Keeping a multitracked recording "in the pocket"

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I have a little trick for vibe glue:) As most of you guys do, I track using room mics, on every instrument when I split everyone up during tracking. I always put everyone's instrument where they would be if they were going to be playing together in the same room. during mixing, I will take all the room mics, leave in in their respective instrument busses they are already assigned to but also send them out to there own bus. On that bus I will put something like a pie squeezing it moderately, I might even run it as an insert to a verb with a low dampening and a high dry signal on it to add some glassiness to it. The pie does a nice job with this task. I also do not add a whole bunch of this buss in too much on the overall but it seems to vibe things up nicely and helps fill in some voids. But of course if your room sucks it will make your mix worse.
 
Lots of good answers, I e only skimmed some of this thread so apologies if this was already mentioned, but what does your monitor situation look like?  Are you direct monitoring or using software to do it?  I find that even very small delays caused by software monitoring can rob you of the vibe especially with multiple overdubs.... 
 
IMHO there is absolutely no substitute for the groove you get when musicians play together in the same room. The artistic benefits far outweigh the minor dis-benefits of separation/bleed. By all means do some overdubs  after but there is no way to add vibe after the event.

Cheers

Ian
 
I'm always a fan of recording as much of the band together at the same time as is possible. Figure out where the phrasing and gesture is, and make sure all of those parts are tracked together, if not everything. Then, you can add overdubs that might require more edits/inserts, but the basic feel and time will be there.

Another good technique is to record as above and cut between takes to select the right performance, or even to dodge simple errors. Generally, 3 or 4 takes all the way through will yield everything you need, usually from take 2 and take 3, and then maybe record some other inserts if they're really frightened of "making mistakes". In a workstation, it's easy to group tracks and cut them together to get the time right, then finesse each track's edit point.

I've done a record where we cut everything, including keeper lead vocals, at the basic tracks, and it worked incredibly well. This band basically followed the singer, so if that wasn't there with the basics, the magic would not have been there. I've never understood the serial, deconstructionist method of multitracking, and have participated in examples of its failure for decades. I say, what's the point in that…

Best of luck!
 

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