aeolian said:
I can appreciate what you say about bass because I believe it can enhance a tune considerably. When I make a tune I typically do the bass last, but I try to make it so it integrates into the song and hopefully add another element to the whole sound structure. Even in the song Midnight that you just heard you will hear that there are minor variations in the bassline throughout the song. I'm not much of a bass player, so what I can do is limited by my ability on the instrument.
My recording setup is very simple. I have an 8-track digital recorder, a software drum program on my computer, and a multi-track program called ntrack on the computer. Ntrack can be used for recording, but it is much more convenient for me to record on the digital recorder and only use ntrack as a mixing program. I typically play my guitars and bass through a J-Station for the guitar and bass tracks. I have never recorded with a live amp or effects.
I'd like to hear about your recording setup.
FIrst off, (before I forget) unlike you, I always record my Bass first.. well, after drums.. I couldn't imagine playing the crap I do on the other instruments without the Bass driving me on.. my songs are composed in real time.. in other words most of it is spontaneous.. a 'jam' if you will .. as much as possible anyways.
Here is a photo of where I do my recording
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb258/333maxwell/guitar2.jpg As you can see I use a laptop to record on, a 30 dollar behringer USB/Audio interface (lets me put sounds into the computer.. a line in if you will). I use the PA head that is visable (usualy) to run the mic's through and into the computer (have to power the condensers).
I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 software as a staple (it is over 10 years old and considered quite a novel antique at best by home recording afficionados these days). I use a VST plug in that allows me to use VST inside of cakewalk (my cakewalk only uses direct X) so I trigger my drums using the cheap keyboard in the photo, and use a VST software sampler I have loaded with individual drum hit samples. After recording and mixing the Drums I then use the Bass in the photo (again I build the song around the bass lines instead of the basslines around the song) add pianos ect (again, using VST sampler that allows me to use free sound samples of various instruments I find on the net.. in the Lead and Lag of Elevator song the piano is a 25 mb sound sample of a 1898 Steinway somone made individual one key samples of.. SOOO.. I record the piano pieces (for example) into a general midi format, then using the sampler I use the midi composition to trigger the 'sound samples'.
After I get the drums, bass and keys/synths down, then comes the horns and vocals, then usualy lastly I record the guitar.
For recording the guitar you will see the blue box on the right, it is a 69 dollar behringer modeler, I used it for everything on my site (electric guitar wise) EXCEPT the Elevator song which I recorded guitar directly onto the computer.
If you look at the picture you can see a digital 8 track under everything on the table, but I never use it.. computer is much better for me as I like the tinkering abilitys of software recording..
And that is pretty much it in a nutshell..
