piano part. The reason for this is too that I can change the tempo should I feel it is too fast or slow, and not affect any audio
3. Create section markers in Logic so that I know which section I am in whilst recording
4. Lay down chord markers as a reminder of which chord or bass part I am supposed to be playing in any given section.
5. Drag in some eZdrummer beats which have a similar feel to what I want for the song so that I have a basic drum track to work to
6. Re-evaluate the tempo. This is the stage where the tempo needs to be correct before starting to record audio
7. Record a basic bass part so there is some bottom end
8. Record a guide acoustic guitar (DI)
9. Record a guide vocal

Once I am in this position, I have a basic guide and rhythm section to build the rest of the arrangement around.

The next thing I do is to concentrate on the drums and bass. I will go into the MIDI for the drums and put the bass drum beats where I want them , accents on the HI HATS, drums fills, breaks, percussion such as shakers in the chorus sections etc.

I then abandon the guide bass and record it properly to tie in with the drums. As I am recording, I may decide to alter the drums further if the bass part clashes.

Then it's onto the acoustic guitar. I use 2 microphones. One pointing directly at the 12th Fret about a foot away, and the other pointing at the bottom end of the guitar. I out them into a stereo bus and pan them hard left and right, add EQ and compression.

Next will be electric guitars. I use the Amplitude 5 amp simulator. This is often the longest process as I am not really a great guitar player, so it takes me a log time to write the parts and then get good takes.

I then records the lead vocal across 2 tracks. I will ultimately blend them to give one good vocal track.

Next up is backing vocals. I tend to record 4 part harmonies twice, so that 8 tracks with 2 of each performance. I spend hours and hours working out the parts as the attention to detail on harmonies makes such a difference.

Once all this I done, I concentrate on what I call ear candy. That might be strings, brass, sound effects or swells to brings the big sections in.

Curious to hear how others approach recording there songs.



Nick.

[Boydie]

Spookily, I have a very similar process...

I tend to come up with song ideas noodling on guitar

I will then find a drum beat that matches the "mood" - ideally a MIDI drum pattern that I can tweak later, but sometimes I will use an audio loop as the basis for a track

I then loop the MIDI or Audio and play along to set the tempo - it always amazes me how a small change in BPM affects the feel of a track!

I am happy changing the tempo of audio drums

I then record a guide guitar part and tinker with the "kick, snare and hi-hats" to get the groove I want for the song

I then record the bass line - and tweak the timing of the kick to match my more natural/loose/groovy/messy bassline performance

I do record "to the grid" - but I will very often add variances and not be 100% "on the grid"

I tend to also record in sections and just copy and paste sections to fill out the track

This is when I decide the structure of the track - I usually just go for V-C-V-C-bridge-C-C-C, but will experiment with different structures

I do usually try to incorporate a small pre-chorus section (1 or 2 lines) to set up the chorus and increase the repetition in the track to breed famialiarity!

I then go through and add drum fills and variations across the different sections so it sounds a little less "copy and paste"

All the while I am doing this, I am singing nonsense melodies in my head or trying to construct some lyric phrases

I then live with this "backing track" whilst I slave away at lyrics - my least favourite bit!

When the vocals are recorded - I will record all of the other things I want and add some "ear candy" - shakers, sound fx etc.

I will just record loads of bits - knowing that they will rarely get used in the final production (or they will make a small cameo)

And then I move on to the production and mixing - which I will cover in detail in a future post!

[mattyoungmusic]

@Nick Ryder I wish I had seen your post or one like it a couple years ago when I started writing and recording again after a 20+ year break.  Instead I jumped right in and did everything in the wrong order, causing incalculable levels of frustration and substandard results. 

Fortunately, trial and error have led me to much the same process as the steps you've outlined, and the results are improving all the time. 

I use Jamstix to program my drum parts, which has taken me a long time to learn but I've gotten much better with it lately.

One of the big stumbling blocks I still run into is quantizing.  For instance, I have a new song I'm working on now that has a really heavy swing to it.  I've got the drums and bass working together pretty well now, but when I play along on the piano I always end up with worse results once I start quantizing the piano.  I can't seem to find the right combination of swing percentage, grid settings, etc to have the piano fit in with the rhythm section in a human way.  And unfortunately, I'm not a good enough piano player to get it right without quantizing!  So it's always a struggle.

[Nick Ryder]

@Nick Ryder
One of the big stumbling blocks I still run into is quantizing.  For instance, I have a new song I'm working on now that has a really heavy swing to it.  I've got the drums and bass working together pretty well now, but when I play along on the piano I always end up with worse results once I start quantizing the piano.  I can't seem to find the right combination of swing percentage, grid settings, etc to have the piano fit in with the rhythm section in a human way.  And unfortunately, I'm not a good enough piano player to get it right without quantizing!  So it's always a struggle.

Good morning, Matt.

So, the way I get around this is to play the part with the timing issue on an instrument I am more comfortable with. This is often guitar or bass. Once I am happy, I zoom into the waveform of the audio and move the play head to where the particular accent is. I then open up the MIDI editor and move either the percussion or piano part to the position of the play head.

It can be quite time consuming if there's a lot to do but it is this attention to detail which can make such a difference to an arrangement.

