Recording a Band With GarageBand?

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Recording a Band With GarageBand?

Hey everyone, sorry in advance if this is in the wrong section.

Anyway, I'm in a band and recently we've started messing around with recording in our garage. We have 2 guitars, a bass, drums and 3 vocalists. Currently we're using a Behringer Xenix x122USB interface, we each have an amplifier with a line out, a PA System, a ton of mic/guitar/speaker cables and like 10(ish) mics. I've used the interface before, hooked up to GarageBand and recorded drum tracks and guitars with relative ease but I have a few questions.

1) How should we go about recording this? Drum track first, then everything else afterwards? Full band all at once?

2) Is there any way that I can have each individual guitar record to a different track on GB? (For example can I have tracks 1 & 2 on the interface each record to a different GB track?)

3) How should we set everything up to record? Line out from amps into interface?

Any help is greatly appreciated. My band is getting together soon and we really want to throw a new recording out on the internet. Thanks in advance!

GarageBand (Mac) '11, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Dec 31, 2013 9:05 AM

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HangTime

Level 9

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Dec 31, 2013 10:17 AM in response to jrtuckluck13

jrtuckluck13 asked:

[how do we record a band]

recording, like playing, is far more an art than a science; there is rarely a single "right way" and you can get many different opinions on proper methods (i can think of, and have used, different ones myself).

part of this depends on what you want as a final result. is this a goof-off recording for you and your mates to enjoy? Something to share among friends? a serious effort at a professional recording?

assuming the first, stick a mic in the center of the room and hit record (it'll sound like you stuck a mic in the center of the room and hit record)

if you want a more professional sounding recording you'll want the most control possible. if you have the equipment, get a guitar and possibly a bass into a headphone mix, then use as many mics/channels as you have to record the drums to multiple tracks. if you don't have the equipment, have the guitarists create a scratch track that the drummer can listen to while playing/recording the drums.

then record each band member one at a time.

jrtuckluck13 wrote:

2) Is there any way that I can have each individual guitar record to a different track on GB?

yes:

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#recordmultipletracks

(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

but remember if you record them at the same time using mics, in the same room, you're going to get both guitars on both tracks, that's just how mics work, and you'll have far less flexibility when mixing and mastering.

jrtuckluck13 wrote:

3) How should we set everything up to record? Line out from amps into interface?

if there's ever a choice, use mics on amps, but if you're going to try recording 2 or more players at once, using line-OUTs would solve the problem mentioned above

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