Home Recording Alone

[aaronm]

Hey all. I recently picked up a condenser mic and interface and then installed Pro Tools First. Recording has been harder than i expected. This is all totally new to me and I'm struggling doing it on my own. The song I'm trying to record isn't very complicated but it's long and impossible to do perfectly in one take. The foundation is me on guitar and singing vocals. I don't plan on adding much more. Vocals by my 8-yo daughter and keyboard/organ is about it.

 

First I tried recording a temporary guitar track. Next I recorded vocals and went back to re-record the guitar but it ended up a sloppy mess. Maybe the biggest problem is trying to punch in on my own. There must be a guide or template somewhere for recording live tracks individually. I've looked around online but haven't found anything that helpful for what i'm doing. I watched a youtube video yesterday of someone creating a short song with 5 or so tracks he recorded -- rhythm guitar, melody, midi drums, keyboard, etc. but it very short and he played each track perfectly. My song is like 6 minutes long. Can anyone point me towards some good resources? Thanks. 

[jessnoir]

On 4/21/2020 at 9:21 AM, aaronm said:

Hey all. I recently picked up a condenser mic and interface and then installed Pro Tools First. Recording has been harder than i expected. This is all totally new to me and I'm struggling doing it on my own. The song I'm trying to record isn't very complicated but it's long and impossible to do perfectly in one take. The foundation is me on guitar and singing vocals. I don't plan on adding much more. Vocals by my 8-yo daughter and keyboard/organ is about it.

 

First I tried recording a temporary guitar track. Next I recorded vocals and went back to re-record the guitar but it ended up a sloppy mess. Maybe the biggest problem is trying to punch in on my own. There must be a guide or template somewhere for recording live tracks individually. I've looked around online but haven't found anything that helpful for what i'm doing. I watched a youtube video yesterday of someone creating a short song with 5 or so tracks he recorded -- rhythm guitar, melody, midi drums, keyboard, etc. but it very short and he played each track perfectly. My song is like 6 minutes long. Can anyone point me towards some good resources? Thanks. 

When in doubt, I just use YouTube for DAW tutorials. Not sure whether you've already seen it or not, but I'd make a small step back and start again with basics. Like, that's quite easy to miss something important.
Hope this helps, and good luck with your project!

 

[aaronm]

I'll check it out and report back. Thanks for your suggestion.

[Jim Byrne]

It's just a case of learning your DAW - these things are designed to make edits easy - as long as you know how they work. 🙂

 

The other thing to explore is how to quantize what you are playing. It can be done in a way that doesn't make ti sound too mechanical. From experience - the most important parts to quantise are those related to your rhythm section, i.e. bass, keyboards, drums. Thing that sit on top of that - you can get away with being more 'elastic' with your timing. 

 

Jim

[Five Years Solitary]

I'm late to the party, but was browsing and came across your post.  I also record alone, and play all of my instruments live myself to include the vocals, and I just recently got the hang of digital recording, so I've been where you are.  Getting any part of a song in one take is really, really difficult.  Especially if you are still actively writing it.  What I do is lay down a clean scratch guitar track with a metronome.  This let's me figure out what parts I want, for how long, and where.  I don't care if all of the notes are perfect, or really even if the guitar is in tune all the way.  Just that it's in time and generally correct.  I leave about a 20 second gap in front so I have time to hit record and get my ass behind the drums before it's time to play.  I count off with muted strums to let myself know when it's time to play.  I find every problem with the song structure during this step.  If the scratch track is screwed, the drums won't fit, time to redo, etc.  If I have to do a big fix, I set limits and do an auto punch, if it's a small one, say I missed a cymbal somewhere, I'll copy and paste it in from somewhere else.  Then the rhythm guitar tracks, clean first, then distorted.  Auto-punch any boo-boos.  Bass guitar, then vocals.  Almost never have I gotten through any parts in a single take.  A great recording is definitely the sum of really good efforts and crafty editing in my limited experience.  *Edited to add that I use Studio One 4, with a Presonus interface box.  I use a Line 6 effects processor for guitars, and an Alesis electric drum set.

[moptop]

I also record a lot of material by myself.   It's been so long since I've played anywhere "live" I can't get through a track without some goof up's somewhere so I use the editing capabilities of my DAW (Cubase) extensively through out the entire production process.  It also helps because  I do a lot of writing on the fly.    I play all the instruments I use myself on most of the songs I create. I'm more of a "jack of all" but a master of none of them so once again the editing features help a bunch. 

 

I usually start with a basic drum track. I'm not a drummer so I program all my tracks using MT Power Drums. This makes quick work of it since it is so easy to use.  Then I will add a guitar or keyboard track, then the bass guitar.  When I get those 4 basics down then I will start to play with the synth or strings if I feel the piece needs that. 

 

I think we all start pretty much the same way but with experience we develop our own little workflow pattern that we get comfortable with that gives us the best results in the least amount of time.