Hey geniuses. I'm in a high school sophomore in a band (bass, drums, guitar/vocals) and we are planning to start recording soon. We play pop punk and modern rock mostly i would say. We don't have enough money for studio time yet, but we want to make a quality demo making due with our own equipment. I would be using garageband or Cubase to record us using the Lexicon Lambda interface.
I'm wondering what the best approach would be to recording as far as tracking everything. Do you think it's better for us to record each individual separately on a time grid with a metronome, or to try to do drums and bass together (or whatever combination) and then add guitar and vocals without using a metronome?
What brings me to this question, is that i've had a feeling when recording in the past with a metronome and everything separately that the song looses it's feel, and everything just sounds robotic like people can't imagine the musicians playing it together live. This is probably because we didn't mix it properly, but i feel like there generally are little nuances when playing live with other musicians that can't be recreated while playing alone. I'd like your take.
Possibly relevant equipment that might help you understand what i'm dealing with:
-2 MXL condenser mics (I think its like "900" and "901" but one is a pencil condenser and the other is a wide diaphragm)
-Lexicon lambda interface
-SM58
-Sennheiser vocal mic (don't remember model)
-Macbook
-Soundproofed room with foam
YEAH THANKYOU!
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I prefer to record your kind of music with the whole band playin
I prefer to record your kind of music with the whole band playing together. I agree with you, about losing the feel. And even when it's well mixed, tracking punk/modern separately loses too much of the energy and feel.
Now the question is, do you have enough mics, inputs, and isolation to get a "quality demo" with what you've got in one pass?
Bare minimum, I would want to track bass drums and rhythm guitar together and put in vocals and lead guitar later.
It's going to take some work experimenting with mic-position, but I still think you will prefer the results you get with either of these methods compared to layering one track at a time to a metronome.
Good luck!