what is your process for recording from the beginning to END

[versuviusx]

ok so i was wondering what everyones process is.
what i do is just mic my guitar and vocals up and just record. i play until i have figured the song out.
then i rewire Nuendo with Reason and pull up the Rex player. i find a beat that will work with my guitar rythm and turn the temp down always from 120 to around any where from 88 to 110 BPM depending on the song. before i start recording the guitars again i make sure that the drums are working with my guitar not my guitar working with the drums. its so crucial. this means that i have to make sure that i'm not changing my guitar style or temp of the guitar to make sure it works with the drums. do the opposite. make sure the drums are clayed against the guitars. its more time consuming but so much better. any one more thing i make sure all my guitars are in tune before seriously recording anything.

than i record and strategize the choruses. i do this for bass, electric guitars and any other instruments i want. and because i'm using reason i can always just cut and past stuff all over the place and save so much time. that way everything is symmetrical. may be boring to some but i'd rather have accuracy more than anything. than i put down the vocals and keep layering until i have something fancy. then i export each track and put them all into melodyne. this is where i can move notes or change the pitch a little. using the alt key is crucial. and i always use my ears even though visually i may be seeing something else as it can be misleading. you have to import the whole mix though which is very time consuming. if you only fix the vocals and then import them back into the mix they will be off and it wll sound like shit. also i try to use it sparingly. sometimes i find the best results just come from re recording it all over again.
then once everything has really good tuning. i would like to import them all into something like beat detective and make sure the timing and groove is perfect. then i send them off to get new drums put in. take out the shitty reason drums and put in really good drum sounds and performances with BFD drums or a live drummer(haven't done this part yet). then it is time to mix. Eq and compression added or subtracted. then i would want to send it off to a mastering house.
also i live in a very small room. so i use very small speakers when i'm recording and listening back. i have a pair of much bigger ones but i think it is so crucial to use the smaller hi fi pair i have. the reason is i love my ears and don't want to go deaf. i have serious tinitus and i'm really worried. also i used my sennheiser HD280s for recording vocals for no bleed. when it comes to recording bass i use my HD580s. the reason i switch is because i can hear all the deep lows on those and that will affect my playing.it helps me make better bass decisions which can totally make or beak the performance for the song. if i'm not using the HD580s for that its because my ears hurt.
also i DI everything with my radial DI box for electric guitar and bass. i use amplitube 2. so no setting up. i just go and record.
also if you send off the tracks for someone else to mix i suggest sending them off all dry that way they can add their own delays or reverbs and if they have good gear and a ton of experience it will probably sound way better than you could ever do thinking it will sound good with your convolution reverbs. even though they could be using the same plugins they have way more experience and do it on a daily basis and have secret recipies that are specific to songs and don't use a one size fits all method. mixing is so hard and so if you don't have a treated room, and don't have accurate monitors, and don't do it on a daily basis i've come to the conlcusion that you should probably get someone else to do it for you. it will probably come out better. "probably" is the word i use as it really depends on all kinds of variables beyond the scope of this rant.
i'd love to read eveyrone else's recipies and read really important hints and sugggestions for what they think would help or improve anyones ability to make and complete a song.

[???????]

I record a scratch vocal and guitar track first.

Then I record the drums.

Then I record the bass.

Then I record everything else as I feel like it... guitars, keyboards, whatever. I kind of make up arrangements as I go along. The scratch track always goes away as soon as I do bass (sometimes right after the drum track is down) as I usually don't have the words yet and am just humming or whatever.

I do vocals somewhere in the middle of the process. Then I'll invariably hate them and do them again at the very end.

[Brian]

In the dream world I visit when I am "the playa" it goes like this:
Once the "song" is written and makes sense with acoustic and vocal or keys and vocal,

click track tempo decision and length. with a chart for the drummer, me,
Then I lay down the drums,
Then Bass,
Once the groove and feel is firmly established,
Then rythem gtrs or keys,
then guide vox,
then I listen to it to see if it's gooing anywhere, usually is IMHO, doesn't mean it actually is.
Then I go back and polish out mistakes if any and when the energy is flowing in the tune properly, I record the leads.
Then I listen again to see if I can leave the vicinity before anyone figures out who dunnit.
I come back to mix a week later.

[cgarges]

I get a deposit.
I ask the artists how they want to record.
I record them that way, unless there's some reason to do otherwise.
I get paid the balance.
I give them their stuff.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[kostal]

I record a scratch vocal and guitar track first.

Then I record the drums.

Then I record everything else as I feel like it... guitars, keyboards, whatever.

This is pretty much my process. At least for the solo stuff I've done with drums.

