HELP- needing advice on recording process for rock band using Zoom R16

[XxFeendogxX]

My advice with the r16 would be to have the drummer either play to a click or have the bass player or guitar player lay down a scratch track. If your limited on gear or space, this would be the most effective way to minimize bleed without compromising the drummers groove. Then layer all the guitars bass vocals etc. If you have any external mic preamps use them along with the zoom R16, those preamps don't sound the best.

[brew]

When I was starting out I bought a book on multitrack recording. You should get one.

When I used a cassette 4-track, I would record only one or two instruments first (drums only, drums+bass, or drums+guitar). With drums only, I'd still play one guitar part in the room as a guide for the drummer, but isolate it as best I could from the drum mics. If you start with other instruments than the drums, you'll find it hard for the drummer to match tempo later. Metronome is an option as stated.

[ExtremeFrequency]

HA! I just finished three days of getting the R-16 studio setup and recording the band, scratch track, drafts. I'm heading back in today

# 1 Get a Comfy Seat. You're not going anywhere!!!

I have PT with Eleven Rack but could not get PT to talk to the R-16. Tried to use Cubase but was taking considerable time to interface (update driver needed, internet hard to get to). So we used Ableton. It saw the R-16 straight away (8 Audio Inputs and MIDI) after the drivers are installed and makes midi interfacing between faders and tracks too easy. I think PT 9 and 10 can talk to it though.

The metronome on the R-16 is Goooooood Just key in the Tempo to your DAW and THEN add it. It "should" match up fine.

Research tips, techniques, best practices and implement a workflow process that siuts what you and the band what out of the project. (Levels, Pans, Groups, Sends, plug-ins, Mix is what I think my process is). I came by into this site before I started too. There is a gold mine of information here. Turn your first mix into a Template and use that as the canvas for your other songs, RAR RAR RAR

Make sure EVERYTHING works before the meeting time. Tested and feels like you can trust the tools you are working with.

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I actually have a question about the R-16 Pre-Amps. I think the peak LED flashes before the signal actually distorts , giving users bad recording because the gain indications are BS. Maybe something to do with the Analog/Digital 0dB/+6dB conversion difference. Even when the faders are peaking on the R-16 in recording, the recorded track ends up no where NEAR the -12dB range. I did recordings of the Drums in a live set and had the Snare and Kick always reaching orange LED's (r-16) on hits. However the peaking LED was also flickering however the RED LEDs on the meter on the it (may have brought them down).
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Lol Gains! Sounds like a simple thing, but those pre-amps just dont feel right when they are not "peaking". The ones we did with the Pre-Amps pumped up sounded more favorable of the session. I like them too and think the volume meter is way off on whats really being output through the USB connection. Once you have that going into a DAW you start raising it straight away (R-16) and anything not set to that gain just sounds like a dead recording. I can post them up and would love to hear any responses.

(In Audio Interface mode the Faders act as MIDI messages and not volume controls for live Audio , so take your fingers off the Faders on the pre-amps )

Just record everyone at once first. It will be good because you can find out the tempos and start getting idea's for scratch tracking, find out the pro's and con's of current mic placement. I agree with XxFeenDogxX to have the drummer to play to a click. Previous Scratch tracks (guitars, Vox) can be added Click. Thats what I did. Cue off the drummer and start the recording. I have clips laying around of each song for the EP, so always having reference to clips is good for finding something the drummer wants. And get good GAINS.

Its just a scratch track, don't spend too much time on the Mix. It's not going to be used on your EP. But then again that's what all the fun is.

I have heaps of questions that I can't think of yet. I can keep updating this post as we progress if you want. Does anyone have any interesting R-16 stories? Can it talk to PT 8? (Primarily as an 8 channel Audio Interface, not interested investing troubleshooting effort and precious time in to making the R-16 talk to PT for MIDI commands when Ableton does it like a boss)

Pretty sure Pro Tools 8 is a bound to Avid Interfaces, I thought at least the R-16 could be added PT as a Secondary Audio Interface?

[kmaddy]

Thanks for all the input guys. As far as pre-amps, would the pre-amps on this board (BEHRINGER: 2442FX) be good enough to use? I would just use the direct outs on each channel to the input on the recorder correct?

[kmaddy]

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