Originally Posted by: KasperowHey
Quick recording-question here: I'm about to start recording a song for the first time, and I'm not sure what would be the best approach, so I'd like some insight into how others do it.

Do you record the whole song in one go? Or do you record each part (verse, chorus, solo) separately and mix it once all parts are recorded?

I've only done recording with guitar parts, but what I've found works for me is to lay down a basic rythm guitar track first. From there, I'll add any solos or embellishments.

A handy trick to learn is punch ins. This allows you to fix sections of track without re recording the entire track. With a board, the recording engineer would punch a button (hence the name) at the appropriate time while the performer is replaying the part. In your multitrack software, you can do the same thing but specify a range that should punch in which will happen automatically. Adobe Audition calls this "armed record". You do this virtually infinite times and piece together the best parts from multiple takes. This is how David Gilmour did the solo for Comfortably Numb.

When doing this, you need to make sure you aren't changing any settings regarding your tone otherwise the punched in part won't fit in. So either do all of the takes in the same session or take detailed notes on your settings on your amp and guitar so you can recreate the sound later.

So I would say step one is to learn how to use your recording software to record multiple tracks and do punchins. The rest becomes "post production" which you can mess with once you have your tracks.