Creating a Recording Timeline: Drums First

by Travis Whitmore on 09/01/2011 · 3 comments

Start and Finish Line

If you’re recording in your home studio, chances are you probably can’t record everyone at the exact same time. Especially if you typically record all of the parts on your own. The very best thing we can all do as home studio owners to be more productive with our time is to create a timeline. The key to a timeline is to stick with it and utilize it every single time you work on a project.

As a drummer who offers drum tracks via online collaboration, I receive a lot of clients projects. I’ll either receive a guide track MP3 or separate wav files for the session. A trend that I’m starting to see come through, however, is that clients are sending me the final takes. The entire song is “complete” except for the drum tracks. While this CAN work, it’s simply not the best way (in my opinion).

Before you start working on that polished guitar lick or perfect vocal take with the best sounding reverb plug in you can find, define what you want with the end result. In other words, if you think you’ll eventually want real drum tracks on your songs, put that on your timeline in the very beginning, not the end.

Click and Guide

Regardless of what your timeline looks like throughout the process, the very beginning of it should start with a click track and a guide track. A click track can be anything that helps you stay in time. A shaker, cowbell, drum loop, whatever. As long as it keeps you in time, that’s good enough. To me, a guide track is the very next step. The guide track is nothing more than a glorified demo to help “guide” the drummer and remaining musicians on the right path.

Direction and Emotion

What I personally look for in a guide track is direction and emotion. If you can get the point across with an acoustic guitar and vocals, great. If the dynamics and emotional content of the song can’t be portrayed without that organ or bass guitar, then add those instruments in.

The point here is this: Don’t waste your time getting that perfect take before you start collaborating with others. Build a timeline in your recording process and stick to it. Your music will sound better as a result.

What about you? Do you start with drums? What’s your timeline look like?

Photo Credit

Be Sociable, Share!
  • Toby Baxley

    I start with a scratch guitar and vocal recorded to a click. Then drums, bass, keys. That said, I’m working on one now that started with a keyboard riff, so I built it from that. I guess there’s no hard-and-fast rule.

  • Pingback: Artist Spotlight: Marco Bucci

  • Alton

    I personally like when drums are recorded last. I understand recording them first is easier on the other musicians but if you really want the drums to shine on the album then put them at the end.
    Angels and Airwaves recorded their first album like this. Not sure about the rest of their albums but I love that the drummer can hear every little harmony, guitar lick, and ambient sound stuff and he can create something that fills in the gaps but also compliments the other instruments.