For one song I played drums for two minutes with a vague idea of a song and then wrote a song around that drum part. I've also recorded drums first following the song in my head (ended up with a few extra bars for one... which means... whistle solo!)

I'm anti click track because I have too much trouble following them, plus I like to do time changes and stops and things like that and I don't want to program that in.

I like to throw in shakers, tambourines, old tin can in lieu of missing cowbell, handclaps, delays, reverbs, effects when appropriate. Which is whenever I can get away with it without ruining the song.

The process is usually different every time... but I do like to start with a scratch track assuming I'm going to be recording drums. I also like to start only after I've gotten the structure of the song secure. Usually the lyrics are done before I record but sometimes they aren't.

[GooberNumber9]

I get a deposit.
I ask the artists how they want to record.
I record them that way, unless there's some reason to do otherwise.
I get paid the balance.
I give them their stuff.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Oh yeah, exactly the same technique here. Except for that whole money part.
And I should add the optional step in the middle of "Give up on the whole project with frustation because [insert one of a number of reasons here usually involving band infighting]".

Todd Wilcox

[John Jeffers]

I get a deposit.
I ask the artists how they want to record.
I record them that way, unless there's some reason to do otherwise.
I get paid the balance.
I give them their stuff.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Oh yeah, exactly the same technique here. Except for that whole money part.
And I should add the optional step in the middle of "Give up on the whole project with frustation because [insert one of a number of reasons here usually involving band infighting]".

Todd Wilcox

How about this last step:

"Abandon project as band implodes due to huge insecurities and even larger egos brought into sharp focus as a result of being in the studio."

That one just happened. It was a friend's band too, so it really hurt. I ended up playing bass on a couple of his tracks so he could have a somewhat-finished product to audition a couple new guys.

[Rigsby]

It's different everytime for me.

[purple pie pete]

I generally follow the standard engineer path of taking people's money and recording them how they want to be recorded and try to make them sound as good as I can.

Abandon project as band implodes due to huge insecurities and even larger egos brought into sharp focus as a result of being in the studio."

This happened to me once, too! The drummer arrived early on the second day of a two day session to pack up his stuff and leave before anyone else got there. He just couldn't bear the thought of having to spend one more moment with the bassist!

If I'm playing, it's usually a bit different. It generally involves lots of beer, a few friends and a few mics left open just to capture the proceedings. Some sober listening reveals lots of new ideas to work on later.

[jonnymo]

1. obsess about beats and tweaking noises
2. come up with a series of kickass patterns
3. realize there's supposed to be a "song" in there somewhere and cobble pieces together with rationalized-after-the-fact segues

[JGriffin]

1) turn on most of the gear in my studio

2) sit down

...after that, it's kinda always different.

[majortom]

get up at 3 am cause i finally got that ONE part figured out half way between sleep and too tired...try not to wake my girlfriend
fire everything up put up a mic get a click going in my headphones, sing the song but don't play anything...cause it's 3 am

wake up in the morning listen to what I did wonder what the *&%&* I was thinking and try again, and again until something starts to make sense....

the song I end up with is never what I thought it was going to be but it'a all me and that's ok, cause in the middle of the night when I'm the only one up and nothing else is happening, sometimes, i actually feel like I'm an artist. Tom

[thefiremelted]

this week i dug out my tascam 8-track to do some demo recordings for my band. still working on the first song, but the process is/was:

track drums and bass at once
guitar 1
guitar 2
keyboard
vocals
mixdown to computer
mastering eqs

[junkstar]

When recording a 'group', and due to my less than wonderful room, 90% of the time I record the drums with an acoustic guitar, then cut the rest of the guitars, then the bass, then the vocals etc.

When recording alone, 90% of the time it's drum machine, then all guitar tracks, then bass, then vocals, then keyboards.

[vvv]

Lately, I do the drums first as I usually start with short (~ 2 second) loops, and hand-paste fills, cymbals, etc.

In the course of doing that I get a general arrangement going.

Sometimes I have the progression and lyrics done first, sometimes not; lately about 50-50 any given combination of the three.

Bass is next, followed by rhythm guitars, then a vocal.

Then come keys, backing vocals, lead instruments (usually guitar), and then candy.

I tend to do high and low-pass filtering, noise reduction and hand-gating of tracks as soon as they are recorded.

At anytime, any given track will be re-done and/or edited to suit the song as it evolves.

I frequently go back and redo the vocals within a month or two, as the song and and performance approach solidify, or completely piss me off.

I do EQ, compression and some effects as I go along; I might edit a stray note and for silibance and pops as it hits me that I need to.

Finally, I do a basic low/high pass filtering and minimal limiting on a completed track, leaving my psuedo-mastering until I'm ready to make an LP/CD.

Also, before, after and inbetween all steps is a fair to excessive amount of drinking...