Tips, tricks, Q&A, discussion for anyone recording banjo & acoustic instruments using Apple's GarageBand

32 Members, Created 11/16/2012 -

Administrators: MrNatch3L (owner)

My approach to recording in GB

From MrNatch3L on 11/25/2012 1:39:22 AM

I started this as a reply to an email from Slick Salmon. Decided it's better shared here. Take all with a grain of salt, experiment, see what works for you. Here goes nuttin'.

***

Well, you're getting into advanced editing stuff that's way beyond me. I definitely agree that a drum track is easier to keep with than a metronome... at least for me. I never tried loops - maybe I should learn about them. Here's how I usually approach recording a song in GB:

1. Record a "guide" track: a single track using my big condenser mic. First I create a software instrument drum track that just has 8 clicks on a woodblock to set the tempo. I kick that off with my guide track record-enabled and I play and sing the song either using banjo or guitar, just as I'd perform it live. The tempo is probably not 100% rock steady, but it's how I'd perform it.
    
2. Drum Kit: If the song will have drums the next track I'd record would be that, recorded against the guide track playback. I usually have 2 drum kit tracks: 1 for kick drum and one for the rest. It's simply because I can't play the whole thing on my midi keyboard in one track! (I never use loops... maybe I harbor a subliminal ambition to be a drummer?)
    
3. Rhythm guitar: 2 simultaneously recorded tracks using small condenser and large condenser mics. Each track gets 1 of the 2 channels from my audio interface. Experiment with mic placement and levels.
    
4. Bass: Either software instrument for acoustic bass ('case I don't have one!) or my electric bass thru a DI into the audio interface. 
    
5. Lead vocal: at this point I'll mute the guide track and record the lead vocal against the playback of the rhythm section tracks.
    
6. Other instruments: At this point I'd record the banjo, mandolin, dobro rhythm tracks, and any solo tracks. With those all down, I do some listening with some track effects added. BTW - one of the best effects I discovered to clean up overall muddiness is the Hi-pass filter. I experimented and saved presets for each of my instruments and my voice.
    
7. Vocals: I spend quite a bit of time on them, relatively speaking. I'll redo the lead vocal on 2-3 tracks, against playback of the full mix. I'll keep the best take and junk the other tracks. Then I do backing vocal tracks. Here, I usually mute everything but rhythm guitar. When I play back, I even mute that.
   
   If harmonies suck too badly "a capella" I keep working on them. For me, vocals are the most important thing for appealing to people because I'm not a virtuoso instrumentalist. So I spend a lot of time on them. Due to time constraints I admit I do "fudge" here more than I'd really like, and if vocals sound reasonably OK with the guitar added back, I may leave them.
    
8. Last tracks are things like percussion (I'll use the same track as my intro click), accents or special effects, and any other finishing touches.

It's at this point I might redo any of the tracks, usually after leaving the project alone for a couple of days, sometimes longer. Maybe I'll hear a glitch in the bass line, or a muffed fingering in the guitar. I'll mute the existing track and add another one.

I never tried punch-in/out or overdub, or splicing different takes to get one final track. Probably should learn how to do it. I just record an entire new track, keeping the first one til I get a better one. I guess it's good discipline for live playing or studio work. Of course with home studio you can screw up as much as possible and it only costs your time.

Some of my favorite tips that have helped me the most:

• If you want a little warmth while recording, turn on Master Echo and Reverb (seems you have to enable both for them to work in tracks). Then in the tracks, turn on Master Reverb and set the slider for amount you want to hear. Personally I find this most useful for vocals... I just sing better when there's some reverb in the monitor.
   
• A great tip is to lock all tracks except one or two you're working on. That takes a lot of load off your CPU. It seems you have to unlock everything if you export to disk or iTunes... some tracks can be missing if you don't. Kind of a pain, but it seems to work that way.
   
• When I decide to redo a track, I usually save the project and then delete the whole track audio region and re-record on the same the track. But I'm careful not to save the project again until I get a good take. If I don't get one in the session, I just close the project without saving. The existing version of the track is still saved and I can try again in another session.
   
• Record all acoustic instruments in stereo. Then, for each acoustic instrument, solo the 2 tracks, pan one left -2 or so, and one right +2 or so, and set the relative levels. Make sure all effects are off on the tracks and Master, then export the soloed tracks uncompressed to disk. (You can optionally do the same with a back-up vocals mix).
  
  After this, do a "Save As" on your project, saving with a different name. Then delete all your real instrument tracks and import the real instrument mixes, which are now stereo AIF files on disk. Use the resulting project doing your final mixdown... which is another subject entirely.

Well, that's probably as much as anybody can digest all at once, so I'll leave it here.

2 Comments
	Slick Salmon says: 11/25/2012 3:13:15 AM Thanks, that's very valuable help. I think this procedure could be applied to just about any recording program, not just GarageBand. Your recording emphasis is a little different from mine. I do far less multi-tracking. I'm just trying to get a good solo banjo performance that masks my shortcomings as a musician. To that end, I record at a slower tempo than the final output in order to minimize mistakes, and I borrow snips from several takes to create the final product. Changing tempo is regularly crashing my system, so I may have to move to another program. That's too bad, because I was sort of getting to like GB.
	cherbr says: 11/25/2012 4:44:11 AM Thanks for taking the time to post these tips. They are a big help.
Post a Comment
You must be logged in and a member of this group to post a comment.