How to get 100% synced project?

[marQs]

@GargoyleStudio

One thing I find about correcting timing is that you can often be led down the wrong path, for example you might think a note is out of time but it can actually be the previous note(s) that are wrong. Worth looking, tweaking and listening before and after the bit that sounds odd. Say someone is rushing into the chorus and that makes the chorus sound slowed down but in fact it’s the rush that needs correcting.

+1, it’s not so easy to get it right sometimes. Right doesn’t always mean everything has to be on the grid. Unless you’re workong on robot music maybe.
My experience on heavy drums was often all or nothing. Organic/real parts after parts edited to technical perfection may seem more off than they actually are. Instead of all-or-nothing I try to do some conscious ‘groove gardening’ more often today (which eats a lot of time still - but no soooo much).

@GargoyleStudio

Another idea would be to double track a section, this can disguise the discrepancies. A quick way of double tracking is to dup/cut/paste the same track but different bars, e.g. swap two choruses in the song (only works it recorded to a steady tempo of course!).

Yeah, let’s get dirty Sometimes such methods can work wonders. Sometimes they produce a lot of smear in the time domain which is fixable just by another load of time. But definately worth a try.

@GargoyleStudio

Finally, once you’ve started to time up some instruments it will usually reveal problems in others. I proceed methodically through the tracks: drums, bass, guitar, keys, vocals, BVs, whatever, and it takes time. I use the screen to do things quickly but I always use my ears to review the result.

Mike.

+1. Send anybody else home after drums are recorded, get them back in to record to edited drums. Makes things much easier most times. Adds a little more precision and punch right from the start. Takes out a little life maybe, depending on genre and desired result.

[Buchanan]

Just a suggestion for getting the tracks timing tighter initially so as to save stretching and manipulating tracks into tight corners later.
From one of the OPs earlier posts it seems that the tracks are laid down to a click but still being played too erratically to be acceptable. This might be due to monitoring the click and I suggest that attention is needed to get the balances right as it is fairly easy, if you’re not used to it, to “get out of the way of the click” ie: in playing one avoids the click so you can hear it so any notes will be before, after or both. One drum practise technique is to make the click disappear and then you know you’re spot on. For guitar that’s not always easy when (double?!) tracking a staccato “chuck” rhythm part.
I’d suggest trying out different (percussion) sounds, clap, shaker. Anything wider than the plain click which tends to polarise some player’s timing to too far out. Anything so you can hear both click and the notes you play.
If I’m right or wrong all the previous suggestions and what you have been doing are good practise for track manipulation anyway. Sometimes it’s just got to be done.