Recording Acoustic Guitar parts in C7

Hi everyone

I wonder if some of you could give me some advice around your working methods please?

I use C7 to record songwriting demos to submit to publishers and all of the songs are initially written on acoustic guitar. I have been told in past that nowadays there’s simply no excuse for poor demos so I try to submit the best version of the song I can (whilst not trying to go too overboard on arrangements)

I used to labour for hours trying the play the song all the way through on one take to get it ‘perfect’ but now prefer to play the verse, chorus bridge etc. once and use the arranger track to piece it together and then flatten it.

If the song incorporates continuous acoustic strumming all the way through the song this method obviously means that, when listening to each part separately, the guitar cuts off sharply at the end of the section however the results when playing in the arranger track are actually not too bad from a continuity perspective.

I just wondered if there are any Cubase users who approach this type of operation differently?

As always many thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give.

Terry

In a single take, why not use a high grade mic in front of the guitar, another mic or two to catch “the room” and one those hum-bucking pickups in the f-hole of the guitars, add cubase effects as appropriate, then mix 4 down, back to a single guitar…hopefully with a self-distinguished sound, or a least more chance of it because a single performance is used–to my mind continuity belongs to the performance…i’m amazed that you can get continuity by piecing together parts–are there any subtle differences in the parts?..for instance: micro-tempos?

maybe this would work for you…

When recording the first verse, also play the first chord strum of verse 2.
Then when recording verse 2 play the last few chord strums of verse 1 too.
Then edit out the extra chord strums.
Hopefully the edits will sound smooth!

Many thanks to both of you for the replies…much appreciated.

JB+…I like that Idea…the issue is actually my playing and hitting strings I shouldn’t or getting a poor chord change (I’ve been playing for 18 years so can quite believe I may be being a bit too anal here :unamused: ) but I’ll give it a try. It’s normally 4x4 and I am using a Yamaha electro-acoustic so I have two sources combined I can play about with plus the Mic…thanks again.

Kwackman…also another helpful suggestion; the current ‘let the last chord ring out approach’ is, in truth, not providing bad results so this can only enhance things…thank you.

Terry

If I want to capture the feel of a tune on acoustic guitar I record it as it is … not against a click track or anything else, the acoustic recording becomes the “master” as far as timing is concerned. If that’s not good enough then accept reality – it’s simply not good enough, and you need to practice more. Nevertheless it is difficult to do everything perfectly on a single take, and what you might get away with live is often not acceptable on a recording.

Kwackman’s suggestion above is a good workflow, but investigate “Working with Lanes” in the manual; I would suggest playing the piece through in several takes, and then using Lanes to comp the final track, rather than section by section, but you’ll have to figure out something to use as a timing reference. As you’re both performing and engineering the recording, this will actually be easier and more effective than if you were trying to direct a musician. It takes a little time to master, but it’s well worth it.

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“If I want to capture the feel of a tune on acoustic guitar I record it as it is … not against a click track or anything else, the acoustic recording becomes the “master” as far as timing is concerned”. …by MrSoundman

I like the idea of an acoustic guitar and vocal as “master”—bedrock for a song (because sometimes i hit it with a good performance…other times not)…let’s say that the passionate guitar/vocal is what i go for, eh?..

So, if i get a good performance down there comes next the job of syncing it up with rock instrumentation—But how to this with the basic music being eccentric in tempo and details?..and eccentric in all things that make a memorable and “loose” performance?

I imagine editing with quantization is a remedy for the big errors of sync…

But my question to Cubase users is this: Do you approve of this method of “dressing up”? Padding and adding drums and bass to a wild vocal/guitar performance?..Or does it imply hassles?..what trouble to expect?

Whom of you does it this way?

What other ways to do it?

thanks jb+




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There’s an entire chapter devoted to this method in the manual, in your case you could use “Merge Tempo from Tapping” for example.