bayoubill
I'll want to say up front that before I start recording I have a very good idea of all the parts to the song I'm writing. I don't write or make it up as I go. I did try that but I didn't finish one song that way.
The way that works for me
Method 1 - I record the rhythm section to the tune. I usually start with the bass part.The reason I do this is for consistency of the tone etc. I've discovered,for me, if I record another instrument when I go back to the bass part I can't find the exact same sound I had before.
After bass I usually put the drum part in. Again staying with it till I'm finished. Then the rhythm/fill guitar parts.
Then comes the melody and instruments like vocals, strings etc.
Method 2 - I do the intro/ verse(2 bars at a time mostly)/chorus (again 2 bars at a time mostly) till finished. This takes longer but I get a more intricate recording than method 1.
Method 2 is how I did Autumn Leaves
What do you guys think? What's your method? Input is welcome. Do you know a better way?
I'd say there is no "better than" other than the way that works for you. Songs come to us in many forms. Sometimes I hear a drum beat, sometimes I hear a guitar riff, sometimes a bass riff, other times a completed song or chorus in my head.
To get the ideas out of my head, I ALWAYS create a quick little click track using Sonar's Step Sequencer to create a tempo map. This is crucial to me as it also gives me a chance to practice the chords I'm going to play next. With this method, I can lay down a guitar and then a bass track in sections in minutes and then I'm singing to see if things will even work. Or...if this is a guitar instrumental, I'm playing a lead solo over top of the chords to see if the idea is even worth it. If it's an all systems go situation with the song, once the guitars and bass are tracked, I'll go back and play real drums to it and will sing and orchestrate from there. But I always start with a click track to log my ideas and test over them.
I find that ideas recorded in this manner will either sink or swim and I know in an instant without spending loads of time....on whether or not the idea will even work. Sometimes songs sound good in our heads...but once we extract them, well, they don't move us in the way we may have hoped.
Another idea that has worked incredibly well for me is using Sonar's Matrix. I record little pieces of stuff on a daily basis. Call me the Musical Hoarder as I have enough ideas to probably write about 100 albums or more worth of material. Anyway....throwing those ideas into the Matrix can help create arrangements in seconds because you have the ability to place the song sections into the Matrix and then just drag things around to show you all the cool combinations that you can come up. This also can help you arrange something by accident that you wouldn't normally do on your own because of how the Matrix offers options on piecing things together.
Quick example: My band and I record at my home studio one week then we record at my big studio down the shore the next, which is run by my bassist because he and his brother (our drummer) live down there. So sometimes we record ideas here and then ideas down there. We throw them into the Matrix and literally create songs as well as cool arrangements, press the record button and it spits out a song with the parts we supplied. Try it out sometime....it will actually inspire you to go in directions you may not have ever thought of. :)
This of course doesn't sound great or anything as we have two different sounds from both the studios, but all we are looking for are pro-pro sections of our songs.....not the final song. We create our template that way as well as our arrangement. So when we go to record the song for real, we have the Matrix version to guide us if need be. :) It's been quite cool doing things like that and has taken us down a few different paths that we may not have visited without it.
-Danny