[Gearwhore20]

???
Guitar, drums, keys maybe
I always start with guitar and a click track, what about yall?

 

[Naren]

We do it in this order:
Drums
Rhythm guitar 1
Rhythm guitar 2
Lead guitar
Bass
Vocals

Sometimes bass comes before lead guitar, but it depends on the song. Vocals always come last and drums always come first.

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

When i'm writing, i always record the guitar, but thats really the melody and meat of the song. If you just had drums, it wouldnt be much of a song.

But when i retrack, i start with drums, then bass, then guitar/keys, and finally vocals

 

[eleven59]

I usually do a rough guitar track so I have something to program/track the drums to, but drums are always the first thing to be tracked as a keeper. Everything follows the drums, if you try to make the drums follow the rhythm of a guitar it'll never be as tight because that's just not how musicians naturally work.

 

[Matt Johnsen]

Vocals
Cowbell
everything else live

Optionally, the singer may track cowbell while singing, but I won't punch cowbell - you can really hear it in the transients. So, it's gotta be one take.

 

[Kim]

I usually do a rough guitar track so I have something to program/track the drums to, but drums are always the first thing to be tracked as a keeper. Everything follows the drums, if you try to make the drums follow the rhythm of a guitar it'll never be as tight because that's just not how musicians naturally work.

^This. program/record drums->bass->guitars(got to have the rhythm section down proper)->keys->lead->vocals.

 

[noodles]

I actually prefer to record leads after the vocals, since I find ways to tie my leads into the tail or head of the vocal line.

 

[eleven59]

Yeah, this is the order for me:

scratch guitar (deleted when no longer needed)
drums
bass
rhythm guitars
vocals/leads/keys/other (order depends on what works best for the song or what order I have ideas in :lol: )

 

[Kim]

I actually prefer to record leads after the vocals, since I find ways to tie my leads into the tail or head of the vocal line.

the reason I prefer having vocals last is that it leaves less room for the singer to fuck up in...

 

[noodles]

I prefer smacking the singer when he fucks up. :lol:

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

I prefer smacking the singer when he fucks up. :lol:

So wait, do you track the vocals, or the singer crying first? :lol:

 

[noodles]

Trick question: he is a singer, which mean he's always crying. :lol:

 

[Professor Squidbeard]

Yeah, this is the order for me:

scratch guitar (deleted when no longer needed)
drums
bass
rhythm guitars
vocals/leads/keys/other (order depends on what works best for the song or what order I have ideas in :lol: )

this

 

[Mike]

Trick question: he is a singer, which mean he's always crying. :lol:

That or dumping sand out of his crotch.

 

[Kim]

s7eve's a singer?

 

[Regor]

When I started working on my band's demo, we did a Fruity Loops 'click track' of drums. Then I recorded rhythm guitar, then went back and did the actual drums, then moved on from there.

 

[noodles]

:flame:

 

[jacksonplayer]

Sometimes I go commando and record the lead guitar first without any click. Good luck tracking tightly along with that! :lol:

I'm probably not being very helpful here...

On normal-person music, I think it's always best to track the drums first (assuming a bed of some kind of scratch guitar and rhythm track already exists). They are the most important thing to get right. After that, I prefer to track rhythm guitars before the bass, since I find that my rock bass parts are driven by the guitar/drums relationship and can get a little screwy when recorded by themselves. From there, I favor finishing all instruments before dealing with the vocals. That's just a matter of preference, though.

 

[Drew]

Well, this is for demoing, where I always start with a drum loop, but when I track in earnest I'll probably start with scratch guitar and/or bass to a click, then track the drums and toss the scratch tracks. That said..

For the longest time, I'd always track drum loops, then rhythm guitars, then leads, then bass. However, recently I've started recording bass first (after a drum loop, naturally) for a couple of reasons:

First, I always found that after recording bass I wouldn't be happy with how the guitars fit in with the bass, so I'd want to re-record rhythm guitars anyway. This way, I already know how they're supposed to fit together as soon as I start tracking.

Second, I'm a better guitarist than a bassist. Unintuitively, this is a reason for me to start with bass - hearing bass alone with no guitar around it makes slight hesitations really stand out, so if it's 97% perfect instead of 100% perfect, then I'll hear it clearly. Also, by the time I've finished everything else and begin tracking bass, I'll have been recording for quite some time, usually. As a guitarist, I care more about the guitars than the bass, so I'm much more likely to accept a sub-par performance just to wrap it up. The obverse isn't true for two reasons - one, that I do care more about the guitars, and two, that I'm just better at guitar, so I can usually nail a part in only a couple takes.