Hi,
  I'm recording my full band this weekend. I haven't recorded a full band at once in a long time. 
  My question is, if we do multiple full takes of the same song, should I use a single project file and use the take lanes function, or is it better to do a separate project file for each take?
 We are not going play to a click track, so the takes won't line up.  I'm curious if you can "select all" in a project and ctrl,click on a take lane and have every track in the project switch to that take.
  Thanks 

If you're not using a click then really I'd just use one project, record a performance, set the timeline to after that performance and record the next performance.
 
So 00:00:00 = Song 1 performance 1
00:00:04:00 = Song 1 performance 2
 
etc.
 
You could record all the songs that way.
 
Of course there are all sorts of fancy ways to go about this where it all appears in new take lanes and/or you set up a new project for each song or whatever but when you have the band all together, the mics hooked up all that mindf*ckery is a distraction and it's easier for mistakes to be made.
 
Essentially record it all into one set of tracks one take/performance at a time. Then when you are done you can do a range select and copy it all into their own projects.
 
If you had your own button pusher sure but if you are playing in the band... f*ck it. Just record the whole thing and sort it out later.
 
 

I would think it would matter more what your workflow is for editing and mixing.
 
If you want to use the lead guitar track from the 3rd take and the lead vocal track from the 2nd take and the drums from the 1st take, then you're much better off using 1 project and just putting everything in take lanes.
 
if you want to choose one project as a whole over another to do your editing and not use takes from different instruments then put them in separate projects.

They aren't using a click though so nothing will match up anyway. No need to record into lanes at that point. Even if he were to raid portions from other tracks (which will be off time) it's simple enough to move the clips around after.
 
I'm jus thinking of the chaos of a band room/live recording situation when you have an instrument strapped to you. Best, to me, get it on tape and deal with the fiddle faddle afterward. One contiguous set of tracks means all the producer has to do is hit record, hit stop. Next song, move the Now Time to after the last take, press record, press stop, and so on.
 
The added bonus is by doing it this way when the session is done you can just hit play while the whole band is there and listen back to each track without any futzing about. You just pop the Now Time to each track. Leads to good input from the band/discussion about what worked or what didn't, etc.
 
As you can maybe tell... I've done a lot of bandroom recording while actually performing in the band. It's a bugger of a sh*zball at the best of times without tweedle doodling with the intricacies of take lanes, versioning and what have you.
 
Setup the project and pretend like you are recording into a ghetto blaster onto cassette. Sort out the nerdy crud later.
 
That is how I'd do it anyway.

Thanks guys,
  I plan on taking the best entire take from each song and using that as the foundation. 
I'm leaning toward Beepster's idea. I'm going to be the guitarist and engineer at the same time. 
The less I need to do between takes, the better. 
  I'm so psyched about this project. For years I've been writing guitar parts to a click and then overdubbing the other parts. I want this project to have that cool, tight, musicians feeding off each other vibe.
  It's the first time I'm running 16 tracks at a time in my home studio. There's a lot of prep time involved, but it's a labor of love. 

I've done this from behind a mics (the easiest), guitar (and a mic at the same time) and drums (total pain in the balls).
 
Definitely easier to just hit record, stop, hit record again, and so on.
 
There is a setting in Sonar you can disable (Return On Stop or whatever it's called) so you don't even have to reposition the Now Time after each take (but still double check where the track was laid).
 
The biggest thing to pay attention to in this scenario is the you make sure you press Stop. Don't let it run or you'll eat up your drive space. Of course check your clip meters (set your meters to hold and lock peaks and do a couple sound checks). If you see the clip light take a look at what happened (maybe someone just hit a mic and your levels are okay or you are indeed too loud... sometimes some songs/parts are louder than others so you just want to give a quick look at thos meters after each take).
 
To me I would set everything up the day before (mics, amps, mixers, cabling, yadda yadda) if at all possible because it is a TOTAL burnout having to do that the day of the tracking with everyone in the room THEN having to perform and watch the DAW. Also it gives the rest of the band a chance to get bored, drunk, high, whiny, etc.
 
Tracking day is WAY better if everyone can just walk in and play like a normal rehearsal. You as the producer will end up with the most benefits of that scheme because in my experience... no one else in the room is going to give a fart or have any sympathy because they have no clue all the crap you are trying to keep sorted throughout the process.
 
Jaded view perhaps but really... it can be a total frazzle of an experience and that just sucks the life (and fun) out of a performance.
 
Prep = fun = good recording
 
Cheers!
 
 

joeb1cannoli
Hi,
  I'm recording my full band this weekend. I haven't recorded a full band at once in a long time. 
  My question is, if we do multiple full takes of the same song, should I use a single project file and use the take lanes function, or is it better to do a separate project file for each take?
 We are not going play to a click track, so the takes won't line up.  I'm curious if you can "select all" in a project and ctrl,click on a take lane and have every track in the project switch to that take.
  Thanks 

Make a project template for your band. If you are diciplined you can make track templates for each instrument as well.

In it's current state I personally can't get my head around takelanes, I like the idea but it's not good enough yet, it's real purpose is for comping multiple takes on the same track (overdubs on one song).

 I appreciate everyone's input. It looks like I'm going the one long project route. 
 Thanks for pointing out what a laborious day I'm gonna have. Being of Italian heritage,I'm gonna have to feed them all too. It's a good thing we love this stuff so much.   

I do this at least once a week these days with my "mobile studio".  Here are a few suggestions:

• Use one project for all your takes
• Store the takes "linearly", one after another in the project
• Use markers to delineate the start of each take
• Use headphones to get a rough mix of your levels before you initially start
• Arm only the tracks that you need to record before you initially start and leave them armed
• If it's necessary to enable/disable arm (or input echo) for different takes, use groups
• Make sure you let the band know when you are starting to record before each take
• Make sure to let things "ring-out" before stopping after each take
• Use a remote keyboard for starting and stopping the transport (I use a Frontier Tranzport but a remote keyboard will work too)
• Periodically do a "Save" during the session

Hope this helps,
Paul

I've recorded my band live many times and here's what I do. 
I make a main folder to contain the session. 
Make a CWP "template" for the session. I use per project and there will be a folder for each song. 
I then "save as" re name the blank project with each song name on the list. 
I have set them all in record ready before saving. 
On the night of the session I open all the songs and minimize to tray. This is so I have one less thing to do later once we are rolling along. 
Generally we don't keep takes we know suck. So we just overdub and move on. 
But sometimes you get the concenses that "we can do that better" after a pretty good take. 
Then if a second take is required and I have time, I will "save" the first version and then overdub it - I'll then use "save as" and add a "2" to the name. It will stay in the same folder with take 1. 
If there isn't time I just record the new take after the first on the same tracks. No biggy either way. 
Because we don't use a click track there's no stealing parts from different takes anyhow.