Recording With Sonar

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.
 
 
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?

Hmmm... I can't help with this one, as my recording/composition process is all over the place. It really depends on what gets me going first, and I generally make stuff up as I go along. I wish I could sit down and compose a piece straight to paper, but I can't
 
And as Bapu said, it can pretty much depend on the piece I am working on.

Mine is an iterative process, one that attempts to replicate the experience of writing and arranging with a band, all on my lonesome.
 
When you develop a song with a band, it usually starts with a more-or-less finished song that was written by one person on guitar or piano. It usually has a generic verse-verse-chorus kind of arrangement, but that's just the foundation from which each player contributes his own specialty to flesh it out.
 
It's an iterative process - you play the song as a band, over and over, and each musician gradually develops his part with each pass. The bass player won't know what he's going to do with it until he plays with the drummer, and the two of them play off one another. Keyboards and guitars develop a dialog, each creating space for the other, each modifying their part in response to what the other's doing.
 
This is a natural organic process that leads to interesting music. It's also the hardest thing to recreate when you're a one-man-band. You can't feed off others' creativity, can't try out complementary counterpoints, can't experiment as you play.
 
But you can do something similar. Start with a drum track that more or less follows the rhythm you imagined while you composed the song. Don't worry if it's dull and repetitive; you'll fix that later. Next, add a guitar or piano to lay out the chord progression and song arrangement. Don't worry if it's dull and repetitive; you'll fix that later. I usually add bass next; again, don't worry if it's not spectacular at this point.
 
I'll keep building up a song like that until I've got a bunch of dull, repetitive and disconnected tracks that lay out the arrangement. Then I'm ready to pretend to be multiple players, starting with drum fills and cues. Then think about how the bass should interact with those cues, then the other instruments until I come back around to the drums again. Now I've got some changes in the rhythm guitars and keyboards that a real drummer would react to, such as pausing when they pause or reinforcing their accents, advances and ritards. Bounce back and forth, letting each lay back or create holes for the other to fill. 
 
It's not a quick process. An arrangement that might take a few hours' time with a real band could take days or weeks in solo. But at least there are rarely any arguments between the musicians.
 

My approach varies depending on what kind of inspiration I may feel and what my actual ability to capture  this inspiration might be on any given day……
 
Conceptually everything that I hear is already complete in my head … it has always been that way …
It comes to me as one large complete flash of light containing every possible musical Idea I will ever have ….
it's all just one big song and it is up to me to decode it and try my absolute best to express it …
 
Practicing my guitar or putting in the time learning how to capture my music using a DAW is just the price I have to pay to actualize my musical expression in a tangible form where it can be shared…
After doing a personal inventory , the weakest link I have is I need to bone up my engineer skills ….
That I feel is the one thing that is holding me back the most at this point of my journey w music and SONAR …..
 
Kenny
 
 

 Know when to stop! 

Still working on that part...
 

I had a long post started and realized how bad my workflow really is as it goes to writing songs. I have so few and even fewer originals I'd let anyone hear. Some really great input and awesome formulas to consider. Great workflow suggestions and thread brother Billy.

Thanks Kalle.  It is something w/ Win 10 - or it just started.  Sometimes pages will blink and disappear, and sometimes the whole program.  It is not just Cakewalk, it just happened twice when I was writing this particular thread.  And always toward the end of a longish one.

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