Your Recording Process

I'm curious how typical my general process is, so I'll post mine and and if anyone wants to chime in that would be great. :)

I listen to a track on wikiloops once and if any harmonies/riffs/basslines start popping into my head I download the track into Audacity. Then I try to play along while narrowing down what seems to sound good.
Next I record a full take through and usually listen to the mix to see what parts actually sound good on playback. Then starts recording in earnest, usually 5-20 takes, many of them aborted very early. :D
All told I'd say it takes on average 1-2 hours from first listen to posting a remix.

Hi byrath, I reply to your interesting post for what is my experience. I play the drums and things are a bit different. If I start a template then just have a musical genre in mind and use the patterns that are usually used in that circumstance - for drummers this is quite repetitive -. If, on the other hand, I have to add the drums to the base then I divide the track into its components. Once the structure has been traced I write the patterns of the various parts and set the drum chart which I then follow and read when I play, exactly as it did and happens live. The fills are imprinted every time. Depending on the experience, different "takes" are needed, but this is the procedure for me. I use Reaper as a DAW and my mixcrophones, the same ones for many years now, old and reliable. Greetings, Ezio

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Edited by Ezdrummer on December 22 2020 16:28

Great topic byrath :)

If I'm starting a new guitar template, I'll either create a click-track at about the speed I'm playing/creating it, or create a sample drum-track to give me a basic foundation to play along to, then start recording in Audacity.

If I'm adding to a template, something has popped into my head or at least, I feel it's something I can try and add to. There are times where I download something and can't come up with anything. Or if something pops into my head while listening to someone's template, I'll get my acoustic and record it directly to my phone, so I don't forget the idea. If my acoustic isn't nearby, I'll just hum it into the phone LOL. For new ideas, I do the same, I may just record it acoustically to the phone, then refer back to those "ideas" later to see if they can be used.

I'll run through different riffs/patterns, usually will try and add a secondary guitar track, but that's not always the case. I'll poke around with different effects as well. Generally, it's about 2 hours of recording, sometimes more, depending on how things are flowing. I try not force creativity, so at times I'll just come back to it at a later date.

There are times where I haven't even listened to the complete track. Something in the beginning has sparked me and I kind of just figure it out "block by block". Recording that way takes me way more time, as I'm stopping at points to where I can "punch in" for the next riff/idea. As far as takes, I rarely do a complete run through from end to beginning, I try and break it up, and probably take anywhere from 5-10+ takes, even splicing takes if it's something I'm having difficulty with.

Kind of off topic, but curious how people archive their stuff once they are done? Do you keep it at the track-id as downloaded? Do you rename it to the new track-id? Do you move it to another location on your hard drive? Any naming ideas/tricks?

I've not done much of making my own templates but I was thrilled to figure out how to make a click-track in Audacity. Absolutely a must unless you have an amazing sense of rhythm and musical time.

I wondered if others did a little editing sometimes. I try not to, because it feels like I'm cheating somehow when I do (silly, yes), but probably 1/5 of the time I've gotten a really good take except for one really awful mistake and spliced in a section.

Soon I need to move and backup my songs, its starting to get a bit slow to load the file menu.

It was interesting to hear both from a drummer and people who start new templates, as I've done neither, thanks for the replies. :)

PS I intended to play video games tonight instead of music, but now that I've been talking music I have to go make music. :D

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Edited by byrath on December 23 2020 07:09