Today I got involved in recording a full band of ND1 (National Diploma 1st year) musicians at college. Two guitarists, bass, drums and vocals.
Drums had already been set up and mic'd up by Richie, one of the sound technicians at the college. Vocals had also been set up. In addition the patching into the desk had already been done. A few things we didn't need to do!
As well as then band, Luke was involved in a 'Producer' roll, overseeing; Katie operated the Pro Tools session whilst I took control of the desk. All of us chipped in to set up microphones and what not...
We were running one headphone mix and made sure that everyone could hear everything they needed, pretty much just like a monitor mix on stage at a gig. Then after a few practices and a poor take, we decided to throw a click track into the mix also. So that took a few of us deliberating over what the tempo was, with tap tempo apps coming out, tapping along to the first recording. About 145bpm, for those who want to know. This is pretty much the first time I have worked with a click track when recording. I think one of the reasons this is, is because it is quite difficult to play in time to a static click. I think music does tend to flow more, at rehearsals and in live performances. It is generally the drummer that has to keep with the click track, as the rest of the band keeps with the drummer.
The drummer had a few practices at playing along with the click, then we went for another take. We had the drums and the bass guitar in the drum booth, a lead guitar in a vocal booth, and a rough vocal take being recorded in the control room. Once we were happy with a take, we moved on to over dubbing, first a solo guitar part, followed by a second solo then a clean guitar part over the whole track. Once the guitars were finished, we moved onto a final vocal part in the booth, where the mic's had already been set up, (the guitarists had had to work around the mic's shields and stands). Single run through in the booth after a line swap and level check.
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