Recording with pre sets or not?

[kidklasick]

was just wondering do y'all record with your track already set with EQ's, compression, and dynamics or is it a better practice to record your vocals and then go ahead and add these in?
also does anybody ever use any of the effects in Audiosuite?

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by kidklasick

was just wondering do y'all record with your track already set with EQ's, compression, and dynamics or is it a better practice to record your vocals and then go ahead and add these in?
also does anybody ever use any of the effects in Audiosuite?

Plugins on Audio Tracks are in the monitor path, so they don't get recorded with the processing. You're just monitoring with it.

I personally almost never do audiosuite processing since it's not easily undo-able. I prefer to maintain control of everything til the very end.

[Southsidemusic]

what Drew said

We only use outboard gear when recording/tracking vocals and accoustics like preamps and a smudge of compressor but we do set up an aux track for a bit of reverb and delay for the talent to hear while recording as it gets a bit more fun for them rather than a dry uncompressed and unEQ'd sound

Experiment with what sounds best for the talent and go from there. You aren't printing the plugins anyway so it won't affect the end result until.

[albee1952]

My template sessions already have several plugins going(but none with high latency). I use Channel Strip on drums to make them sound a bit better for tracking, and to gate the toms a bit, plus bus compression and a small room reverb to add a "room" sound. Guitars and vocals get EQ III that just does hi-pass and gentle BF76 for acoustic and vocals(plus a touch of plate reverb). My template session also has several "final mix" plugins in place, but they are all inactive until its time to mix.

[wwittman]

I mostly get the sound in front and THEN record it, just like that, with 'everything' on it.

if that's not possible, then I monitor with whatever plug ins, or processing, are necessary to make things sound as much like the desired final product as possible.

if you're not listening to a good approximation of the finished record at every stage, then it's impossible to really know what to add or do next.

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by wwittman

I mostly get the sound in front and THEN record it, just like that, with 'everything' on it.

I'm with you on this!! (minus verb)

It's becoming a lost art unfortunately. People think they're being smart and "playing it safe" by printing things "raw". Mistake IMO.

With a good multitrack, you should be able to push up the faders and be 70+% of the way there.

After all, how can you make the next decision, if you haven't made the previous one?

[Fezzler]

Forgive my lack of understanding of your terminology.

Are you saying that you set up your sound sources and then record wet, meaning your print all your effects? Where others prefer to record everything dry and add effects later?

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by Fezzler

Forgive my lack of understanding of your terminology.

Are you saying that you set up your sound sources and then record wet, meaning your print all your effects? Where others prefer to record everything dry and add effects later?

Can't speak for wwittman of course...but

In some rare cases, yes. If a guitar player has an effect pedal for example, they often mistakenly think that my effects will automatically be better than theirs.

But in general, I was talking about "getting a sound" with a mic or mics, pres, EQ, dynamics, etc, whatever it takes to fully realize that sound (minus reverb for me) and committing to that sound on a single track.

[albee1952]

More good points. I often will track electric guitar with 2 tracks. 1 is a mic on the speaker, and the other is a DI track that is muted. 90% of the time, the mic'd track is the keeper, but sometimes the DI track will get re-amped for a change in sound. As said, plugins on audio tracks will be heard, but NOT recorded that way(unless you bus out to another audio track and record that)

[Craig F]

a clean DI is also good for edit reference of heavy distorted guitars