Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner....

[Seshmeister]

Everybody DI'ing in a room is cool too, especially for a band that's well-rehearsed on the track in advance. Kinda miss that.

The best thing is no headphones!

I hate wearing headphones when I'm playing.

The guys come around, we record live and they have the mixed versions hitting their email accounts(these days that means phones) within an hour of getting home. I send two versions one with everything and one with everything apart from them(no bass or no lead vocal) so that they can work on it in their own time.

The stuff recorded like this is only for internal use though, I would never put it out there.

[ELVIS]

Y'know, all this bass talk is inspiring me - the first order of business when I get this bass up & running, before I start seriously recording with it - learn some McCartney basslines. Then John Paul Jones. Then Robert DeLeo. And some James Jamerson for good measure. Just to get in the mood.

And then you woke up at the drive thru window...

[ashstralia]

so if the definition of 'job' = source of income; i have 4 jobs!!!


yay me.

[Hardrock69]

[Hardrock69]

I use a click track. It is called "Drum machine".

As I do not have a band, and play everything myself when recording, I just program the drum parts until they are exactly as I want them, then lay down a scratch rhythm guitar track, and then go from there.
Works like a charm.

Perfectly in time. The drummer shows up, plays the same thing all the time, never gets drunk, never is lazy.
Press of a button, and he is ready to rock.

[jhale667]

And then you woke up at the drive thru window...

Riiight. Then you wake up, miserable as ever, still unable to tune or use a click, and counting the days until your gubermint check shows up next week... hack.

[jhale667]

I use a click track. It is called "Drum machine".

As I do not have a band, and play everything myself when recording, I just program the drum parts until they are exactly as I want them, then lay down a scratch rhythm guitar track, and then go from there.
Works like a charm.

Perfectly in time. The drummer shows up, plays the same thing all the time, never gets drunk, never is lazy.
Press of a button, and he is ready to rock.

That's an intelligent approach to that method. Cuz we've heard what happens when you lay down the rhythm guitar w/o a click first and then try to get the drum machine to sync up... it doesn't. For all intents and purposes the machine might as well be drunk...


The cool thing about generating a click track for recording in Pro Tools (or any other digital medium) is you have the timing grid laid out, and you can take something like EZdrummer, pull the MIDI pattern of the beat you want, snap it to the grid, and it's in perfect time. Plus it allows you to vary the velocity of the strikes so it sounds a bit more "human". Once you have the pattern down you can switch drum kits if you decide you don't like the one the pattern came from, it's very useful.

Usually for my tunes I do the rhyythm tracks to a click first, but there have been a few beats I've stumbled onto that have inspired some of the riffs I've used for articles, so I've done 'em with the drums in place first too. Nice to have options.

[Hardrock69]

If I want the drums to sound more human, I can always go into Reaper and move stuff around. But I find such subtleties not that necessary.

If someone wants to freak out over my stuff "O MI GOD IT SOUNDS TOO PERFECT!", I don't give a rat's ass.

[chefcraig]

I guess what we are all agreed upon is that you have to set a arbiter for getting the timing correct when making demos. However, once this is done, for a band, everyone should get a copy of the track, and record it somewhat live in the studio setting, in my opinion.

I base this theory on what can be called nothing other than "controlled chaos." Take a good, hard listen to the Rolling Stone's "Honky Tonk Women." That song starts out at one tempo, meanders on and off the beat for a good while and ends up being played faster at the end. Despite these "flaws" in execution and recording, no one in their right or wrong mind is going to deny it's one of the best songs ever put on tape.

A perceptible amount of feel comes through in the organic nature of a band playing their balls off, and is the true nature of rock and roll. I believe a good degree of that passion has disappeared in the past 15-25 years, what with the so-called advances in studio tech and trickery. (Fuck, remember Milli Vanilli?)

The sticking point being (as mentioned earlier, I think by Sesh) is actually finding a handful of non-jugheads to play with in this day and age. There really isn't some sort of "Christian Mingle" hook-up site for musicians (most of which wouldn't have anything to do with religion in the first place), so we are all more or less stuck getting by on our own in most of the time. Which brings us back to recording our stuff by the by and alone, trying to avoid a sterile and somewhat antiseptic sound.

It's a difficult balance to maintain, and in some cases nearly insurmountable. This is why I dismiss a good deal of my own recent home recording, as it all tends to have that "deadly serious" over-embalmed and precious nature of those dreadful Mike Varney produced shredder albums from the misbegotten 1980s. And on the vocal tracks, my limited singing ability comes forth to sound like Jimmy Buffett after igniting and then swallowing some Kingsford charcoal lighter fluid.

Of course, most of you guys are better at this than me. As Clint Eastwood once notably pointed out, "A man has to know his limitations." But I still feel like the one-legged guy at the ass-kicking contest sometimes.

[kwame k]

I use a click track. It is called "Drum machine".

As I do not have a band, and play everything myself when recording, I just program the drum parts until they are exactly as I want them, then lay down a scratch rhythm guitar track, and then go from there.
Works like a charm.

Perfectly in time. The drummer shows up, plays the same thing all the time, never gets drunk, never is lazy.
Press of a button, and he is ready to rock.

Man, what kind of drummers have you guys been jamming with

Having heard your music and recording Technique I can honestly say.....it fucking rocks!

Like I've said before.....whatever works for you, use!

[Hardrock69]

Goddam browser ate my post.

Oh well.

I do not punch in. If I fuck up a take, I start over. That is how I keep it sounding "live".

If I have to do 200 takes over 6 months to get the perfect guitar solo that blows my mind, so be it. I have the gear, I have the knowledge, and I have the time.

Then there is the curse of being jaded. Not only can you be jaded about other artists, but you can become jaded about your own abilities, where something acceptable to other people might not be acceptable to you.

And, working by myself, I am my own worst critic. Which can be a good thing, as if you have any intelligence or ability at all in the field of audio production, you can produce superior stuff.

Also, I have a singular focus. I don't have to argue with someone else about what the fuck they are playing. I know what needs to be played and I play it. I record the shit and mix it down.

No arguing, no discussions, no excuses.

That is how I prefer it. I can work more efficiently that way, as I don't have to try to describe to someone else what I hear in my head.

[ashstralia]

If I have to do 200 takes over 6 months to get the perfect guitar solo that blows my mind, so be it. I have the gear, I have the knowledge, and I have the time.

dude, be well practised, blow a joint and just go for it. your first 3 takes will be enough

[ELVIS]

I try that but I still get nervous when I hit the record button...

[Seshmeister]

We all do!

[Seshmeister]

He shoots he scores!

Perfect pass from ELVIS...