The Recording

Decide whether you want to take the “live” recording route or the “multitracked” method.

Live recordings are easier and quicker, they give the impression of a live performance but also have the disadvantages of sounding slightly messy and if there is a mistake made at any one time you have to re-record the track completely again! You also have to have all the microphones available to listen to every instrument at one time.

Multi-tracking means that you all record your parts separately, you can even break each recording down to separate parts of the song (apart from with drums!) to make things easier and give you more control over the sounds. This method gives you optimum control over sound and harmony, you will get the best sounding recording out of this method however it does have the disadvantage in that it can take up to a day or two just to record one song. If time permits you should opt for this method.

It is important to have a base point from where to record from here, a good method is to record with all the band playing and just recording with a single microphone so that the song can be heard primitively. From here you can send the recorded file through headphones whilst the drummer lays down his/her recorded track on top of that; and then mute the drum recording and get the guitarist to record over the base track and so forth. Once all the tracks have been laid down to record it's time to master and produce the song; this involves equalising the tracks so they are all at the same levels and merge in together well. Once this has been done you can master it by compressing the whole track to remain at the same levels throughout and make sure that there are no sudden volume “spikes” etc. and there you have it, your very first self-recorded demo!

I recommend that you read the next page on “recording tips and techniques” if you are going to record a demo or have one recorded for you; either way it will help!