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Scenario: Guitar / bass duo, 2 singer
#1 First
Choice (best quality, takes the most time)
 | Record all guitar tracks using an acoustic
guitar with a built in pick-up and the bass guitar running directly to the
recorder and to a small bass amp. This will keep the bass guitar
track perfectly clean (easy to fix mistakes and perfect for mixing) and
the acoustic guitar track should not pick up the bass amp at all (again,
perfect for fixing errors and for mixing). If it helps, we can set up a
mic to sing into, just to keep track of where you are in the song, but not
use that track in the mix (as it will also have both guitars in it). |
| Record the acoustic guitar again, all by
itself, using either the same guitar or a 12-string or classical, whatever
you normally use for the song. If your song is best with the 12-string
sound then we mix that to be pre-dominant and the original guitar track as
background. Doubling an acoustic guitar is a great way to get a full
sound. |
| Record the lead vocal by itself, listening
to the guitars on headphones. Make a mistake? No problem, just go
back and re-do a part. |
| Record the backing vocals twice to get a
nice stereo effect, putting one in each speaker when mixing. |
#2 Second
Choice (Thinner sound in final mix, but takes less time)
| Basically do the same as in choice #1,
but do not double the acoustic guitar or the backing vocals |
#3 Third
Choice (less time)
| Like #2, but instead record the lead vocal
at the same time as the guitars and live with any vocal mistakes Mixing of
the lead vocal is potentially more difficult and potentially less clear |
#4 Fourth
Choice (basically like a live recording)
| Play and recording everything at the same
time and be very limited in being able to correct mistakes. The final mix
is potentially less clear |
When trying to decide how much time to leave
for mixing, I basically tell artists to budget the same amount of time for
the mix as you would for actually recording. If you spend 20 hours on
your songs, you really want to have 20 hours on the mix - it would be a
shame to have to slap it all together in a rush. You should also
budget about an hour per song for mastering as well.
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