Recording Several tracks

[Tim]

Hey guys, I need some advice on recording. Can you give me some pointers on how to lay down several tracks? I want to experiment with recording my playing. This is for two reasons. First, is to gain the experience of recording and secondly to listen to myself for improving my playing skills (which are low right now). For recording I used the free version of Audacity.

I am guessing that I should start with a drum track first. From there I would probably lay down a rhythm track and then go on from there. I could follow up with a solo or an acoustic guitar. Or would it be better to start out with a backing track and play over it.

Any help on this would be appreciated. Rock on!

[M29]

Hello Tim,

Coming from a novice I have been concentrating on drum tracks first. This is something that I am not happy with. I cannot seem to find an (easy) drum machine or program that I can just pick a basic beat and change the speed to what I want and then record. I don't want to spend days trying to figure out how to use a program just to lay down a simple drum track to practice or do a basic recording to. I have been using my daughters Casio keyboard for drum tracks and it works pretty good as I can just plug it into my sound card and into Audacity but most of the drum tracks have fills locked in them that come in at the wrong time when I just want a straight track.
I don't play bass so that is out but backing tracks are great, it would be nice if someone could put together some basic (drum, bass and rhythm guitar, or keyboard) in some common styles like a basic slow blues, slow rock, medium rock, hard rock, jazz of differnet styles and so on. I would pay for some backing tracks to practice to. I have one of the (Band in the Pocket) CD's, which is awesome to practice to but it would be nice to get a good selection on one disc so you would not have to spend 60 or 100 dollas on CD's.

Just some thoughts from someone starting out.

M29

[duhvoodooman***]

There are so many free backing tracks available on the net that I would recommend starting there. There's an old thread in this forum (HERE) with all kinds of links to backing track sites. The selection is practically endless. So unless you have something very specific in mind that you absolutely must put together yourself, I'd start browsing around some of these sites....

[Spudman***]

Here is a FREE 16 track program to get you started. It even either has plugins or allows for a few. I'm not sure as I just found out about it.
http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

[Tone2TheBone]

I'm thinking you can buy drum loops from somewhere perhaps even Amazon....*grin*. Someone online has got to have them. I downloaded some loops a couple of years ago somewhere and they're great to work with. You just drag and drop each 4/4 time measured loop into your editing session on your recording software like your Audacity. You can stack a long drum track of steady beat by cutting and pasting the same loop behind each other...then add a drum fill or tom roll...followed by a single cymbal crash on another channel. The thing about using loops this way is that you can make it simple or as complicated as you want. I usually used several channels JUST for the drums. 1 channel would be a high hat intro cue that could fade out on the mixdown so you don't hear it. Another channel would be the main drum loops with intros and fills and stops and starts (nothing looped). Another would be just cymbal crashes so that I could put them exactly where I wanted them in the measure within 1/16th of a beat. Then I'd have separate channels for percussion instruments...like tamborine...triangle etc. Lots of tracks so if you want to get that complicated and have total control of your drums you need software that supplies you with several recording tracks. This is ONLY if you want more detailed and realistic drumming loops. For practice and jamming along a simple drum track would do. The nice thing about the loops I downloaded was that they're sampled from different kinds of drum kits. All with different tones. If I want a rock drum kit...I select from the appropriate folder....if I want a jazz kit...same thing. Each loop is different too. They all have a different beat and some are in different times too like 3/4 time etc. Even the drum fills are all different. You could really mix and match to make great drum tracks and it's real easy. They all sound really cool. If you want I can burn you a copy of the loop library that I have Tim if you think it would benefit you.

[aeolian]

The guys have given a bunch of good advice. Backing tracks is a good place to start if you are just in for the practice. You can still record your playing over a backing track and hear how you do.

If you want to record a specific song then you have to make every track from scratch. I always start with the drum track because my rhythm playing is likely not precise enough to sync back up with a drum program if I record guitars first. Find a flexible drum program because you want to be able to tweak your drum track as you progress on your recording. I use LeafDrum which is shareware and inexpensive. It is not hard, but not that easy either to use. It can be clumsy to do certain things on it, but I've used it enough to be comfortable with it. My issue with creating a drum track is that I know nothing about playing drums, so I have problems just creating a basic shuffle, for example, because I don't know which piece of the kit comes in on which beat. After the drum track, it is up to you what you want to record next.

To me the most interesting aspect of recording is the mixing process. There is a lot to be learned there, and having recorded a number of songs I'm getting better at how to put the tracks together and have them come out sounding halfway decent.

aeolian

[Tim]

Hello Tim,

Coming from a novice I have been concentrating on drum tracks first. This is something that I am not happy with. I cannot seem to find an (easy) drum machine or program that I can just pick a basic beat and change the speed to what I want and then record.

M29

M29,

I am so new to this I don’t know which way to look. As an old saying goes; “I do not know if I should sit, stand or wind my watch?”

Anyway, I do not know exactly how Audacity works, but I do know that Tremoloman has been nice to inform me that with Audacity you can so down the pace without changing the pitch. Am not sure if this is possible, but maybe you can find the drum track you like and slow it down (or speed it up) to your liking. Save the file and then record over it. Hopefully some other Fretters using Audacity can chime in on this particular topic of drum tracks and Audacity.

Spuds - thanks for the site you provided and with plug-ins. Now I must learn what all this stuff means.

Duhvoodooman – thanks fro posting the old thread. I knew it was there but I though it only addressed jamming backing track sites. To my surprise there was also drum track sites mentioned.

This leaves more learning and experimentation to fill the void time which I do not have right now.