[mattyoungmusic]

Yes, it's definitely time consuming and fiddly. 

Usually I just come to peace with problems in my songs 

I'm a perfectionist in a lot of things, but when it comes to songwriting and recording/mixing, it's absolutely essential for me to keep the creative energy UP or else I lose all momentum. I find that if I spend an hour or two pushing blocks around a MIDI grid, I'm completely sapped of creative energy.

I suppose it's a matter of "the more you do it the better and quicker it can be done".   

[Vicki]

I could use some lessons from you on Jamstix. It's fine if I just take what I get, but I usually want to change some bits and I have had no luck figuring out how to do that. I tried watching a couple of videos, but I must have too much trouble focusing or something. If you can point me to an easy tutorial, that would be awesome!
Vicki

@Nick Ryder I wish I had seen your post or one like it a couple years ago when I started writing and recording again after a 20+ year break.  Instead I jumped right in and did everything in the wrong order, causing incalculable levels of frustration and substandard results. 

Fortunately, trial and error have led me to much the same process as the steps you've outlined, and the results are improving all the time. 

I use Jamstix to program my drum parts, which has taken me a long time to learn but I've gotten much better with it lately.

One of the big stumbling blocks I still run into is quantizing.  For instance, I have a new song I'm working on now that has a really heavy swing to it.  I've got the drums and bass working together pretty well now, but when I play along on the piano I always end up with worse results once I start quantizing the piano.  I can't seem to find the right combination of swing percentage, grid settings, etc to have the piano fit in with the rhythm section in a human way.  And unfortunately, I'm not a good enough piano player to get it right without quantizing!  So it's always a struggle.

[mattyoungmusic]

@Vicki It's certainly a tricky bit of software.  Lots of different windows which you have to view one at a time but that all interact with eachother. 

My workflow is as follows:

1) break down the song into as many distinct parts as necessary in the DAW, then replicate those in the "your song structure" window, making sure to match the length of each section as marked in the DAW.

2) Press "create song", then taking one section at a time add a drummer, kit and style - auditioning as many as it takes to get in the ballpark of what you're looking for.

3) Then it's fine-tuning using the "Groove" "Accent" and "Fill" pages, the swing and power settings, etc.  I tend to just tweak the drummer/style settings to try and dial in what I want, but if I'm not having luck I'll go in and manually add or remove certain hits, or change the sound associated with them. 

4) Once section one is down, I move to section 2 (and then often have to go back to the end of section 1 to adjust the transition fills leading into section 2), repeat, and on and on 'til the end of the song.

It's still the most time consuming part of recording for me at the moment, but I'm happier with the results as time goes on.  Yeah, the YouTube help out there is so-so on the helpful scale.

[Vicki]

Thanks for this. I don't really understand much of it; I imagine I'll have to step through it slowly. I know I have tried to add or remove various hits, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Before I can do anything at the moment, I have to work on my computer--the hard drive is full so it isn't functioning well, and I've made a mess of my files, so it's going to take a few days. I will get to it eventually and I appreciate the hints. Thank you.

@Vicki It's certainly a tricky bit of software.  Lots of different windows which you have to view one at a time but that all interact with eachother. 

My workflow is as follows:

1) break down the song into as many distinct parts as necessary in the DAW, then replicate those in the "your song structure" window, making sure to match the length of each section as marked in the DAW.

2) Press "create song", then taking one section at a time add a drummer, kit and style - auditioning as many as it takes to get in the ballpark of what you're looking for.

3) Then it's fine-tuning using the "Groove" "Accent" and "Fill" pages, the swing and power settings, etc.  I tend to just tweak the drummer/style settings to try and dial in what I want, but if I'm not having luck I'll go in and manually add or remove certain hits, or change the sound associated with them. 

4) Once section one is down, I move to section 2 (and then often have to go back to the end of section 1 to adjust the transition fills leading into section 2), repeat, and on and on 'til the end of the song.

It's still the most time consuming part of recording for me at the moment, but I'm happier with the results as time goes on.  Yeah, the YouTube help out there is so-so on the helpful scale.

[idunno]

Soloist here.

I do not use a DAW, though I do have one. I set the room up to record. The gear is a Fishman SA220 amp, a Shure SM58 mic and a Zoom H4 recorder with phones attached. The guitar is an electro-acoustic with an internal pre-amped system.

The guitar and mic go straight into the amp with no FX. Everything gets turned on and I set the levels of the guitar and amp by monitoring with the phones. Then I hit the record button and perform. Having done this routine repeatedly I know exactly where to set the amp and guitar levels each time I record. I change them if the live venue is short on gear.

I do have an equalizer pedal between the guitar and amp but usually run it straight unless I'm banging on the bass for a blues number and have to adjust for that. When that happens the pedal is already pre-set. Minor adjustments can be done by varying my attack across the guitar register, which is typical because no acoustic guitar is balanced across the register.

I do not make separate tracks, or need to, because everything is balanced for playing and singing at the same time.

Youtube videos are different -

I use a Blue Yeti mic patched to my phone and cans (headphones) patched to the mic. This gives me a very honest video and the Yeti's sound is stellar. The room can be set to provide the optics that support the video (lighting, mostly). Once I'm satisfied the sound works for me I take off the cans and hit record.