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In Reply to: Recording Techniques posted by Ian Express on October 26, 2000 at 09:10:37 AM:

I personally attack it a couple of different ways. First of all, I like the groove of a song, so most of the time its the drums _ guitar or drums _ keyboards which give me a sense of how the song will go. After that, I work the chord changes and a half-assed melody together around that core. Once I have that I usually record about 2 demos and I just make all sorts of variations on that until I find the right vibe with the right changes.

After that, I add in the bass and any additional things to round it out. If lyrics are involved, I usually leave those for the end. The music is the core so I concentrate on giving the music its own legs first. The melody usually comes around last and I try to work in a seriously cool hook into it all.

As far as recording, it depends on the availablity of everyone in the band. If I'm alone for a while I might sequence everything one line at a time and record the stuff multitracking one line at a time. if the band is available, I'll call them in _ rehearse like crazy and try to record it all in one shot. The later way is more difficult because you don't have that much control over the outcome but it's the coolest way and the performances are much more LIVELY. But all in all, it just depends on who's around.

If I'm multitracking with just a few session players I'll usually start with drums and guitars together. This holds the rhythmic and chordal foundation for the song together. Then I'll add any keyboards I might need. Then I add bass. I like a bass line which provides counterpoint and harmony (not just a dumb thump thump) underneith the song ... so I like to leave that for later.

This is just *one* way to do it and someone will probably slam me for doing things this way but it works for me.

Just remember that rules were meant to be broken so just go out _ do your own thing.
Eddie

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